The rains thus far have been mostly in the night, and we have lovely days.  Mamma and I take long rides on the cable-cars in the afternoon, and stay out at the Cliff House on the rocks every pleasant Saturday.  Then we ’ve discovered nice sheltered nooks in the sand dunes beyond the park, and there we stay for hours, mamma reading while I study.  We are so quiet and so happy; we were never alone together in our lives before.  You, dear Peggy, who have always had your family to yourself, can hardly think how we enjoy being at table together, just we two.  I take mamma’s coffee to her and kiss her on the right cheek; then follows an egg, with another kiss on the left cheek; then a bit of toast, with a bear-hug, and so on.  We have a few pleasant friends here, you know, and they come to see mamma without asking her to return the calls, as they see plainly she has no strength for society. . . .  POLLY.

P. S. We have a remarkable front door, which opens with a spring located in the wall at the top of the stairs.  It is a modern improvement and I never tire of opening it, even though each time I am obliged to go downstairs to close it again.

When Dr. George came last week, he rang the bell, and being tired with the long pull up the hill, leaned against the door to breathe.  Of course I knew nothing of this, and as soon as I heard the bell I flew to open the door with my usual neatness and dispatch, when who should tumble in, full length, but poor dear Dr. George!  He was so surprised, and the opposite neighbors were so interested, and I was so sorry, that I was almost hysterical.  Dr. George insists that the door is a trap laid for unsuspecting country people.

        November 9.

. . .  The first week is over, and the finances did n’t come out right at all.  I have a system of bookkeeping which is original, simple, practical, and absolutely reliable.  The house-money I keep in a cigar-box with three partitions (formerly used for birds’ eggs), and I divide the month’s money in four parts, and pay everything weekly.

The money for car-fare, clothing, and sundries I keep in an old silver sugar-bowl, and the reserve fund, which we are never to touch save on the most dreadful provocation, in a Japanese ginger-jar with a cover.  These, plainly marked, repose in my upper drawer.  Mamma has no business cares whatever, and everything ought to work to a charm, as it will after a while.  But this first week has been discouraging, and I have had to borrow enough from compartment two, cigar-box, to pay debts incurred by compartment one, cigar-box.  This is probably because we had to buy a bag of flour and ten pounds of sugar.  Of course this won’t happen every week. . . .

I wrote Ah Foy a note after we arrived, for he really seems to have a human affection for us.  I inclose his answer to my letter.  It is such a miracle of Chinese construction that it is somewhat difficult to get his idea; still I think I see that he is grateful for past favors; that he misses us; that the boarders are going on “very happy and joy;” that he is glad mamma is better, and pleased with the teacher I selected for him.  But here it is; judge for yourself:—­