PENIKESE ISLAND 169 



end, many dozens of glasses and fifty-six chamber 

 sets containing all the ordinary pieces. In the midst 

 of our work Sunday afternoon we had a visit from 

 a fashionable New York yacht and Robert Minturn 

 and Mr. Holyoke came up to see us. It was a lovely 

 afternoon, we were all on the piazza washing glass 

 and china, and they seemed to think it quite a de- 

 lightful picnic. We were able to muster a cup of 

 coffee and tried to be as hospitable as circumstances 

 would admit. Here then, we stand — today we are 

 to unpack the furniture and we intend to place 

 the little belongings of every person together so 

 that it shall represent a room, though not of course 

 partitioned off. I will write you tonight the result 

 of our chamber work. 



In the biographies of Agassiz and Alexander Agassiz 

 accounts may be found of the school and its future fate, 

 which there is no need of repeating here. The following let- 

 ter from Miss Emma Gary, however, adds an animated 

 description of the life on the island, as it had been depicted 

 to her by Mrs. Agassiz. 



FROM MISS EMMA F. GARY TO MISS SARAH G. GARY 



NahanU July 17, 1873 

 Lizzie is very pleasant telling about the island life. 

 Do you remember a genial element in Charles 

 Auchester in spite of its nonsense — as if they were 

 on a perpetual artistic picnic ? There is the same 

 feeling at Penikese; enthusiasm, romance, open 

 air, discomforts, very good food, science, colonies 



