“Of course there is lots of work before you yet, but you have demonstrated your ability to meet successfully whatever may come. “I am hoping to be with you before very long. You may be sure I shall come as soon as I can. “I hope my other dear boy is well by this time. He has good stuff in him, too, and I am sure will make a great success of life. “Love to all my dear ones. I can’t quite tell you how dear you all are to me. “Affectionately, “YOUR FATHER.” Doctor Von Ruck, after an examination, thought it possible that by ridding him of his cold and catarrh he might be “straightened out,” though he thought it doubtful, and we find Kern writing home, “I suppose I will stay here until there is a marked improvement,” wistfully adding, “I would certainly like to be with you at Kerncliffe and be pottering around the place there instead of wandering around in the woods here.” He found life pleasant enough at Asheville but for the longing for home. His health gradually improved, his cough diminished, and he was able to take long walks in the woods, and to do much reading and writing. Aside from his desire for Kerncliffe he was constantly harassed by the feeling that he could not afford to do nothing, with expenses going on, for he had given too much of his life to the public to have accumulated as he might, had he been more selfish. I had a letter from him from Asheville saying that he found he “did not respond to treatment as readily as he did ten years before,” and would probably be there indefinitely, and within ten days the report appeared in the press that he was in Washington. The story of May, June and July is told in detail in a letter to me--the last--written July 24th: “I have been sick almost continuously since the 5th of this month--so sick that I have been unable to pay any attention to correspondence. I think I wrote you from Asheville, where I spent a few weeks in April and May. I went from there to Washington the forepart of May to meet Theodore Bell on a law matter of some importance. About that time I had a proposition from the Lincoln Chautauqua Association to fill the vice-president’s thirty-one engagements with that association in seven southern states, or as many as might be made before the adjournment of congress, commencing May 17th, and speaking every day, including Sundays, on the international situation--the aim and duties of patriotic Americans.