CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, New Brunswick, Friday—Here we are in Campobello Island. If someone had told me a month ago that I would come up here this year, I would have said nothing was less likely. Yet, here I am with Miss Thompson, Elliott, his little boy, David, and a little friend, Bill Crawford. We spent Wednesday night in Portland in the familiar and homelike Hotel Lafayette, and all of us had dinner with my aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. David Gray in the little house they have taken for the last two summers. They gave us our first Maine chowder of the year and how we enjoyed it!

Thursday night here we had pollock for supper, for on this island they are a bit scornful of cod. We had read the morning papers and the news on Korea looked encouraging. However, no one here mentions Korea. It is out of this world of sea and fishing and earning a precarious living, though some of their boys may be over there before long.

I hope with all my heart that some plan such as India suggests can be worked out in the United Nations to bring the hostilities to an end. A ruined Korea will be hard on its people and will not add to the popularity of the United Nations no matter how much the nations of the world are willing to help in rebuilding the republic.

Always as I approach this island, the first whiff of sea air brings back a thousand memories, that cover nearly fifty years. We used to come by train or boat from Boston when the children were small and it was a little like organizing a caravan. Later, I came by car and when I caught my first sight of the lighthouse, I felt the lift one gets from this bracing air.

This year, on the road to Lubec I noted that some young, or old, salesman has been very successful in Maine in selling decorative slats to nail beside windows. They are painted bright colors and are effective in brightening the look of the houses, but they do not close over the windows. Otherwise, the landscape as we came along looked comparatively unchanged since my last trip up this way a few summers ago. There are terrible stretches of burned-over forest land and stumps from much lumber cutting. I saw few signs of reforestation which troubles me since it would seem that one of this state's greatest assets was being permanently depleted.

On the whole, however, it appears that tourists and vacationists have brought an increasing measure of prosperity to the people who live here the year around. To our surprise in Lubec we found the ferry had ceased to be a two-car scow towed by a very small motor boat. The volume of travel to the island had so much increased that the size of the ferry had increased, too. And now everyone is employed on widening the road on the island. This means more buying in the stores and more repairs on houses and boats. Even new houses are being built.