LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



having pleasant boat-rides, and walks in the woods, and 

 berryings, and keep Dwight company in hammering nails 

 and making all sorts of things. 



" Going after berries is grand sport. When a boy at 

 school, at Utica, I used to go off with other boys of the 

 school on long Saturday walks, a large basket in my hand, 

 and often bring home six or eight quarts of splendid large 

 blackberries, or strawberries, or raspberries. The high 

 blackberry bushes had thorns, and sometimes gave my 

 hands a bad scratch. But I got the berries and did not 

 care much for the scratches. 



" Your papa has gone off a long ways to take a ride in 

 a boat and catch fish and get bitten by the black flies. 

 But he will soon be in Holderness again; and how de- 

 lighted you and Dwightie and Mamma will be! 



" Grandma sends her love to May and will write her 

 before long. She was going to write to-day ; but as I am 

 ahead of her in writing you, she will probably put it off 

 for a few days, as I shall tell her I have written you when 

 she comes home from church. My love too to your good 

 Mamma. 



' Your affectionate 



1 'GRANDPA DANA/' 



TO HIS GRANDSON 



" NEW HAVEN, Sept. 17, 1893. 



1 1 



" MY DEAR GRANDSON, JAMES DWIGHT DANA: 



" I was glad to receive your two good letters having 

 your name written by yourself at the end. They showed 

 that you were learning as well as growing up in Holder- 

 ness. 



" Those naughty black flies ! But I suppose they were 

 very hungry, and knew your papa was good to eat, and 

 so flew right at him the first chance. I remember one 

 time, when I was aboard a ship at an island in the ocean, 

 the flies came in such crowds that at dinner they made the 

 table look black, all the dishes being covered thickly with 

 them. But they went off as soon as the sun was down. 

 But then, as it began to grow dark, mosquitoes came in 

 crowds, hungry for blood, and they kept at us all night 

 long until daylight. Then the flies came back again. 



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