NEW YORK, Tuesday—I planned my time so well yesterday that I didn't have to go into Poughkeepsie at all. Some one else took my column into the telegraph office when she left for the train and so I sat in the sun for an hour in the afternoon. Then it looked as though a thunder storm was about to break and I jumped into the pool for a swim and out again. There is no reason why one shouldn't swim in the rain but in a thunder storm I suppose most of us prefer to be indoors, or at least on a porch where we can watch the storm and feel that we are the audience and not part of the play.

When the storm finally broke it was nothing but a few minutes of hard rain and one or two rumbles in the distance. Then the sun came out again and by that time I was comfortably established on the porch reading the last proofs of my story for the Ladies Home Journal. I think you could read over what you have written a hundred times and still always find mistakes and ways in which to change your manuscript! It is really most discouraging for you never feel quite satisfied.

I was glad to hear yesterday from a mutual friend that Dorothy Thompson is back in her home in Vermont and recuperating fast. I know that she has always had good health and that therefore being an invalid can not be easy even for a short time. So I hope that the restrictions that weakness puts upon us all will soon give way to her usual sense of well-being.

Mrs. Scheider and I took the train to New York City this morning and very nearly missed it. I think I must have looked at the time-table without my glasses. I can see things well at a distance, but nearby they are not as distinct as they used to be, and time-tables are things which you must see clearly. In any case I thought the train left at three minutes before eight and it really left at ten minutes before eight. We were amongst the last people to get on board and it pulled out immediately.

Once in New York City I started out to do a number of errands, among other things to go up to the house on Sixty-Fifth Street which our eldest son James and his wife now have, and look through a number of things which I had left there. Everytime I go there, I am appalled by the things one accumulates in the course of a long life I went into the trunk room to look in the blanket chess and found that it was packed with trunks and I couldn't remember what was in any of them! I feel sure that I could help to furnish several apartments, so I am going to start right in on my brother's. He is a nice person to furnish for, because all the directions he gave me was to look the apartment over that I had suggested, get anything I thought he needed and not spend any money!

This visit is a very unexpected one and I was sorry to have to come to the City, for there is always so much to keep one busy in the country, but I must have one or two appointments this afternoon and see one or two friends. After an early supper we will motor back to the cool of green trees and green grass and the quiet which is only disturbed by the sounds of the birds and the insects.