WASHINGTON, Monday—Yesterday afternoon, four children and eight grown-ups joined my husband on the U.S.S. "Potomac" at Quantico. Before he arrived, we had time to drive around the Post. I saw this Post started at the time of the World War, and it is hard to believe that it is the same place. The officers quarters are very attractive and now they have enough room so that all the officers can actually live there. The enlisted men also are well housed, and the work of the nearby CCC camp shows itself in the improved roads and the care of the woods.

The children could hardly wait to get on the boat and Mrs. Rathbone's younger little boy, Ludlow, interested me very much. He is rather a wiry, slight child with a sensitive face and keen and eager. He was the only one I had the slightest fear of losing overboard, because he was so engrossed in whatever the sailors were doing that one could imagine him quite easily walking off the edge of the dock without realizing that he had reached the end of it or falling over the rail because he forgot to hold on.

We all stood at attention as we passed Mt. Vernon and explained to the children that this was an honor paid to the memory of George Washington ever since his death. I know only too well that time means very little to children for I once had one of my own grandchildren ask me if I was older than their great-grandmother, so I now try to describe periods of time in a way that will make them realize what one might call the march of history!

All the rest of my guests were gone by this morning but our old friend from Albany, New York, Mr. Robert Fitzmaurice and Mrs. Baker and her son, Bobby are still here. I must say it is pleasant to have a small boy to take riding at seven a.m. and to swim with him before breakfast on our return.

As we passed the Lincoln Memorial we looked at the reflecting pool and he murmured: "I must do one thing before I leave. Mother says I can't have another sail boat, but I want to sail one in that pool." A gentle hint which I felt I could not ignore and so I promised that he should have a dollar to spend in any way he wished and he told me promptly that that would buy a very good boat, perhaps one that had a rudder!

This afternoon, Mrs. Eleanor Patterson gave me one of the most delightful parties I have been to this season. She now owns The Dower House, which we knew years ago as a charming old house where you could order lunch or dinner and spend a pleasant evening out of doors. She has restored the house and made it really quiet and peaceful and beautiful. Her garden is a dream of mixed color, her swimming pool is one of the loveliest that I have ever been in, with a tennis court just above it, so that you can combine getting hot and getting cool! She is a charming, cordial hostess and it was quite evident that all the newspaper women present, besides some of her own personal friends, were enjoying every minute of a perfect afternoon.