Letter from Kate M. Graydon to John Muir, 1880 Mar 28 .

• Main Author: Graydon, Kate M.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1880
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; correspondence; letters; North Pole; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/527; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/1526/viewcontent/muir04_0084_md_1.pdf

00895[4]So can not see how you can be happy so far away from human care & sympathy, except the little fellow must always be singing “Are ye not of more value than many sparrows?” All you say of him is a sermon on that text. I must tell you, if only to make you smile, how much sympathy I wasted on you. Somehow I thought you had no friends nor companions but glaciers & icebergs & birds & bears & ever-greens, & that you had no mother to wear out her anxious heart about you, & all that, Well, one day my sympathies were all[1]Indianapolis, March 28th ’80.Dear Mr. Muir – For a fact I was glad to get your letter, & see that you had not forgotten me. You are in an open letter, I could not tell all truth of the reading of that piece on the ouzel. It was this. One morning Prof. Jordan greatly offended us by announcing in class that instead of the regular lesson he would read an article from Scribner, this intimating we were too stupid to appreciate such a piece if left to ourselves, Lo retaliate, when he told who wrote the article, I made him [Page 2][2]believe I had known you always, & that I received at least one letter each week. Well, where Prof. Jordan started to Cal. he naturally asked for a letter of introduction. Just then some one exclaimed to herself, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” What if Mr. Muir should ask, Who is Kate Graydon? So you see why I was at once relieved & happy, when your letter came. I presume you & Prof. Jordan are together, & if you & he do not mix, it is because I am not there to stir you up. You must understand Janet introduced Mr. Gilbert, he is her friend. Janet is about as large in [3]stature as he, but for lu[illegible] “the mind’s the measure of the man.” Miss Hendricks allowed us to read your Alaska letters. I always thought it was cold up by the north pole, until I read them. You speak of purling streams & balmy air, etc, etc, as if it were Florida, quite an overturning of my geography. You drew a pretty picture of what ...