HYDE PARK, Thursday—Even though you want rain it may not always come at just the right moment. I was very glad to have it rain in the night, but in spite of lowering skies, I started out to ride at a quarter before eight and I was not happy when twenty minutes later floods descended from the heavens! I got under a tree and the dogs quickly joined me, but the tree proved no protection and in a few minutes I realized that I was soaked through and decided that riding home would be preferable to standing still. We turned homeward, passing some men who had been chopping up a fallen tree, and who were not sitting cosily in the covered part of their truck, and looking at me friendly amusement.

I got home and bathed and dressed and went into see my husband whose first question was: "Do you think this rain is really soaking the ground under the trees?" All I did was to point to my still soaking hair and said: "I'm a living example of what is happening to the ground, for I tried to stand under a tree for protection." Whereupon instead of saying he was concerned at my involuntary bath, he remarked: "That's grand, we've needed it very badly."

I shall be away for the day tomorrow so I gave my orders for two days and then worked for an hour at the Cottage. At about eleven-thirty we drove up to a place back of Rhinebeck which a friend of mine is fixing up and spent half an hour discussing and measuring for the curtains which we selected yesterday. Then home for luncheon to find the usual slight changes in the number of huests. Two of the people I had expected did not come, but two others did come. One guest missed his train and arrived just as we were finishing lunch, so, as my husband was not ready to see him, I settled him in the Library to eat a belated lunch from a tray. Then I took two guests over to the cottage and now we are busy preparing for an indoor picnic over here tonight. I had invited the newspaper fraternity and a number of neighbors to come and swim and eat supper out of doors, but it is still cold and gray and very wet underfoot, so I think we will have our picnic indoors, perhaps by evening we will find fires pleasant. Our climate has some of the attributes of woman—it keeps us interested because it changes frequently!