CEHBates499

February 2, 1918.

Dear Edward,

All the crew are at dinner with Sargents'. Being wise and
homesick for Auburn, I chose not to go. If you ever get an oppor-
tunity to live as closely to a bunch of people as I have, teaching school,
just you try it and see how you miss them all when you leave.
All this week I have longed for an aeroplane not for France but
for Auburn. Alameda is most funereal. I feel like a lost
dog here and I go to see no playmates as of old. I have
some wonderful ones in Auburn who have made me believe in
Heaven!

Your letter to mother speaks of Richard Bates being "smitten" by two
girls. Don't use that word. It's belitteling and cynical. As it
is mother writes Dick that she thinks so and so is not good
enough for him. Your point of view just encourages her all the
more.

Don't ever assume that the Bates' are too good for mortal
people. If Richard Bates was sensitive about it, he might listen to mother
and actually believe that he had just been "smitten" and that after
all he [underlined] should never fall for any girl. That's a bad business.
I'm going to tell Richard Bates that altho [although] I don't know these girls
that I know he will not act unwisely; that whoever he
becomes engaged to will be worthy of him and he ought to
adjust himself accordingly. I will tell him that nothing