SEATTLE, Monday—This has been an anxious day. No one, no matter how well disciplined, can sit and wait while someone one loves is undergoing an operation, and not suffer pangs of anxiety for all the things which may happen, but which, thank God, so rarely do.

While I am out here to see my daughter, Anna, who is having an appendectomy, I have been thinking about things which I have neglected to tell you. One of them is a little ceremony which occurred at our house in New York City last Thursday afternoon. I received then the first collection of red, white and blue flower seeds, and hope to plant them in the garden at the big house at Hyde Park and at my cottage. This presentation launched the British-American Ambulance Corps drive to raise, by the sale of these one-dollar packages, the money to buy ambulances for use abroad. Little Joan Manning, who belongs to Troop 213 of the Girl Scouts, presented me with a very patriotic red, white and blue, old-fashioned bouquet, showing what delightful flowers we can grow next summer.

There are not only flower seeds on sale, but vegetable seeds as well. These packages contain thirteen different varieties of vegetable seeds. Unfortunately, we cannot have patriotic colors in vegetables, but it is just as patriotic to grow them, because they will help to feed us the kind of food which we all need.

There is a method of increasing the sale of Defense Stamps and Bonds, which has been developed by Northwestern University. I find it is being followed in one way or another by various institutions and groups. The plan which Northwestern has started, offers its alumni the possibility of helping both the government and the University at the same time. Investment of the gifts they give, in Defense Bonds, will be a start in the fund to finance the University's development through their century plan.

The Grand Lodge of the Massachusetts Order of the Sons of Italy in America, have sent me their magazine. I think they should be congratulated on their purchase of $50,000 worth of Defense Bonds. Their final goal is much greater than this, and shows a determination on their part to have civilians at home, by their sacrifices, support the Italian-American boys, who are fighting in our services everywhere in the world.

In this magazine, I enjoyed particularly the photographs of some of the Massachusetts boys with the little descriptions which they had sent in of their activities. I hope that many other groups are keeping this same type of record for the future.