ving seen a fight and I not yet
started. Still THIS TIME we may get off. Yokoyama the contractor
takes our stuff on the 16th, and so we feel it is encouraging to have
our luggage at the front even if we are here.

DICK.

YOKOHAMA, July 26th, 1904.

DEAR MOTHER:

We gave in our passes to-day, and sail to-morrow at five. They say we
are not to see Port Arthur fall but are to be taken up to Oku's army.
That means we miss the "popular" story, and may have to wait around
several weeks before we see the other big fight. They promised us Port
Arthur but that is reason enough for believing they do not intend we
shall see it at all. John and I are here at a Japanese hotel, the one
Li Hung Chang occupied when he came over to arrange the treaty between
China and Japan. It is a very beautiful house, the best I have seen of
real Japanese and the garden and view of the harbor is magnificent. I
wish Cecil could see it too, but I know she would not care for a room
which is as free to the public view as the porch at Marion. It has 48
mats and as a mat is 3 x 5 you can work it out. We eat, sleep and
dress in this room and it is like trying to be at home on top of a
Chickering Grand. But it is very beautiful and the moonlight is fine
and saddening. No one of us has the least interest in the war or in
what we may see or be kept from seeing. We have been "over trained"
and not even a siege of London could hold our thoughts from home. I
have just missed the mail which would have told me you were at Marion.
I should so love to have heard from you from there. I do not think you
will find the Church house uncomfortable; and you can always run across
the road when the traffic is not too great, and chat with Benjamin. I
do hope that Dad will have got such good health from Marion and such
lashers of fish. I got a good letter from Charles and I certainly feel
guilty at putting extra work on a man as busy as he. Had I known he
was the real judge of those prize stories I would have sent him one
myself and given him the name of it. Well, goodbye for a little time.
We go on board in a few hours, and after that everything I write you is
read by the Censor so I shall not say anything that would gratify their
curiosity. They think it is unmanly to write from the field to one's
family and the young princes forbade their imperial spouses from
writing them until the war is over. However, not being an imperial
Samaari but a home lov