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183

Friday May 1" 1885. Has rained all day and a fire in my stove has been very comfortable. Mrs. Lacey called. Have painted on my little picture of Indian Summer and have it nearly done. I think it a picture which will be likely to sell and just now I am more solicitous for accomplishing that kind of work than of gaining applause. Swain Gifford said last night he wished the artists here after they win their reputations were as sure of making a living as the English artists. I should like not to be obliged to think of the salability of my work 

Saturday 2" Calvert came over with the plans for Mr. Terrys house which I took home with me for him. Painted on my picture near Roggens. He liked my little Indian Summer very much. Went home by 4 o clock train. Sara and I went down to John McEntees after I had my supper and saw Aunt Christina who is there and looking very well.

Sunday 3" Cold. I slept under as much covering last night as any night during the winter. It is said ice formed in some places. Girard and I took a walk out back of Gross' quarry and home by Ludlum's woods. The wind blew but the Hepaticas were in bloom.

Monday 4" Sara and I cleaned my room, taking everything out of it and taking the stove down. We both worked very hard and I tugged and lifted more than I ought to and was very tired at night. We got it all done and most of the things back in their places again. A paper came to me from Pokeepsie from which I cut this notice. 

[[clipping]] FRENCH.——At Sag Harbor, L.I. April 30. Katharine W. wife of Peter French.
Funeral from the house of Robert F. Wilkinson. No. 297 Mill Street, Tuesday, May 5, at 2 o'clock. [[/clipping]]

Poor little Katie Wilkinson! She looked so badly when she came to my room a year ago that I did not know her and now she is gone. My father seems to Sara and me to be less able to use his lame limb. It may be the result of the cold weather for we all have rheumatic pains. 

Tuesday 5" Still cold and chilly. I went to Pokeepsie by the 11.55 train to attend Katie Wilkinson French's funeral which took place at the house of her brother Robert at 2 o'clock. Saw her mother, James Gifford and his wife, Alice and her husband and Eddie Wilkinson who came from the West. Col. French, Katies' husband is in Sitka, Alaska, the collector of the port. He had been at Portland, Oregon lately from which place he wrote, and they telegraphed him there, but as he had not answered he had probably returned to Sitka in which case he will not hear of her death for at least a fortnight. What a blow it will be to him alone in that forlorn spot. She died suddenly, in a moment from Aneurism of the heart, Robert told me. I rode to the cemetery in the carriage with Mr. Dreyfus and Mr & Mrs. Cooley. Mr Cooley was an army friend of the Major's and is a partner of Ben Kroner. I had an interesting conversation with him. We came back to the house where I saw Katies two dear little daughters, twins a little over two years old, lovely, winning little things. Lily Wilkinson is sick with a fever. Mary Gifford was there and I asked her to go home with me on Saturday, which she hopes to do. I came home by the 5.30 Hudson River train and in the evening Sara and I and Girard and Mary went to a concert at Liscombs Hall given for the benefit of the Industrial home. A Miss Runals sang and recited. The Mays 

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