Jubilee Spring

We stayed in St. Petersburg longer than we planned because poor Tatiana got typhoid! She drank some infected water. She had to have all her hair cut short. I think it looks nice and neat, but she cried. We went back to Tsarskoe Selo so she could recover, which was fine.

Here she is with short hair:

See how lovely she is?

In the spring, though we went on a journey throughout the empire. We took our boat down the Volga to visit the home of the first Romanov monarch, Michail Feodorovich. People were so excited to see us that they wade out in the water in their clothes, up to their waists, to get close to the boat! It was very gratifying.

But all the celebrations tired Mama, who had to stay in bed in our train through some of them so that she would be ready for the trip to Moscow.

It was this year, during the spring, that something extraordinary happened to me. But it's my secret, and I'm not going to talk about it just yet.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about Moscow, which was extraordinary. I'll never forget it as long as I live.