Trotty is delighted with the illustrated paper, and she is going to write you a letter, I think.  Melvin is on the Indiana farm again this summer, and Pinny is visiting his Aunt Etta [Mrs. Roswell Field] in Kansas City.  The rest of us are boarding with Mr. and Mrs. Reed, and the house is full of friends.  We like our quarters very much, but shall give them up on the first of November, as Julia, Trotty, and I will go to Europe in December.  The present plan is to go first to London, where I wish to spend most of my time.  We shall want to put Trotty in a school near Paris, and her mother will have to make the tour of Italy.  Mary French (who reared me) will be with us, and she will go with Julia on the Italian circuit.  As for me, I want to spend most of my time in England, with two weeks in Paris and a few days in Holland.  Wouldn’t it be wise for me to live in one of the suburbs of London?  I want to get cheap but desirable quarters—­a pleasant place, not fashionable, and not too far from the old-book shops.  My intention is to be absent three months, but I may deem it wise to stay six.  Julia and Trotty can stay as long as they please.  I should like to have Trotty learn French.

Matters and things here in the office peg along about as usual—­yes, just the same.  The new building in the alley will be ready for occupancy by the first of September, but I suspect it will not be much of an improvement upon the present quarters.  Dr. Reilly is the same old 2 x 4.  He got $250.00 for extra work the other day, and we have been tolerably prosperous ever since. [Here Field branched off into personal gossip about pretty nearly every one of their mutual friends in Denver and Chicago, having something to say about no less than nineteen persons in fourteen lines of his diamond chirography.] It is nearly time for Stone [who had sold out his interest in the Daily News to Mr. Lawson] to reach Paris.  I wish you’d tell him that I propose to *%!&[see Note below] him at billiards under the shadow of St. Paul’s in London next Christmas time.  Dear boy, I am overjoyed at the prospect of seeing you so soon.  We speak of you so often, and always affectionately.  You may look for a package from me about the 1st of August; I shall send it to the care of the Herald office in Paris.  I have dedicated to you what I regard as my tenderest bit of western dialect verse, and I will send you a copy of the paper when it appears.  Meanwhile I enclose a little bit, which you may fancy.  God bless you.

[Transcriber’s Note:  The *%!& stands for “expletive deleted” and is intentional.]

“Marthy’s Younkit” is the bit of western dialect verse which was dedicated to Cowen, of which Field then and always thought so highly.  It contained, in his estimation, more of imagination, as distinct from fancy, than any of his other verse.  The poetic picture of the mountain-side is perfect: