On board the good ship Montoro, approaching
Surabaya, Java, February 18, 1921,

Dear Peggy,

      What do you suppose I saw from she boat when I got
up in the morning a day or two ago and looked off across the sea?
There was a beatitiful green land full of sharp steep hills
and mountains, and one of the mountains seemed to think it was
a smoke stack or a stove or a bonfire or something hot and
smoky.  Right out of the top of the mountain came two streams
of smoke and they rose up until the wind blew them to one side in
a lorggray streak across the sky.

      But there was more than smoke coming out of the mountain.
Something hot was running out of the tip top of the mountain
and sliding and slithering down the steep sides and making hot
white steam come nh from the rocks, and nearest to the bottom
there was smoke from burning plants.  Do you know the name of
the kind of mountain that has fire inside and spits out hot
melted stones+ and ashes?  If you don't,Mother does, and she will
tell you all about it after. you have undressed and crawled
into your downy beds to-night.

      There are quite a number of young children on the boat
and they seem to have a pretty good time most of tiE time;   the
rest of the time they spend quarreling and making each other
unhappy.  Children are funny that way, aren't they? One little
boy has a coaster and likes to slide down the deck and see if
the old men and fat ladies can get out ob the way In time,  Another
has a scooter made like an aeroplane, and he rolls around the
deck and gets tangled tip with the scooter.

       The grown up people p&ay too, and some time they almost
quarrel, but not often.  The other evening they all dressed up
to look like other people than themselves. One man borrowed a sailor
s&t from one of the Malay sailors, and painted his nose red.
Another axas dressed in a Chinaman's clothes.  One of the young
ladies made her own costume and corn the first prize.  She didn't
have to have much for her costume, because she dressed like
a South Sea Islander.  Two of the ladies blacked them$-elves all
up and wore coal sacks and old clothes and showed their white teeth
and grinned the way they thought Australian Aborigines:; would do,
and they did very well at that.
No a                  One of them won the second prize.

yet. I don't know what the prizes are like, not having won any as
   Your lovely mother wasn't here to pin me up in a bath towel
and turn me lo@se in a brilliantly lighted ballroom to represent
Koses in the bull rushes or the Knight of the  Bath. So I had to
let others take all the prizes.

      Now I want ytiu to do something for me, Peggy dear; just
kiss lovely Eother for me,and he&p her all you can, and take the
best care of her until I get back. Tell Gertrude and Xuthie hat
I think of them every day and wish I were home to play with all
three of you.  I can just imagine the way you three will chase
poor old :Papa around the dining room until he falls over a chair
or breaks something or gets caught and tumbled over by his fierce
little daughters,          Good Night, S . etie,
                  ;e   A