NEW YORK, Monday—We motored up the parkway on Saturday afternoon, and I was dropped off to spend the night with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, Jr., while the rest of the family, including Fala, came home.

As I sat at breakfast yesterday morning, looking out of the window at Fishkill Farms, the line of the hills was clear-cut against the blue sky and the great oak in the foreground looked majestic, reminding me of the many times my husband and I had sat beneath it with former Secretary and Mrs. Morgenthau and all their guests. The newspaper men and women, the friends and neighbors will never forget those happy parties any more than I can ever cease to be grateful for our years of happy friendship.

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At 10 o'clock I was on my way home. When we reached the Post Road, I found a soldier trudging along, quite evidently hoping for a neighbor to take him to Poughkeepsie. This we did, and he went off with his friends to a happy day in New York City. A month from now he will be out of the service, he told me, but his future plans were somewhat vague. Like so many other boys who went straight from school to war—and now, at 21 or 22 are really starting life as civilians for the first time—he is not sure of what he wants to do.

At 12:15 I went to the barracks in Hyde Park to say goodbye to the soldiers who on November 1 will turn the guarding of the place at Hyde Park over to the park service of the Department of the Interior.

After that I joined former Secretary Morgenthau and the members of the local and regional War Finance Committee at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. Lieut. Col. James P. Devereux, leader of the Marines at Wake Island, was their guest for the opening of the local bond drive, and I was very happy to see him. One wonders how these men can survive such great hardships and continue to give of their strength to help in this Victory Loan Drive, but good soldiers evidently work hard at whatever their jobs may be. Just now, for a great many of them, this work is helping to sell bonds! A very charming movie star, Miss Merle Oberon, was also there to draw the people's dollars from their pockets. Of course, here in Hyde Park we are making a special drive to sell Roosevelt $200 bonds.

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I brought Mr. Morgenthau and four others to my cottage for a rather hurried lunch. By 2:30 we were back at the Library making our way down to the last terrace of the sunken rose garden, where the National Order of Ahepa were presenting to the people of the United States a bust of my husband done by the sculptor, Walter Russell. I thought the opening prayer was most impressive and very beautiful; and speeches were made by the supreme president of Ahepa and the Attorney General of the United States, representing President Truman. The bust is a fine one, I think, and I like the simple inscription, "The War President." The crowd at this ceremony was great, but nevertheless the group gathered there seemed intent upon a great undertaking—the marking of a great period in history, represented here by the Commander-in-Chief under whom a world war had been won.