360 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



and decked out in great style. All the ground hereabout 

 is terraced, and in many places the dirt is brought in to 

 make rooting for vines and other plants. Water is their 

 great trouble ; it is saved everywhere, in stone tanks 

 of all sizes, and every little trickling rill is led along a 

 stone water course to where it can be made useful for irri- 

 gation. The steep hills are all worked up in this way ; 

 the necessities of a poor population for probably thou- 

 sands of years continually having led to the utilization of 

 every foot. But what I meant to say to you and pa, when 

 I sat down, was that you must look out for the cold espe- 

 cially in the mornings, when the pulse is lowest. Be careful 

 of exposure, and take a little stimulus every morning before 

 you get out of bed. February and March are trying 

 months, and people's brains are given them to take care 



with 



MENTONE, February 4, 1879. 



DEAR SISTER : Last night there came four of your 

 letters of December iQth, 23d, 2yth, and 3ist, two later 

 ones having been received three or four days ago when I 

 wrote you last. . . . 



I am getting up an appetite for exercise, and regret 

 that it is raining to-day, so that I have to keep indoors. 

 Yesterday morning we walked an hour and a half, part way 

 up hill ; and in the afternoon we took a tramp to a mon- 

 astery on a distant eminence, with a good deal of steep 

 climbing. It was a two hours' pull, and I kept up and 

 came out of it not at all used up. It is my improvement 

 in this which makes Spencer think if I would follow his 

 directions in all things implicitly I would be born again. 

 . . . Spencer will not budge from here till the- time is up, 

 and gets angry if I propose going before. He also insists 

 that I should stop a month in London, and have not less 

 than a three months' break. Hearing nothing, and not 

 being stirred up with home difficulties, I have been in- 

 clined to listen to his syren song, and hurry nothing. But 



