1416 Larkin St.,
San Francisco
Jan. 29, 87

My dear Mother,
It seems a very long time since I wrote you last and now this letter begun in Jan. is being written in Feb. 1.

I received your letter, with the birch-bark envelope today. Tell Chas. that I think he got too much mucilage on the white envelope, for I could not get the letter out without tearing it. Still, the envelope was passed around and admired. Mrs. Koh__a_ was here. Walked home with Miss Smith the other day; she sent her love to you. Becky B. was that girl with Bertha H. where we met them that day, near the school. No, her picture is not with ours. She is in Miss Thompson’s class. I hope you will go to Bath and have a good time. You could put your rigoletts in your pocket and wear if you were too cold after you got there. Ladies wear them here to the theater and all around. How’d you let Mrs. __er examine it closely for she would have to comment on the many mistakes in it. Mr. Hoovan is delighted 2. with his clothes. When he put them on for his wife to admire, and of course she asked him the price. He answered, “$65-,” and she said, “This isn’t “bad.” But of course you have received his letter by this time.

Auntie is feeling pretty well except that she has been having bad head- ache for a few days past. To-day she has none. The knee still continues to improve. The doctors al- ways speak French when they are working over it but Mary said that when Dr. M. saw it, he seemed 3. very much surprised and pleased. He had not been up for about a week and so was astonished. They took the measure of the knee, and Auntie said, “I like to see you do that, for that seems as if I would be up soon.” The doctor, “We shall see,” in his quiet way, so we are no wiser. So auntie wrote you that I was doing better. Well, don’t know that I am. I have never done badly. Of course Auntie knew that I was not so interested as I was with Miss Smith, but did not the result (being No.1) show that I had done my duty? 4. I have been to the T__oli with Mr. Swain lately and he wants me to go next Sat. eve. too, but in the afternoon, Lolita and I are going to see Clara Morris. She is “a dollar-and a-half” actress, and when casually mentioned to the girls at school that I was going to see her, there was a chorus of “Your are a lucky girl” from the band. I think so too. No one knows it better.

Now the explosions do not bother me much. People ride on the cars just the same whenever they feel like it. I have heard but 5. one, the Post St. explosion. Auntie heard the Cliff House, in the night, but thought it was the beginning of an earthquake. Sutro’s gardens were not damaged any, except that some of the statues on the outside, on the rocks, were shaken up a little. The papers raised a great hue and cry about it though. Sutro owns the Cliff House and all around it you know. I was out there the Sunday after the explosion and also Sun. before the last, and the seals were as lively as ever. So Mrs. Johnston is grumbling. Well if she is not 6. satisfied in Cal. And especially in Pasadena, I am afraid she can’t be any- where. To be sure there hasn’t been any rain this winter (clear, bright, sunny days all of time) and the papers are raising a great fuss about sickness, and talk of closing the schools for a month, but that ought not to worry Mrs. J. She has no any children in school.

They came around to-day with circulars asking the teachers how many of the scholars had any one sick with diphtheria in the family; and there 7. was not one case. We have begun the Study of Hamlet, and it is so interesting. Mrs. Atwood is very fine in literature. Political Economy also, she makes interesting. We have Miss Jenett, now to explain to us, the mathematical parts of the astronomy. Geometry is such a help to us in understanding that study.

I guess Chas. was about right in saying. “think some- thing.” That has worried me a considerable, I’ll admit. Yes, I often thought how Gusta would spin the dudes around, if she were here-“She would 8. show them.” I often long for her, but laugh to myself to think how she would make the boys stand around. She would be a great favorite here, I know that much. I have and envelope all stamped and directed, for her, but no one can tell when I shall write. Carrie sent me a letter yesterday, in which she said that she had written four letters since my last one, and I believe her, __tch that I am! Well, “Such is life in the Far West,” is my only excuse. It was very nice of Chas. to make me that envelope; 9. I will remember it, even when I get home, I am ever inclined to quarrel with him. He must re- mind me of if I don’t. I shall take it to school to-morrow to exhibit it. I am sorry to hear that Mrs. J.C.A. is so poorly. Mr. Atwood must feel very badly. Do you know, he and Uncle are very much alike in their manners toward their wives, but of course, Uncle is the better. Must close now to study “_____” (Hamlet)

So, Good-bye,
Your daughter,
Lizzie.