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hard times. I had hoped to be at home with you and Carrie this Christmas, but now I know that I cannot be. I am so far behind in my work that I feel as if I could never catch up again. The trouble is one has to have some spring in one to work, and just now I haven't any. My new book has been out two weeks, but already a third edition is being made. I sent Carrie a copy. Lucy Gayheart? has been translated into almost every European language, even Hungarian! Tomorrow is my birthday, and a gardenia bush as tall as I am and all covered with flowers and unclear just arrived from the Mennhins? - ordered from a florist here, of course, with the note I enclose tied to it, signed with all their funny Russian names.The father signs first, then the mother and children. I'm sorry I can't go to