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#0107: Willa Cather to Mariel C. Gere, [September 30, 1905]

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1180 MURRAY HILL AVENUE4 My Dear Mariel1;

Thank you many times over fod for the long letter you wrote me this summer. You told me just the things I wanted so much to know and yet had not the courage to ask your mother5 about. I think I missed your father6 every moment of the time that I spent in Lincoln3 this summer. He was one of the people whom I had always so wanted Isabelle7 to meet.

I had a very happy and very busy two months in the West this summer. In Wyoming8 we spent a week with Douglass9 in Cheyenne10 and a week camping and fishing in the Black Hills with Roscoe11. After that we were in Red Cloud12 four weeks, helping father13 fix up his new house14, which is the pride of his heart. Jessie15 has a dear little house of her own and is as happy as the day is long in making preparations for my small niece or nephew that is to be16. We saw a good deal of Mrs. Garber17, who is as charming as ever, though greatly aged and saddened. I think she misses the Governor18 sadly, care though he was. Jack19 and Elsie20 are big children now, but they keep many of their childish ways and still seem little to me. I think, more than ever, that the West is the only place I want to live, and I am planning to get home to Red Cloud for a year before very long. There are many people there of whom I am very fond.

After leaving Nebraska21 I went right on to New York22 to see Mr. McClure23 and was there for a week.

I stayed with Edith Lewis24, and had luncheon with Mrs. Westermann25 on her fifty-fifth birthday.

I expect you are, like me, in the thick of your school work again. I am just beginning to get settled in mine. I like it better every year and feel that I do it better. I have such pleasant assistants now; Miss Wilson26 of Hastings, Neb.27 and a Wellsley28 girl.

Please give my love to your mother and to Ellen29 and Frances30, Mariel, and remember me warmly to Mr.31 and Mrs. Jones32, also to Miss Harris33 and Mrs. Phillips34.

Faithfully always Willa.
Miss Mariel C. Gere1 D & 9th Streets Lincoln3 Nebraska PITTSB[missing]2 Sept 1905
Speaks of Mrs Garber
LINCOLN, NEB.3 OCT 1 1905 6—PM