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Sierra Club Bulletin 



"Well, I suppose by the time this reaches you my Landes experiences 

 will about be over. Comparing notes with one of the captains the other 

 day, I found he had about my experience — cordially detested the coun- 

 try when he first came, found it uninteresting and monotonous, and has 

 grown to love it and see much beauty in it since. October and early 

 November were glorious in color. Some of the vineyards had the most 

 wonderful tones of rose and lavender ; there were brilliant red maples 

 and oaks and great masses of yellow. Now it is a country of deep rich 

 tones of brown, colors that we never see in California. Keith's later 

 paintings will always mean southern France in late November to me 

 now. The fogs have a singular beauty here too, especially on moon- 

 light nights. They lie close to the ground, not in continuous masses, 

 but broken and torn by the wind. Driving through the pine woods in 

 the moonlight, you could fancy them the scarfs of a hundred fairies 

 dancing among the trees. 



"This will have to be Christmas and New Year greetings to you all. 

 I have about a thousand on my refugee Christmas list, and have to dis- 

 tribute to all the sick American soldiers in the department as well, so 

 I'm not thinking Christmas outside of France. Oh, while I think of it, 

 please don't think of having the after-the-war outing to the John Muir 

 Trail until 1920 ! You won't begin to have us all back by next July. My 

 own contract holds until June 27th, and I naturally want to see a little 

 something before I start back home." . . . 



"Dear Sierra Club : You are nice people! Your hundred dollars will 

 not only give Christmas to the Coudures orphans, but to those at Tartas 

 as well — a hundred little Belgian girls. After Christmas I'll write and 

 tell you what I did with it." . . . 



December 11, 1918. 



"Hotel Richelieu, Mont de Marsan 

 "Dear People: Check after check keeps coming in. How good you all 

 are, and how much I can do with it ! All of it will go for Christmas. 

 Some of it I am going to leave in the hands of la Generate to use after 

 I am gone in helping through the hardest winter months. We are going 

 to be able to leave a stock of provisions to continue our sales idea. Here 

 in Mont de Marsan I have a devoted group of ladies to carry things on 

 for a while at least without me. I hate to leave some of these poor 

 people. Poor old Dudon fell dead in the street a week ago Tuesday, 

 only a few minutes after he had left my office. He had been working 

 there as chipper as could be all morning. We have at last located a 

 daughter and a soldier son and have started the machinery to get old 

 Mere Dudon sent to the daughter, who is near Paris. T shouldn't want 

 to go if the Red Cross was going to stay,' she said. Poor old thing! 

 how she must want to hang on to any one who shows the least interest 

 in what is to become of her ! So many families are scattered that may 

 never be reunited. For three months I have been trying to locate a 



