6271 That young man whom we both knew was peeling turnips at his desk in the middle of the afternoon. The sun was shining and yet we both understood ... each of us ... that he was doing it differently now – it was more "after our pattern".

1902½ You wrote to me and said how much you had learned since you had "started to begin" – and I wrote back that the beginning was itself just the overture to the commencement of what needed to be done. And I believe you understood me.

78b Things had been going well for you since the start of the year and then it had come: that setback, that "log in the hoof". "Namquam sideram ut voluans quod habemus in fax urgentissimo", you had said. And I had replied: "Sic volvitur mentem cum genuarum in modus vivendi vel caput dum per noctem carborundum" and I think that I had then noticed you quietly smiling inwardly to yourself.