WASHINGTON, Monday—It was perfectly wonderful on Saturday morning, when I stepped off the train, to be met at 7:00 o'clock by our eldest son, who had just flown in from the Coast on orders. I find that in war time these visits are always a surprise. They are doubly precious, not only because of their unexpectedness, but because one's whole outlook today is sharpened to an appreciation of the need to make the most of every opportunity to be with those one loves.

My nephew, Mr. Henry Roosevelt, also was with us for a brief two days, so we had a quiet family dinner Saturday night. Yesterday, I went to see a friend in the hospital and devoted most of the afternoon catching up on mail.

I am spending today entirely at the Office of Civilian Defense, so I was happy to be able to see Mr. and Mrs. Grosvenor Allen, of Oneida, N. Y., at lunchtime. When old friends come to Washington, it is such a joy to see them even for a short time.

I saw by the papers that Franklin, Jr., was resting comfortably in the Brooklyn Naval Hospital over the weekend. As a matter of fact, he returned home on Saturday, after being checked up at the hospital, and was ordered to report on Monday afternoon in preparation for the removal of his appendix early Tuesday morning.

I am so thankful that after the slight attacks which he had during his last period of sea duty, he is able to get off and to have this operation performed, for destroyers in winter seas are not very good places on which to be taken ill. He tells me over the telephone that the new baby is wonderful, but he is a little afraid of handling him.

We have a perfectly lovely baby spending a few days with us in the White House. She is three-and-a-half months old, the daughter of my cousins, Mr. and Mrs. W. Forbes Morgan Jr., and seemed completely engrossed in the President so long as he held her in his arms.

The Governor of New Hampshire, the Honorable Robert O. Blood, has sent me two wonderful wooden pails. They are called "Granite State Bom-Pails," and he says: "We of New Hampshire are pleased to contribute in a small way to the national defense program by furnishing a substitute which will conserve scarce material, such as metal, using our hurricane lumber and using labor of an average of sixty years of age as is found in our pail factories. I think you will find them most satisfactory. They look ample and substantial."