Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

WHAT THE YEARS HAVE BROUGHT 317
to do justice to the history making to-day. Paul's summer
tours in Europe with his dear wife Florence and the boys
need much more than I can say here. Last summer they took
Willie Truesdell with them, and this summer Josephine and
Gus were companions of their journeyings. In their large
touring car, with every advantage that money can purchase,
I wonder if Paul did not think back to that first anticipated
trip in 188S, when he went with his father and mother to the
scenes they liad read about and dreamed over by the fireside
of home — to the tombs of the great whose written words or
lofty deeds had thrilled them in the quiet of their family sitting
room long ago.
From out his rich memory stores I know his father could
bring such information as no guide book gives, and his understanding
enthusiasm must have left a memory that his son
cherishes above anything that riches can purchase to-day. To
have gone abroad with such a one, who had drunk deeply
not only at the fountain of English literature but also of that
written in the lingua franca of Europe and in German, is not
accorded to all travelers; and then to holiday in Europe with
one who has long desired such a trip and prepared thoroughly
for it with eager desire, adds a deep enthusiasm that Paul
must hold as the benediction of his first tour abroad in lands
across the Atlantic.
It is a hospitable home to visit on Wabasha Street in Winona,
Minnesota. Our elder brother returned to Ohio from
Minnesota, but his only son is a permanent resident of this
far northern state. Warm is the welcome of our "Lady
Bountiful" in that beautiful home, so perfect in every appointment;
and there their children, Roderick, Joe, William, and
little Florence, have advantages manifold. Florence Hender-
son Watkins is a queenly mother and may her sons, who alone
wear the Watkins name, honor it and make it stand for best
aims and accomplishments.
I think of our girls far out on the coast of our great West,
of Di Vernon, Diana or Doane — she is called variously. I
do not think the others will care if I tell here our brother's
tribute to his third daughter. He said one time to me that,