But because that cannot be, we are no further away than we ever were and when the pain to see you comes, I don't let it hurt and I don't kill it either for it is the sweetest pain I can feel.

If sons will go off and marry, or be war-correspondents, or managers, it does not mean that Home is any the less Home.

You can't wipe out history by changing the name of a boulevard, as somebody said of the French, and if I were able to be in two places at once, I know in which two places I would be here with Cecil at Marion, and at Home in the Library with you and Dad and The Evening Telegraph, and Nora and Van Bibber.

You will never know how much I love you all and you must never give up trying to comprehend it.
God bless you and keep you, and my love to you every minute and always.
DICK.
Late in January, 1900, Richard and his wife started on their first great adventure together to the Boer War.

Arriving at Cape Town, Richard left his wife there and, acting as correspondent with the British forces for the New York Herald and London Mail, saw the relief of Ladysmith.