May 12, 1924

Dear Miss Bates:-

Not to be disobliging, I enclose two sonnets; but I
do not advise you to read either of them. I am completely out of sorts
with my poetry and after looking through my my notebooks in vain, I can
find nothing better to send you.

I fear that it will be a very unwise thing for me to deal with
Mr. Beecher at all and I have written to Mr. Scoville, begging him not
to take any special trouble in the matter until he hears from me more
definitely. The truth is, it is not wise to get mixed up with the fam-
ily in these cases. I always avoid it when I can, and in this instance
particularly I fear it would be impossible for me to preserve anything like
critical impartiality, when I had once listened to such friendly argu-
ments.