It just may be that the verdict here will be one of exile to California, to my brother George’s farm; ah, yes he should be with the few great, and I say ‘exile’ for I wonder if I should ever see any of you then?  My doctor in Pasadena said that I should live as a country gentleman, and I answered, “But that takes money.”  Yet I would not know where the farm should be, for climate is not all.  So long, old man.

F.K.

Many months later, writing to Mrs. Lane this friend of many years says, “I want also to recall the remark Frank made when you and Mary, and he and I, were rain-bound in the little chalet at St. Mary’s in Glacier Park, nine years ago.  That was an outstanding experience in my long friendship with Frank.  We had many hours to discuss things, and no matter on what road we started, we always came back to a discussion of life; what it was all for, and what it was about, and what principle a chivalrous man should take in adjusting himself usefully to the going world.  I remember late one night we sat in the dimly lighted room after a long discussion, he arose, and turning to me said:  ’Doesn’t it, after all, just come to this,—­To spend and to be spent—­isn’t that what life is?’ Every subsequent experience with Frank confirmed me in the belief that that was his personal philosophy.  That is why he lived greatly while he lived, and died nobly when his life was spent.”

 To Robert Lansing

Rochester, Minnesota, May 2, [1921]

My dear Lansing,—­I am to be operated on on Friday and so send you this line that you may know that I have yours of April sixteenth, and have rejoiced very much at its good news, that you were better, and that you were not bitter because of the come-back campaign.

Really, I think Harding is doing well, or rather that the whole administration is being supported well by the country.  Oh, these Republicans have the art of governing, and we do so much better at talking!  No one knows just what his foreign policy is, but something will work through that will satisfy a very tired people.  There seem to be comparatively few out of work now.  We are not out of the woods yet.  But the Lord will take care of them.  He may even keep Johnson from bolting Harding.  They will temporize through; that’s my guess.

Good English the people don’t know.  Ideality they have had enough of for a time.  They just want to get down to brass tacks and make some money, so that the Mrs. can have more new dresses.  I do earnestly wish them luck.  God gave us the great day, and you and I, anyway, are not ashamed of the parts we played.  In fact, the party loomed pretty large those days—­the whole country breathed lung-fuls and felt heroic.  We shall not look upon such another time nor act for a people so nobly inspired.

Please give to Mrs. Lansing my very best regards—­fine spirit, that she is—­and to you, as always, dear Lansing, my affection and esteem.