Whether you "prosper" or not I'm glad you write instead of teaching. I
have done a bit of teaching myself, but as the tuition was gratuitous
I could pick my pupils; so it was a labor of love. I'm pretty well
satisfied with the results.
No, I'm not "toiling" much now. I've written all I care to, and having
a pretty easy berth (writing for The Cosmopolitan only, and having no
connection with Mr. Hearst's newspapers) am content.
I have observed your story in Success, but as I never never (sic) read
serials shall await its publication in covers before making a meal of
it.
You seem to be living at the old place in Vallejo Street, so I judge
that it was spared by the fire. I had some pretty good times in that
house, not only with you and Mrs. Morrow (to whom my love, please) but
with the dear Hogan girls. Poor Flodie! she is nearly a sole survivor
now. I wonder if she ever thinks of us.
I hear from California frequently through a little group of
interesting folk who foregather at Carmel--whither I shall perhaps
stray some day and there leave my bones. Meantime, I am fairly happy
here.
I wish you would add yourself to the Carmel crowd. You would be a
congenial member of the gang and would find them worth while. You must
know George Sterling: he is the high panjandrum and a gorgeously good
fellow. Go get thee a bungalow at Carmel, which is indubitably the
charmingest place in the State. As to San Francisco, with its
labor-union government, its thieves and other impossibilities, I could
not be drawn into it by a team of behemoths. But California--ah, I
dare not permit myself to remember it. Yet this Eastern country is not
without charm. And my health is good here, as it never was there.
Nothing ails me but age, which brings its own cure.
God keep thee!--go and live at Carmel.
Sincerely yours,
AMBROSE BIERCE.
[The Army and Navy Club, Washington, D. C.,
October 29, 1907.]