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with boat and we fished daily, twice spending a day on Lake Canachagala a little over a mile distant. Wilkinson, Boardman and I made a trip to Big Moose Lake about 25 miles distant taking two guides with their boats and picking up a third one (John Cummerford of Boonville) at Woods on the Fourth lake of the Fulton chain. The route was by lakes and carries varying from a mile to three miles. We staid at Lou Woods over night, a very comfortable place. He is the son of Wood who lived on Raquette Lake in 1851 when I was there and has a family, among them two daughters who attend, with his wife to their house. John Cummerford the guide we got there was an excellent man. Had been a soldier through the war and was active, intelligent and capable. He had the key of a new camp in Big Moore which was neatly built of logs hewn on the inside with a sleeping place above, fully furnished with cook shed and camp kit complete. We staid there from Saturday evening to Tuesday morning and meanwhile caught some fine trout. The Major caught one weighing 1¾ lbs and a 3½ lb lake trout on a fly. I caught a 1½ lb spotted trout and Boardman had about the same luck. The spring being so very backward we were a little too early but still we got all we wanted and enough to make it interesting. There was a snow bank in front of the cabin where they had thrown out chips &c from the construction of the camp which covered it and we used it to keep our fish in as an ice house. There are two small steamboats in the Fulton chain and a tram road is being built to Moore River I think. There are many camps on all the lakes and the region is much more frequented than when I visited it before. We got back to Bisby on Wednesday, fished on Canachagala Friday and came away Saturday after dinner. It began to rain just as we reached Woodhull and continued to rain all the way to White Lake Corners so that although we wore rubber coats we got thoroughly wet. Mr. Cole, Mr. Thompson & Dr. Hudnut came out with us. The names of our guides besides Cummerford, were Mr. Watson and Nelson Chandler. Genl. Husted wants a picture of his cottage and I am to go out there when the foliage changes about Oct. 1" and paint a picture for him for about $250 or $300. It is not an inspiring subject but he wants it. We dried ourselves at Striders, had supper and came on to Boonville in a covered carriage. The rain had ceased however. At Utica I took the West Shore Train at midnight, got a berth in the sleeper and reached home about 5 oclock Sunday morning, while the wagon went to Pokeepsie by the central.

Sunday June 3" 1888. I sat on the front porch a while as no one was stirring. The foliage was in perfection and the golden roses in full bloom. They recalled my mother and all the spring freshness and beauty was tinged with a gentle melancholy for I thought of all those who not so long ago rejoiced in it with me, so that the silence of this fresh morning was peopled with tender memories of dear Gertrude, my Father and Mother, of Maurice and Gussie so little while ago a part of my daily life, now utterly silent, unresponsive - gone. The melancholy days to me are the June days. Bayard Taylor once told me it was the same with him - that in the full tide of summer he was oppressed with a despondent, homesick despair that he feels at no other time. How strange that the sadness of life is often suggested to us when we should be most happy and that a flash of memory can awake joy or sadness wherever we may be.- Bonyer who is here let me in after a time. Julia Donaldson 

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