HYDE PARK, Thursday—The month of August is a curious month. You think you are in the middle of summer, and then, suddenly, you find a touch of autumn in the air. My sleeping porch last night was really warm at midnight. But at 5:00 o'clock this morning I needed all the covers I could get.

I am afraid these sudden reminders that we are on our way to autumn do not give me a great deal of pleasure, because this is the time of the year I enjoy most. Not only because I can be out of doors, but because the things I do are more nearly connected with the everyday life that people live all over our country and I have less sense of restriction than when in Washington in the White House.

Someone, in print, not long ago admonished me to count my blessings for the years which have been spent in the White House. Perhaps "Reflections On Ten Years In The White House" might be both interesting and amusing, but they certainly would not be what the great majority of people probably would expect them to be.

In the Hudson Tube yesterday, a sailor boy stopped in front of me and handed me a bill used to pay our armed forces in Sicily. The ribbon he wore told me he had just come back from an active theatre of war, and I was glad to sign his bill and to have a chance to talk to him for a few minutes.

The boys who participated in this Sicilian landing must have had some anxious moments. You will remember reading Ernie Pyle's column, in which he described the weather in which they started their journey, and how wonderful it was when everything smoothed out before the time the actual landing took place. Such experiences as that must give men the feeling that Providence does take a hand in whatever they do.

In talking yesterday with a very sane and stable colored woman of my acquaintance, she made a remark which I think many of us should ponder. Here it is: "The Lord means us to live in peace and respect each other regardless of our race, and until we learn this lesson we will continue to have wars. We may even be wiped out as a civilization if we are too stupid to learn to live together, for that is the Lord's intention."

Peace in our hearts means goodwill toward all men, but we haven't even approached it yet.