Well Folks,

This seems to be my fourth Sunday here, and though it’s the first we haven’t had off, the wind doesn’t look as if it were going to be strong enough to-day for any landings on the “Wolverine”—discouraging to say the least. This last week was a complete wash-out, almost literally. Yesterday and the day before were admittedly fine, but too calm for anything but field carrier landings, which I finally checked out of. With good luck I could still be home in a few days, being, I think, 16^TH on the SBD list, but if bad luck continues, it may be June before I’m through. If only Nance can continue to stall off her leave.

I’ll admit that now that the rain has stopped (17 of the first 21 days of May were rainy here), it has been somewhat easier to entertain oneself. Going to town is rather tiresome, though I did go once this week to the Field Museum again and afterwards to a fair production of “the Gondoliers”—but going for walks has been rather pleasant. Actually, the countryside hasn’t very much to offer, being flat and almost completely cleared farm-land. There are, however, frequent clumps of trees and occasional woodlots, and at this season even isolated trees may, as I’ve found, shelter migrating birds. I’ve managed to see, for instance, 14 different kinds of warblers near here in the last few days, but with good conditions one can see more than that in one day about the middle of May at Groton. At least it’s been a more marked migration than we got in Florida, and perhaps I’ll see more here. I thought Riggs’ article, by the way, was on the whole very good. He’s a strange lad though, and I hope he doesn’t corner me too many times in the near future. Naturally I expect to do considerable field work while at home, and at Squam as well as Groton even if I have to walk from Ashland (nearer than Meredith). Even Katahdin would be inviting, there being planes to Millinocket, but it would still probably be too ambitious. Washington or Lafayette might be better, if only for the sake of convenience. Tall, virgin red spruce sloping down to a pond is what I really want—that and all the flora and fauna that goes with it. It sounds simple enough but after the hurricane is actually a “tall” order even in inaccessible spots, and so it will probably have to be a compromise—second growth or stunted virgin growth or no pond or something! Mind you, I don’t intend to camp there for two weeks. A day or two or three will have to suffice.

Love to all, impatiently

Toots

Good for 1st Wachusetts! So Ham is only a chief. His —?— used to be better than mine.

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