Transcription:
that I must limit myself to that time be on hand for the necessary moving. Came home alone leaving my com- panions (the most
delightful woman ever had or will have) to spend a blissful Autumn between the had of Kings River around Mts Whitney +c, to
take a horseback journey from there to Shasta, in which I could have accompanied them had I known there was no homes and no
moving in the case. It vexes me to read the five letters I have received since I left them know what might have been. They
have been in entirely untrodden ways but all the time with animals, so that the fatigues were nothing to their already borne.
No such fortu- nate conjunction of kindred spirits will ever occur again, no shall I ever find myself with gentlemen whom
companionship is so instructive. I never once felt that I was an encumbrance or restraint upon kept us all the week. The
subject before the Club was Fruit Nomenclature and I did not therefore prepare any elaborate account of my trip occupied only
half an hour which it seems was an appetizer for I am requested to repeat it with amplifications for the benefit of the Oakland
Library. Should this be one a series of readings for their benefit I will let you know. I am very much defrauded as much
provoked that I believed the promises made to us about homes at Berkley. Dr Merritt who has been the principal Regent engaged
in building operations assured me that our houses would be completed by the 18th of September, just as I was starting for
the Mts, and as I was far beyond Post Offices I felt in margin: I am very sorry to hear the father is ailing. I trust not
for long.