[another hand- </u Miss Evans > Oct. '79] Lake Erie Seminary Painesville, Ohio Oct. 20th 1879 Prof. Henry A. Ward Dear Sir:
Your letter of Oct. 4th
was received at the Seminary during my absence from Painesville, and by an oversight, was not opened and answered as is usual with letters ad- dressed to me and received during an absence. Upon my return, it was too late to avail ourselves of your special offer, and it would have been almost impossible to raise the money, even for the $235. required to secure the collection. Though we are sharing in the general return of prosperity, we have now only money for repairs and improvements in our building, and must do many ^other^ things before we can afford cabinets. And yet, I hope to interest friends of the Seminary in the subject, and when we are supplied with more Educational op-
-pliances more imperatively needed, and when we have a suitably arranged hall and can afford shelves, may as- -pire to ^have^ your College series of ^casts of^ fossils like that placed in the Natural History Building of Mt. Holyoke Semi -nary, the cost of which ^series^ is $1000. Some other things must be done before we can move in this direction, but we shall not cease to look towards it and it was with this is mind that I wrote for the catalogue of your casts. Please consider us as possible buyers in a future, not very remote. We are a Mt. Holyoke School, and wish to be liberally supplied with what each department needs, and we are also straightened no means as such schools are likely to be.
I wish to apologize for not writing
immediately upon my return, though you were, then, about leaving Pitts- burgh. I was called away from Painesville almost at once, again and am only now able to attend to letters. Yours truly Miss Mary Evans. [ybg]