[18] To Mrs. Josephine Clifford McCrackin, San Jose, California.
The reason that I did not answer your letter sooner is--I have been
away (in New York) and did not have it with me. I suppose I shall not
see your book for a long time, for I am going away and have no notion
when I shall return. I expect to go to, perhaps across, South
America--possibly via Mexico, if I can get through without being stood
up against a wall and shot as a Gringo. But that is better than dying
in bed, is it not? If Duc did not need you so badly I'd ask you to get
your hat and come along. God bless and keep you.
[Washington, D. C.,
September 13, 1913.]