SERIES I: ETHEL MARGUERITE DE LONG ZANDE
Folder 31.  Letters to her family.  July-December 1915.   31 items.

“My dearest Mother I have thought of you so constantly today…”

“Dearest Mother & Helen—the tiniest of cunning little kittens are in my lap.”

“My dearest Mother & Helen—It has been raining & the greenness of the mountains…”

“Dearest Mother & Helen—this is bath night, & I’ve just kissed the last child…”

Monday.  “Well, hasn’t this been an interesting, & strenuous day!”

[August 6, 1915]  “My dearest Ladies—how sad it is to have only time to say two things!”

Postmarked Pine Mountain, Ky., August 14, 1915, addressed to Helen.  “Aug. 13  Dearest Helen—This is to be a little letter on a cunning little piece of paper…” [Enclosures: obituary of Mrs. Daniel M. Lord; letter to Ethel from Daniel M. Lord, August 7, 1915]

Fri.  “My dears—I feel like a sheepkilling dog—it’s so long since I’ve written you.”

“This is a awful hot day, dearest Mother, & I’m taking a little rest…”

Tues.  “My first night in the lovely new hourse!”

“This is a much despised telegram—resrted to by every member of the de Long family when the pleasure of rural life is great.”

Friday Night.   “And what is to be yr. new address in Norwich town…”

“Well—dearest two—I can’t reecollect whether you are at Rockport or South Dennis…” [letter is torn but complete.]

Sunday.  “Dear Mother—I am thinking how your birthday is coming…”

“You see I don’t aim to have a mail go out without something from me to you…”

“Dearest lady, I am not surprised to hear that you are plucky…”

Postmarked Pine Mountain, Ky., October 5, 1915.  Addressed to Helen care of Miss Eunice Gulliver, Norwich Town, Connecticut.  “My dearest Helen—So you at  [sic] your dear Gullivers’ this Sunday!”

“On my way to Louisville Chicago, Cincinnati!”

“You don’t know how fascinating the world is to me, dear two, when I make such a flying excursion as this!”

“My dear Mother & Helen—I wish I could convey to you an impression of the utter stillness & beauty of this lovely day.”

Friday. “Dearest Two—I am sitting in the station at Frankfort…”

[Arabella: November 15]  “If it were only two hours earlier, dearest of mothers, this would be the coziest room.”  [Enclosures:  letter from Erica T(horp).  Article from Christian Endeavor World, August 19, 1915]

Apparent fragment.  “What was cousin Wesley’s message to me?”

Saturday A.M.  “Dearest Two, I wish you c’d have been with us for Thanksgiving…”

December 3, 1915.  “My dears—Just a line must go to you every mail, at least.”

Sunday.  “Dearest of Mothers,—Your letter was dear.”

“10 P.M. of a snowy stormy cold night.  All is well—warm fires within…”

“Bulletin no. 13—All well in our family.”

“It is the beautifullest day in the world—snow, snow, delicately caught in pine needle cups, lying like blossoms on rhododendron bushes, drifted down the sombre hills…”

“This aims to be a bulletin—but s’posing it should arrive on Xmas—why then it would be a Christmas letter!”

“Such a lovely Christmas as this was, my dears!  You would have liked it through and through…”