At present we have no detailed account of the Christmas vacation at Ridgely; nor do we know who, if any, the other guests were. Yet we can form some pictures of our own. We can, for instance, imagine brisk walks in the snowy countryside, excursions by horse and sleigh into the Catskills, where Swamiji learned that land in large plots could be had "for very little money, and where he found a plot of 101 acres, with "some buildings on it; plenty of trees and a river for sale at two hundred dollars, which, with Mrs. Bull's help, he wanted to buy for a summer meditation resort. We can also guess at the long evening talks before a roaring fire in the great hall of the "Manor," when he spoke of God and man with the authority and grandeur of the prophet that he was, carrying the minds of his listeners far beyond their accustomed worlds. We can, in fact, more than guess at this last, for we find Mr. Leggett writing from New York on January 10, 1896, to Miss MacLeod (then in Europe) of this holiday with Swamiji that she had missed. "One night at Ridgely," he told her, "we were all spellbound by his eloquence. Such thoughts I have never heard expressed by mortal man-such as he uttered for two and a half hours. We were all deeply affected. And I would give a hundred dollars for a typewritten report of it. Swami was inspired to a degree that I have never seen before or since. He leaves us soon and perhaps we shall never see him again, but he will leave an ineffaceable impress on our hearts that will comfort us to the end of our earthly careers.

"Ridgely seems a particularly favored place; ' Miss MacLeod was to write to Mary Hale a year and a half later. "Swamiji having given us his most eloquent words there-a remark that could have pertained to this Christmas holiday, which she knew of from hearsay, as well as to the Easter vacation of 1895. (She could not yet have dreamed of the "Great Summer" of 1895, when he was to spend ten weeks at this indeed favored place.)6 The Christmas holidays of 1895 lasted only a brief ten days; yet at this season of his life Swamiji was still in good health, still strong and physically resilient, and those days in brisk country air had been enough to refresh him.

Towards the end of December of 1895 the Swami took advantage of the Christmas holidays and the invitation of his friends Mr. and Mrs. Francis Leggett, to make a ten-day visit to Ridgely Manor," their country estate in Ulster County, New York.

The last time that Swamiji had visited Mr. Leggett's estate in the Hudson River Valley, some eighty miles north of New York City, the countryside had been green and flowering, the Catskills blue in the distance, and the air fragrant with spring. Now everything was white, trees were bare and smoke rising from neighboring houses and from the chimneys of Ridgely Manor spoke of blazing fireplaces or crackling wood stoves, of people gathered indoors, of roasted chestnuts, plum pudding, and Christmas trees. The main house at Ridgely, large and comfortable, was presided over by those who well knew how to take care of their extraordinary guest. They knew his need of frequent solitude, his habit of entering into deep meditation for hours at a stretch, his tendency to slip into samadhi. They knew, as well, his gay moods, his childlike sense of fun and play that made any holiday a festival. Indeed, Frank and Betty Leggett were no doubt among those of Swamiji's Western hosts who are mentioned in the Life as having allowed him absolute personal freedom. "Did he desire to talk, they would listen with rapt attention. Did he desire to sing the songs of his own land, he could do so freely. If he sat in silent abstraction they left him to his mood. Times were when he would break the silence of days in a rhapsody of divine eloquence; and then again he would talk on matters that required no mental concentration.

To Mrs. Ole Bull_x000d_ 228 W. 39_x000d_ New York_x000d_ 24 December 1895_x000d_ _x000d_ Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you, dear Mrs. Bull. And may peace and health rest on you and yours for ever. I am going out of town today and will be back in ten days._x000d_ My love to all._x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

To Sister Christine_x000d_ 228 W. 39th Street_x000d_ New York_x000d_ December 24, 1895_x000d_ Dear Christina___x000d_ Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you. I am going today to the country. I return in 10 days._x000d_ About the tour through Detroit__I will fix it later on. I am afraid if I go just now, everything here will fall to pieces._x000d_ I will come anyway, but I am afraid it will be later than I expected._x000d_ My love to Mrs. Phelps, Mrs. Phunkey [Funke] and all our friends and Christmas greetings._x000d_ Ever yours in the Lord,_x000d_ Vivekananda_x000d_ P.S. Kripananda sends his greetings too._x000d_ V.

New York_x000d_ 29th Dec., 1895_x000d_ Dear Sister {Miss S. Farmer},_x000d_ In this universe where nothing is lost, where we live in the midst of death in life , every thought that is thought, in public or in private, in crowded thoroughfares or in the deep recesses of primeval forests, lives. They are continuously trying to become self-embodied, and until they have embodied themselves, they will struggle for expression, and any amount of repression cannot kill them. Nothing can be destroyed--those thoughts that caused evil in the past are also seeking embodiment, to be filtered through repeated expression and, at last, transfigured into perfect good._x000d_ As such, there is a mass of thought which is at the present time struggling to get expression. This new thought is telling us to give up our dreams of dualism, of good and evil in essence, and the still wilder dream of suppression. It teaches us that higher direction and not destruction is the law. It teaches us that it is not a world of bad and good, but good and better--and still better. It stops short of nothing but acceptance. It teaches that no situation is hopeless, and as such accepts every form of mental, moral, or spiritual thought where it already stands, and without a world of condemnation tells it that so far it has done good, now is the time to do better. What in old times was thought of as the elimination of bad, it teaches as the transfiguration of evil and the doing of better. It, above all, teaches that the kingdom of heaven is already in existence if we will have it, that perfection is already in man if he will see it._x000d_ The Greenacre meetings last summer were so wonderful, simply because you opened yourself fully to that thought which has found in you so competent a medium of expression, and because you took your stand on the highest teaching of this thought that the kingdom of heaven already exists._x000d_ You have been consecrated and chosen by the Lord as a channel for converting this thought into life, and every one that helps you in this wonderful work is serving the Lord._x000d_ Our scripture teaches that he who serves the servants of the Lord is His highest worshipper. You are a servant of the Lord, and as a disciple of Krishna I will always consider it a privilege and worship to render you any service in the carrying out of your inspired mission wherever I be._x000d_ Ever your affectionate brother,_x000d_ Vivekananda

Ridgely Manor_x000d_ 29th December, 1895_x000d_ Dear Friend {E. T. Sturdy},_x000d_ By this time the copies of the lectures must have reached you. Hope they may be of some use._x000d_ I think, in the first place, there are so many difficulties to overcome; in the second place, they think that they are fit for nothing--that is the national disease; thirdly, they are afraid to face the winter at once; the Tibet man they don't think is a very strong man to work in England. Some one will come sooner or later._x000d_ Yours in the Sat,_x000d_ Vivekananda_x000d_ PS. My Christmas greetings to all our friends--to Mrs. and Mr. Johnson, to Lady Margesson, Mrs. Clark, Miss Hawes, Miss Muller, Miss Steel, and all the rest.--V._x000d_ Kiss baby for me and bless him. My greetings to Mrs. Sturdy. We will work . "Wah guru ki fateh."--V.