When we came down to breakfast, we found your nice letter of the 23d on our plate and glad to hear from you, sure enough. I now feel how wrong it was of me not to write to every town while you were over here. Your letter had been forwarded from Venice all right.

You see we are some days ahead of our time, which is good, as Tante Lenchen wants us to meet her at Nurnberg, so I shall leave on the 15th or later if she says so. This will not change our time very much, and N. is out of our way anyhow from Heidelberg or Stuttgart.

You are right, I am getting used to the tipping and, in Florence and Venice, we found them more like gentlemen in their demands for tips. By this time, I can laugh at them when they ask me for more. The fellow who punched our tickets at Venice pointed at our (new) suit case and said “Too large,” I laughed at him and told him in English, “To kindly let me be the judge of that,” he hesitated, but I insisted on having my tickets so he punched them, and I put ten centesimi (2¢) in his outstretched hand. You ought to have seen the look in his face. I gave him the laugh, and so ended the Italian tipping business with the odds on my side.

We had a letter from Grace saying that on account of the rain, she went to the hotel near the depot and to call on her upon my arrival, so I called her up yesterday morning and heard—that she had left.

Well, this is more than I can understand. You could not pull me away from here before my time is up. I had another letter from her from Munich, and I guess she will do the rest of the trip “A la American.”

Say, I bought a mountain cane for Emily, and she likes it. Mama and I went to the Hofburg Garten this morning and came home at dinner time with an appetite for four. This afternoon, we stayed in to catch up with our correspondence. To-morrow we start sight seeing.

Tell Mr. Lapotka that I feel like buying one of those little hats of velvet (or corduroy) with a feather in it so that he can see that I was here. The costumes worn by the men and boys are certainly unique. Good bye, all send love.

Dad