I tell you, mother, I have a couple of fine cousins in Carrie and Ida. I don't think Walton will ever forget Ida's kindness. He was so sore from riding his wheel that when he got here he couldn't sit down. He had to sleep standing, but Ida made him the dandiest pillow and sewed it on to his bicycle saddle, so poor Walton is all right now. We are going to see Grandmother Hoyt at Elba tomorrow. You know it is only six miles north. Well, mother, the Hoyts are all in good standing around here, and I feel mighty proud of you all. Aunt Alida seems young as ever, and the bloom of youth is on her cheek. But, say, you would think I was writing a novel, wouldn't you? Uncle John and I sat up nearly all night, and he certainly told me some very interesting things about the Hoyts and Deweys, and many incidents of you in your childhood days, when you lived in Rochester, before you came to Pine Hill. He says the childhood home of Grandfather Hoyt was at Hudson, on the Hudson River, and that his family came from Danbury, Connecticut. Grandmother Hoyt was a Dewey from Ohio, and her father was from Watertown, N. Y., whose ancestors sprang from the Herkimer County Mohawk Dutch. Now, why can't we claim a connecting link, for we all know that my great grandfather, John Richardson's brother, Gershom, moved from Stafford, Connecticut, to Watertown, N. Y., and I have heard father say that he, Warren Richardson, my grandfather, with some other men, walked up to Watertown one winter, over 300 miles, and staid a month or so with their cousins. They were a large family. [Illustration: NORTH SHORE, LOON LAKE, WINONA GROVE.] I wish Uncle John lived where I could see him often. He is so full of information on all subjects, that I just love to talk with him. It made me laugh when he told me about how you, Ellen Wilder, Mary Robe and Mary Raymond, actually carried old Pine Hill by storm several winters. Then he got to talking about the war and I really cried when he described the battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. Just think of it, four brothers--John, Sylvester, and the twins, Edwin and Edward--standing there at daylight waiting for the order to charge the enemy's breast works. Uncle John said that they all thought it meant death. Colonel Porter must have been a brave man; he stood in front and said, "Boys, this is our last charge, but we are going to obey orders." He unwisely wore his uniform in leading; Uncle John said that he hadn't gone thirty feet before he was pierced with seven or eight bullets.