Transcription:
R.F.D. 289C, Pasadena, Dec. 23rd, 1911. Dear Mr. Muir: With this holiday greeting, I should like to explain to you what
I afterward felt was an ungracious acknowledgment of your suggestion that I be one of several Sierra Club members to accompany
your party to South America. That such a trip with you would have been the rarest treat of my life, I perhaps too readily
assumed that you would understand. My unresponsive attitude was due to the fact that the trip was absolutely out of my reach
because of financial inability. A silly pride instinctively prevented my telling you so at the time-- But courtesy and appreciation
demanded a frankness, which, though so late, I am now sending you. I will send this to Martinez, though not sure you are
yet back from your trip. In gratitude for your kindness. .Your friend, Mary Frances Kellogg 05133