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First draft of letter, in note-book 59 (71) Martinez, Nov. 17, 1900. My dear Mrs. Osborn: Nothing could be kinder than
the invitation to delightful Wing on Wing, and how gladly we would accept you know. But grim Duty, like Bunyan's Apollyon
is now straddling across the whole breadth of the way crying No. Wanda is at school in Berkeley, working hard, expecting to
enter the State University next year, and I am smothered in writing without accomplishing much. I never shall forget the leafy
Hudson hills in their glorious yellow and red autumny array, the wing on wing room you so kindly call mine, and the lovely,
peaceful, restful time I enjoyed there when l was worn and weary. Of the many Muir rooms, called mine, illustrating the abounding
benevolence of human nature to meward, none attracts me more. I hope I shall be allowed to enjoy it again ere long. In the
meantime, and always, I am, Your friend, John M. Last summer, as you know, I was in Alaska. This year I was in the Sierra,
going up by Lake Tahoe and down by Yosemite, crossing the Sierra four times along the head-waters of the Truckee, Carson,
Mokelumne, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced rivers, examining forests and learning what I could in a general way
of birds and mammals, with Dr. Merriam and his sister and Mr. Bayley, a triumvirate of naturalists, with infinite appetite
for squirrels and chipmunks, etc. We had a delightful time and in Yo semite your long planned trip came to mind and I wished
then you had been with us. I am now at work on the last of a series of wild park articles to be collected and published
in book form by the Houghton Mifflin Co., and which I hope to get off my hands ere long, to be followed by Sierra and Alaska
things as fast as my slow interrupted pen can be spurred to go. 02890