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#1977: Willa Cather to Elsie Cather, June 9, 1936

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My dear Elsie1:

What a treat your long newsy letter was to me! I telephoned Mary Virginia3 and asked her to come down to dinner, so that she could read it. I think she got almost as much pleasure from it as I did. She practically never hears from home4, you know. I am sending you a copy of my last letter to the twins5. Roscoe6 thought, and I think, too, that they will get a great deal more fun out of Grand Manan7 than out of New York2 at this season of the year. Besides, I have been very much under the weather for several months and I could not possibly do things with them here in the City. Both the girls write me that they would rather go there than anywhere.

I am enclosing a check, my dear, which I hope you will apply on your vacation, but I won't make any vacation suggestions to you. You remember that whenever I have made them in the past you have bolted in the opposite direction, like a pony running away! I think probably one person can never hit the right idea about another person's vacation.

Where is Will Andrews8 now? If he has come back to Nebraska9, why don't you let him take care of the yard for you this summer? Would it raise a scandal if you let him have a room in the house10? I shouldn't think so. If you are away for part of the summer, it would certainly be a good plan to have him there in your absence.

Thank you again for your nice letter, dear sister. It gave Edith11 and Virginia and me a great deal to talk about, especially the Father Fitzgerald12 chapter.

By the way, I am not going to California13 this year. The Menuhins14 were very urgent that I should come and visit them, but this is probably the only time the twins will be so near the Atlantic coast, and I decided in their favor. They used to murmur so pitiously that they had "never seen the ocean".

Lovingly Willie

This check15 is smaller than I intended—but it is very expensive to move twins through Canada16 and back to Detroit17!