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I am also gathering the last leaves to skeleton and bleach for Phantom Bouquets. Have you ever tried to make them? It is very
tedious work but when finished, nothing can be more exquisitely beautiful. Nellie, I should like very much to have you come
down and make me visit this winter. Could not you and No illegible who is I believe Miss Blanche come by sometime with your
father on his way from Sacramento or from San Francisco, which is perhaps the most convenient route? And Let us know a day
or two before so that we can meet you at the wharf in M illegible and we will all endeavor to make it as pleasant for you
as possible And now if you will only be good and forg illegible , and answer this very soon, so that I may be fairly started
in the way of correspondence before the Old Year is gone- I am superstitious about that - I shall be most thankful and will
try also to smooth out the cramped lines which my pen has of late been wont to make. Father and mother join me in kindest
regards to you all Truly Your friend Louie W. illegible 4 1 Alhambra, Nov. 28, 1871. Dear Nellie, The long-hoped
for clouds and rain and storm have at last come down upon us, bringing, for me at least, the rest and quiet which here is
not to be known all the summer long. The past summer especially has been a busy time for me. We have had company almost continually,
and the hur- ried work of the fruit season, together with mother's ill health, has given more care and work to my head and
hands than I have been able to go through with and not be tired out. But now, with leisure to remember my neglected duties,
there comes again before me a long list of letters unwritten which have for a long time persisted in haunt- ing me most uncomfortably.
And indeed, Nellie, it is so long since I have written any but the shortest notes, that I find myself almost as bereft of
idea in be- ginning this letter as I was when first ordered to write a school composition. So I can only hope that you will
be a little less wroth over the unanswered letter 1 06382