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Oct. 20th, 1878. My dear Mr. Luir: I had rather expected to write you to-day that we could be in Oakland in Oakland in
about a week, but The Fates have willed it otherwise, and we leave our home tomorrow for New York, where we shall take steamer
for Europe on the 23rd to be gone till we are ready to come home, six months or two years. Of course we are all glad that
father has found courage enough to cross the water, and as none of the family have been before except father and self, they
are in a great state of escitement. Our pretty home looks desolate enough stripped of everything---pictures, books, ornaments,
rugs, carpets, everything---and we shall be glad to get out of it tomorrow. I am sorry not to see California and you all this
winter, and I had almost set my heart upon it, but it is not to be this time, I suppose Mrs. Day will be disappointed, at
least I hope so, and I wish she would come out and meet us there. I do not write you as often as I ought, but life grows more
real every year, and the cares are so great and so many. I hope with the whole ocean between us and home we may find rest.
Our address is Care Brown Shipley Co., London, E. C. All join me in kind regards, Yours sincerely, Anne W. Cheney