which will be set up this week.  These book-cases extend around three sides of the room, and will be capable of containing about twelve hundred books.  They are very handsome pieces of furniture.  We had them constructed in such a way as to be able to add glass doors when we think we can afford to do so.  We shall not put any mantel either in the library or in Julia’s room until the financial outlook clears, for, as you surmised when you were here, the funds with which you provided us are not sufficient to do all that we want to do.

The roof to the old house will have to be patched up some.  Then I think we ought to have a roadway constructed from the front gate to the house.  The road at present is pretty nearly impassable.  My idea is that we ought to have a road-bed of coal cinders rolled down and covered with fine gravel.  This kind of road in private grounds is, I understand, practically everlasting.  Then, we have got to have a front gate, the old affair having gone all to pieces.  It is not at all necessary to have a new fence for some time to come.  I am told that a roadway such as we want will cost $50.  This means, I suppose, $75.  Mr. Stone is going to pay for the exterior painting of the house.  I suppose we ought to have the shingle roof painted.  One coat would be sufficient, and would involve a cost of $35 at the outside.

So far we have done pretty well, I think, with the means at our disposal.  What we have put into the house is of a good and durable quality.  Of course I understand, and so do you, that if we had the same work to do over again doubtless we could do it cheaper, if not better.  There are also changes which have suggested themselves as we went along which we did not deem it wise to make, inasmuch as they were not absolutely necessary, and would have involved an expenditure which we did not feel justified in making.

I am hoping that you will find it possible to spend your birthday with us.  If you will send me the date of the auspicious anniversary I will gladly send passes for you and Miss Eva to come, and we shall try to make your stay pleasant.  You asked me in your letter what plans I had for a summer trip.  I have no plans at all.  It is so cool here that I do not feel disposed to go away from home.  Then, again, I am so much interested in the new premises that I find in that interest another reason for staying home.

It has occurred to me that it might be both wise for you and Miss Eva to make this point a base for operations this summer.  Why can’t you both come here, and from here make such excursions into Wisconsin and Michigan as may suggest themselves to you from week to week as pleasant and profitable.  It is possible that either Julia or I, or maybe both of us, may be able to join some of these little desultory trips with you.

Roswell has been called to an editorial position on the Times-Herald, and he will begin