14000 MILES 



the sun is always shining beyond the clouds. We dined 

 and made a call in Kennebunk, but had to send our 

 thoughts to our hospitable friend a mile away, and pass 

 by the port rather than overtask Jerry. 



Biddeford and Saco were alive with preparations for 

 the Fourth. We got our letters, our first word from 

 home, and gladly turned towards Ferry Beach. 



Bay View was spick and span, and Mrs. Manson, the 

 efficient hostess, welcomed us, and gave us her best room. 

 We are almost sure a woman should reign supreme in a 

 hotel as well as in a home. Who would want a man for 

 a housekeeper! There was a homelike look from the 

 bright carpeted office, with a work-basket and sewing- 

 chair, to the easy nook in the uppe.r hall, with the taste- 

 fully arranged plants behind the lace draperies. 



How we slept, after a two-miles' walk on the beach! 

 Not a cannon, cracker, bell or tin horn, and the morning 

 was like an old-fashioned Sunday. After dinner the 

 children had a few torpedoes and crackers, so we knew 

 our peace was not owing to prohibition. We never knew 

 a hotel where children seem to have so much liberty, 

 which is never abused, as at Bay View. Is this, too, 

 owing to a woman's tact? In the evening we watched 

 the fireworks at Old Orchard, two miles away, and won- 

 dered whether we should keep to the coast, or follow up 

 the Kennebec to Augusta, and go home through the 

 mountains. 



We got all the information we could, and having 

 rested on the Jewish Sabbath, we drove on Sunday 

 nearly thirty miles, dining at Portland, and spending the 

 night at Royal Rivers, a comfortable little hotel at Yar- 



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