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the train at Balerno Station & the funny
little railway. That funny little railway
supplied unstaling entertainment for Sir
George Adam Smith's American grandchildren
when on a visit in the summer of 1935 ^(riding on the Engine plate from Currie to Balerno & back). But
it corkscrews along & flings one about (when
buses fail through ice or strikes) & I
prefer it myself, because I can read.

Alec Maitland has been far from
well - influenza to begin with & a consequential
fainting seizure that caused grave anxiety.
But he is on the mend and, after lying up,
rest & change, is expected to come all right
again. Another old friend of mine, Pat
Keith Murray, nearly died of heart & is
to be kept in bed and fed for a month.
These sort of things are very distressing &
it doesn't make it more cheerful to have
mumps in the house, that ridiculous,
childish but madden[ing]ly infectious ailment.
Poor Nina! to get it at her age just 13
months after measles! How was it avoided
in a family of 10 in her childhood? First
our Helen got it, then Nina 2 days later