It is going to require a fortune in stamps to get this letter to
Jamaica, but I do want you to know all the news, and we have never had
so many exhilarating things happen since 1876, when we were founded.
This fire has given us such a shock that we are going to be more alive
for years to come. I believe that every institution ought to be
burned to the ground every twenty-five years in order to get rid of
old-fashioned equipment and obsolete ideas. I am superlatively glad
now that we didn't spend Jervis's money last summer; it would have been
intensively tragic to have had that burn. I don't mind so much about
John Grier's, since he made it in a patent medicine which, I hear,
contained opium.
As to the remnant of us that the fire left behind, it is already boarded
up and covered with tar-paper, and we are living along quite comfortably
in our portion of a house. It affords sufficient room for the staff and
the children's dining room and kitchen, and more permanent plans can be
made later.
Do you perceive what has happened to us? The good Lord has heard my
prayer, and the John Grier Home is a cottage institution!