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Answered - July 9th '44 Santa Barbara May 19, 1944

Dear Miss Wyatt: This not a Too soon answer to your delightful letter of May 14, but a Too long belated acknowledgement of an equally charming letter from Starved Rock Lodge, yes, which was not lost in the Christmas rush, and which I imagined had been gratefully replied to at not too long after its happy receipt! A picturesque, satisfying sort of place to be at Christmas, though it may suggest asking for bread and being given a stone. In spite of growing up in Wisconsin, and passing many Christmases in cold climates, I never have spent the holidays in the country which has such beauty at that season. Not quite "never", for I did have one Xmas in a unclear sort of hotel-boardinghouse in Minnesota, where I spent many months for my health, and loved to walk in the woods on sunny days when the mercury was close to zero, above or below, in air like wine. The health seeking was successful, for the following spring I made my first wonderful trip to England and Scotland, wonderful climax