Dear David: I hope that you are well started on the program that you and I are counting on to earn you another Colorado vacation next year.1 Of course your mother and father are the ones who will really determine whether or not you can come, and if they think it possible, it is they who will lay out the things that you must do during the year to deserve the trip.
Nevertheless, I think that the program you and I agreed upon will appeal to them and give you a very strong position from which to plead your case when next summer rolls around.
You will remember that your program consisted of several parts:
a. To do all the chores that your mother gives you, and do them promptly, efficiently and cheerfully.
b. To be prompt in getting to all family gatherings, including breakfast.
c. To do your school work thoroughly and well.
d. To have a talk with your father about deportment and manners, and ask him to keep you on the right track whenever you are meeting with your elders.
e. To get in your golf practice and engage in other kinds of exercise and sports whenever you get a chance.
This, of course, is a very ambitious program for a seven year old boy, but after all you are now going on eight and will reach that age at the end of next March. Moreover, don't forget that you are trying to earn a bigger and better vacation than you had this year. You told me you wanted to stay four weeks at the Sky Line Camp, one week with me at Fraser (if I can get out here also), and finally, a week with Nana.2
Next year Smokey will still be at the ranch, or if anything happens to him, there will be another good horse--and we will have a saddle that fits you next time. Incidentally, when I come home this fall, if you want a fly rod and line to practice with on your lawn, I will be glad to give you one. Next year I should like to see you get a really big rainbow--maybe even enough of them that we could pack them in dry ice and send them back to your daddy, mother and sisters.3
I miss you very much. If you could have stayed on, we would have gone back to Fraser a long time ago, but since you were gone I have not tried to get back into the mountains. Maybe I will do so later.4
Soon you will start school. Good luck, and please don't forget that once you have laid out for yourself a program of work, conduct and play, don't let anybody discourage you from following it with all your might.
Give my love to your daddy and mother, and to Barbara Anne and Susie. Devotedly
