Transcription:
4 Mrs. Hooker telephoned me last week, saying her brother, Mr. Putnam, was to be here about ten months, straightening out
her affairs, and asking if I could work for him at the downtown office. I told her I felt that I ought not to be away from
home this summer. School closes this week and I want to be home to look after Caslon and the boys that come to play with him.
We have four hundred feet of back yard, you know, running to the top of quite a hill, and the boy has a car and an incline
railroad track, with a number of curves and a small trestle over a ditch. So they have plenty of space and a good time, calling
for 5 lots of noise and they need a referee quite often, which responsibility is rather more trying than I want my mother
to assume, for she is so dear and sweet to me I don't want to lose her, ever. Caslon is well, and hardly a day goes by that
he doesn't speak of you. He loves flowers and trees, and picks up leaves and stones on his way home from school, to show me,
saying, Heres a beauty; look He loves nature at this age and I am very glad, for I feel it will keep him clean and sweet-minded
and kind and lovable just as you are, dear John Muir. We talk of you so much 05047