Letter: Margaret Bancroft to Milton Bancroft, June 1, 1900

SANDY SPRING JUN 1 2 PM 1900 MD.

Milton Bancroft Esq., 30 East 14^th St.; New York City, N. Y.

New York JUN 2 7-AM 1900 N.Y.

STATION O RECEIVED

2005.0028.0012b

2005.0028.00129

It was funny about those kittens one day four appeared from nobody knows where - Father wanted them disposed of at once, but none of the colored people would kill them because they were "old enough to look at you." Providence came to Father's aid - one day the prettiest of the lot was found in a decapitated state, cause unknown, the next day the 2^nd prettiest laid down and gasped its little life away, the next day the ugliest conveniently disappeared, nobody knows where, & now we have the 3^rd in order of beauty left to us & thriving daily. It watches Jean at his play like a person. J chatters away to it and himself. Greetings to Mr. Crank. as thee sees I am rushed. All love, Margaret.

Norwood June 1^st, 1900.

My dearieI don't wonder thee can't establish a balance between Prof. Appleton and Miss Esther - they seem to an outsider too different to ever marry but we don't know what depths of sympathy there may be between them; and Mrs. M. says Aunt E. is really handsome she is so happy. She is not going to tell any one until she gets down here towards the end of June. Won't thee have to get some kind of clothes for such a momentous occasion? I have that blue dress just ready to step into - how fortunate that I brought it with me instead of packing it away at 30^th St. Father has had a really bad cold - he caught it, he thinks, when the thermometer fell during the eclipse. It really did get 6° colder here. Thee don't tell me one thing of what thee is doing - I feel it in thy letters. Are things going

hand, and is [thee?] trying to keep it from me? Please don't do that I want to share all, the bad as well as the good. Jean is well but has been eating too many strawberries lately - we shall have to call a [halt?] and I hate to say "no" - he is so fond of them. We found a ground - sparrows nest in the strawberry bed - the [?] eggs are laid now, and she is [?]. I like to interest J. in all natural things, and teach him to respect them - I feel that I know so little when it comes to teaching him. I am going to Aunt Carrie's today to send our boys [?] on her little machine - Clara [?] is going to do the machine work for me, and we will do it all up in a day, for as clara unsurprisingly says "After Aunt [?] & Mary [?] come you know there is no settlement" - she little thinks what unsettlement

there will be. Imagine Miss [Act?] those days before her wedding. She is like an uneasy spirit under ordinary conditions; but she ought to have the [?] of a soul in Paradise under those. It is the strangest - my mind refuses to accept the facts without question; but it only concerns us to the degree of wishing her all joy & happiness I think a picture of thine would please Aunt E. more than anything we could give her; but if [thee? don't feel like giving that in our chest are innumerable [?] salad forks, and we could give her one of those. Jean came into my bed at 5:30 this morning - imagine my state of sleepiness. J has the prettiest little [?] - [thee?] only one of the four which has lived.