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13

telling me that Mrs. Shaw her mother-in-law dropped dead a few days ago in the act of laying down a carpet, and  asking me for some money. I wrote her that I hoped to be able to send her some about Sept. 1.

Sunday July 28, 1872. My father and Sara came home from the Overlook, both of them a little the worse for their trip. My father was so ill we had the Doctor but this morning he is out again and feeling better. Girard and Vaux came up by the Powell, grand for his summer vacation.// May had a nice letter from Burger who with this or from other boys had been on a cruise in Cape Cod Bay.// He was ill with rheumatism and we all feel a little troubled about him. I go tomorrow to join Gefford and Whittier for a trip to the Coast of Massachusetts up in vicinity of Cape Ann. The weather has been absolutely faultless for a week or two. I confess as the time approaches for leaving home I feel some regrets, particularly as Gertrude is so lonely when I am absent. Sometimes when I feel a little despondent I am half tempted not to go, but I fight against this indecision and assure myself that the trip will do me good mentally and physically. I expect to be gone about three weeks and then shall return home for two or three weeks when I expect to go to the mountains taking Gertrude with me. I hope the sea and the mountains will do much for both of us in putting us in sound health again.