to give an aspect of husbandry to the scene."

Although Richard was now comfortably settled, he had of late years
acquired a great dread of cold weather. As soon as winter set in his
mind turned to the tropics, and whenever it was possible he went to
Cuba or some other land where he was sure of plenty of heat and
sunshine. The early part of 1906 found him at Havana, this time on a
visit to the Hon. E. V. Morgan, who was then our minister to Cuba.
From Havana he went to the Isle of Pines.

ISLE OF PINES, March 26th, 1906.

DEAR MOTHER:--

We are just returning from the Isle of Pines. We reached there after a
day on the water at about six on Wednesday, 22nd. They dropped us at a
woodshed in a mangrove swamp, where a Mr. Mason met us with two mules.
I must have said I was going to the island because every one was
expecting me. Until the night before we had really no idea when we
would go, so, to be welcomed wherever we went, was confusing. For four
days we were cut off from the world, and in that time, five days in
all, we covered the entire island pretty thoroughly-- It was one of the
most interesting trips I ever took and Cecil enjoyed it as much as I
did. The island is a curious mixture of palm and pines, one minute it
looks like Venezuela and the next like Florida and Lakewood. It is
divided into two parties of Americans, the "moderates" and the
"revolutionists." The Cubans are very few and are all employed by the
Americans, who own nine-tenths of the Island. Of course, they all want
the U. S. to take it, they differ only as to how to persuade the
senators to do it. I had to change all my opinions about the
situation. I thought it was owned by land speculators who did not live
there, nor wish to live there, but instead I found every one I met had
built a home and was cultivating the land. We gave each land company a
turn at me, and we had to admire orange groves and pineapples,
grapefruit and coffee until we cried for help. With all this was the
most romantic history of the island before the "gringos" came. It was
a famous place for pirates and buried treasures and slave pens. It was
a sort of clearing house for slaves where they were fattened. I do not
believe people take much interest in or know anything about it, but I
am going to try and make an interesting story of it for Collier. It
was queer to be so completely cut off from the world. There was a
wireless but they would not let me use