Honestly, it seems sometimes almost as if _she_ was the cross-current and contradiction instead of me.

It does.
Well, as I said before, I didn't like it very well out there, and I don't believe Mother did, either.

But it's all over now, and we're back home packing up to go to Boston.
Everything seems awfully queer.

Maybe because Father isn't here, for one thing.

He wrote very polite and asked us to come to get our things, and he said he was going to New York on business for several days, so Mother need not fear he should annoy her with his presence.
Then, another thing, Mother's queer.