Letters to a Friend 



nerved for the most delicate work of mountain 

 eering both among crevasses and lava cliffs. 

 Now I am sleeping and eating. I found some 

 geological facts that are perfectly glorious, and 

 botanical ones too. 



I wish I could make the public be kind to 

 Keith and his paint. 



And so you contemplate vines and oranges 

 among the warm California angels. I wish you 

 would all go a-granging among oranges and 

 bananas and all such blazing, red-hot fruits, 

 for you are a species of Hindoo sun fruit your 

 self. 



For me, I like better the huckleberries of 

 cool glacial bogs and acid currants and benevo 

 lent, rosy, beaming apples and common Indian- 

 summer pumpkins. 



I wish you could see the holy morning's Al- 

 pen glow of Shasta. 



Farewell. I'll be down into gray Oakland 

 some time. 



I am glad you are so essentially independent 

 of those commonplace plotters that have so 



