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1428 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, October 12, 1904. My dear Mr. Muir: We have been in our house just two days after an
absence of sixteen months, and it is lovely to be at home again and to see all our friends, although we are so busy superintending
getting our house in order that we have not had much time to devote to them. In looking over our mail I have found your book
and thank you exceedingly for having sent it to me, and it will indeed bring me among pleasant memories, not only of Egypt
and the Philippines, but California as well. I shall find it doubly interesting now having seen all those big trees, for we
went to the Yosemite despite the choking dust at that season. We also went to the Grand Canyon, which is wonderfully strange
and beautiful, and wound up our trip by spending two weeks at the St. Louis Exposition, having had a most varied tour around
the world, an experience never to be forgotten. With kindest regards to your wife and daughter and yourself, from the three
Bells, I am, with renewed thanks, Very sincerely yours, Laura Bell.03457