1908 March 15

"…I shall send you my story "The Boy and the Churl" though I feel no excitement about-stories done, are like trees which you paused to gaze at and admired extravagantly, but which have grown dead, characterless and uninteresting as you look back on them-I don't seem able to get anything out, which feels like me-You asked me about my letters-My letters are better than my stories I suppose because I am not self-conscious because I am thinking of 'you.' In my stories I can't get the artistic point of view-I think 'how supercilious that sounds'-'Mother will think I'm going to the bad'-"Warner will think I am sentimental getting 'soft'"-'Peggy will think that pretentious'-'If I say that Martha will think me undeveloped, crude'- etc.-I fear to handle red-hot stuff-you see-and hesitation in literatics is ruin."