This is my eleventh year in the foreign service. I like the life and the duties, and the country I happen to be stationed in. It is also a gratification to have it said that I stand well with the Department at Washington. This is indicated by my being offered other and better posts than this. A recent letter tells me, if I wish it, I may have my choice of General Consulates in China or Japan. My preferences are for life in Europe; besides, we now have our friends here, and know the people, the language, and the customs. _June 14._--Our anniversary. Celebrate it by going to Bürglen, the birthplace of William Tell. Made sketches and had a good time. A cottage inn stands on the spot where Tell was born. I asked the young woman who answered the door bell if Mr. Tell were at home. She laughed and answered, “No, but I am Mrs. Tell.” An American friend joined us there, and, with “Mrs. Tell,” we all sang songs and waltzed half the night to the music of a cracked piano, played by one of “Mrs. Tell’s” sisters. * * * * * Received a letter last week from General Sherman. He regrets Grant’s having to scramble for the Presidency. “WASHINGTON, D. C., May 11, 1880. “DEAR BYERS:--I received in good time your kind letter of April 3, and laid it one side for attention after Elly’s wedding. Meantime, the clock came all safe and right, and I acknowledged its receipt of the merchant in New York through whom it came. “The wedding came off all right at the appointed time, Wednesday, May 5th, and the young couple are now at Niagara, and will return next week via Boston and Philadelphia. Mr. Thackera is a fine young naval officer of excellent reputation, and Elly is the best of my children for such a vagrant life. “I know that you receive the papers and telegrams and that it would be idle for me to attempt any news of public events. We are, as you well know, in the very throes of a Presidential canvass, which in itself constitutes a revolution. Grant is still a candidate, but instead of being nominated by acclamation, will have to scramble for it, a thing I cannot help but regret, as his career heretofore is so splendid that I cannot help feeling it impaired by common politics. He could so nobly rest on his laurels, but his family and his personal dependents prod him on, and his best friends feel a delicacy about offering advice not asked. “We are now residing in a rented house--No. 817--Fifteenth Street, in the best possible neighborhood, and at rates better than to purchase. I look on St. Louis as my ultimate home, and don’t want to be embarrassed with property here. I own two most excellent houses in St. Louis. One is now occupied by Minnie and her family, and the other is leased to good tenants who will take good care of it till we need it.