Mr. Chambers had done a great deal to help Mr. and Mrs. Cochran's son who had had a serious illness and gotten into some kind of trouble for which he needed a lawyer. Mr. Chambers helped him.

Ella Cochran had married Dr. Greenfield Sluder and they joined the Guild with their friends SaLeese Kennard and Luther Ely Smith who were soon to be married. Louisa and Clara Leete and Grace Morrill were active members. Grace was so interested in what I told her about the Art Students' League that she decided to ask Miss Begg for a room at her boarding house. She went there with me when I returned in January. Uncle Or gave me two beautiful books for Christmas. Dr. Frank Boogher gave me a handsome book of poems and took me to glee club concert. He and my brother Will were still close friends and went with some girls from the south side whom I did not know very well - the Gilberts. One of them was pretty and all were intelligent and bright. One of them married Landon Lodge, brother of Trix Lodge who was one of my classmates. A friend of Mrs. Lodge married my brother Billie a few years later. The Gilberts were members of the Guild. The Guild had become a more interesting place and this made me want to work harder to do something really good.

While I was in St. Louis some members of our bridge club met, I think at Mary Semple's. The big music room in which Mrs. Semple had installed a fine organ was a delightful place to play cards or attend a musical entertainment. The girls had been in Mary Phillips' current topics class which had met in this room before Mary went east and married Jacob Riis. They were all interested in what I told them about Mary and her prominent husband.

Grace Morrill and I left on the same train for New York and shared a taxi to Miss Begg's. Grace had a room on the same floor with me and soon got acquainted with the other boarders. I was afraid she might not like the place so I spent a good deal of time with her at first. She did not like the antique class but had to take it. We both liked Mr. Dumond's composition class. He would give us a subject, such as Spring, Autumn, Winter, Repose, etc. We were told to use any medium we wished to draw or paint the subject. At the end of the week we were expected to have something to show, if only a pencil drawing of our conception of the subject. Our teacher liked one I did of Spring. I made a pencil sketch of three little children running around some blooming fruit trees, then later painted it on a larger board. Grace and I went shopping together and got good things at January sales. The hurdy-gurdies on the streets amused her. They would play the latest popular airs and sometimes we would walk along with the crowd that followed them, as much to learn the songs as to see the people. After Grace got in touch with some of her friends, I did not feel responsible for her and we went our own ways for entertainment, meeting at mealtime, etc. Mr. and Mrs. McKesson had me out at "The Farm" on a week-end or took me to a Philharmonic concert now and then. I always asked then to dine with me before the concerts.

Mr. Chase's class was inspiring. One time he painted a beautiful large fresh codfish and a green pepper. He talked to us while doing this for our instruction. He used large brushes, sometimes dipping the brush into two or more colors and with a semi-spiral motion made broad strokes from one side of the thick form of the fish to the other. The head, eye, tail, and fins were more carefully drawn. The glossy painted fish was so life-like one almost imagined that its gills opened with some last breaths. At the end of the year he asked me, another girl, and four of his best men students to join a special class in his private studio.

Grace Morrill and I were glad to get home. June in our garden was beautiful. The water garden had a few white lilies in bloom. The tropical lilies had not begun to bloom. They had been stored in our barn for the winter. Jens had taken care of the bees and we destroyed queen cells. Roses and crown honeysuckle made the night air fragrant. All I wanted to do for a day or two after my return was to lie in a hammock listening to bird songs and gather flowers for the house. It was restful after the noise and bustle of New York. I called friends to come to lunch with me. My name was in the social notes and some who saw it called me to make dates to come to see me.