LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



us, and making us realize that we are almost within speak- 

 ing distance. 



"2 h. P.M. Dinner has passed, and here comes in 

 Dwightie, the beautiful boy, with two big boxes of flowers 

 for grandpa's birthday one from May, full of the largest 

 white, or rather creamy, roses, and the other from him, 

 containing two of the grandest of red roses, the ' Ameri- 

 can Beauties/ on stems more than a foot long. I showed 

 Dwightie, the other day, the mercury rising in a ther- 

 mometer from the heat of the register in the dining-room, 

 to 80, 90, 100, he himself giving these numbers, 

 without prompting. Whether on returning to Elm street 

 he got hold of a Bristol thermometer and tried the experi- 

 ment himself with disastrous results, I have not heard. 



" Feb. 1 3th. Last night, in the last of my dreams, I 

 tried to induce one of my neighbors uptown, having a 

 very large property (I cannot recall the name or place), to 

 allow me to locate there one of the largest of volcanoes. 

 He thought a small one would do. So Geology keeps 

 control. I was much interested in all you said about 

 Professor Roscoe. Professor Brush enjoyed it too. I 

 have only space to add my message of love to your most 

 admirable wife and to yourself, along with my earnest 

 wishes for continued improvement." 



TO THE SAME, IN ALGIERS 



" NEW HAVEN, April 22, 1894. 



" All are in good condition in the two homes. May is 

 making her first visit out of town with a schoolmate, as 

 you will no doubt hear from Elm street. Dwight was to 

 have special entertainment during her absence, but what 

 I have not heard. He looked quite like a schoolboy the 

 other day, he having his slate with him when he came to 

 see us, and some of his writing on it very well written, 

 too. I introduced him, two or three weeks since, to the 

 foot-rule and yardstick; after marking his height on the 

 side of the doorway between the study and library, I 

 took the foot-rule to measure with, and saying to him, 

 ' There is twe'lve inches/ then ' another twelve/ I 

 asked him how much that made, and he instantly re- 

 plied, ' Twenty-four/ I concluded he had learned some- 



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