again where I will have to do some more signing and swearing. Isn't
this enough to discourage people from ever going anywhere?

The news about the sailboat is great. How many of you will be up at
the Cape this summer? Is Jack going? When I think of the starlight
nights out in the boat, and the long lazy mornings on the beach, I get
absolutely faint with longing. Heretofore I haven't _dared_ to
enjoy things, and now, when I might, I am an exile heading for
Siberia! Oh, well! perhaps there will be starlight nights in Siberia,
who knows?



VLADIVOSTOCK, SIBERIA, August 16, 1902.


If I should write all I wanted to say this morning, my letter would
reach across the Pacific! I didn't believe it was possible for me ever
to have such a good time again.

When we came, we brought a letter of introduction to a Mrs. Heath. She
has a beautiful big house, and a beautiful big heart, and she took us
right into both.

The day after we arrived, I was standing on her piazza looking down
the bay, when I saw a battle-ship come sailing in under a salute of
seventeen guns from the fort. It turned out to be the "Victor," and
you never knew such rejoicing. Mrs. Heath knows all the navy people
and her house is a favorite rendezvous. Before night, we had met many
old acquaintances, among them my Nagasaki friend, "Vermont."