Well now I will tell you what the preparations are for the rally next Friday this side of Trenton. Geo Moore came to Japs yesterday & said Sina & Rural Dale were going to send 39 young ladies all in uniform a horseback representing the states & the Goddess of Liberty would be dressed in white & ride a white horse & would be Miss Dunlap. & he says do you knew her, he was hunting white horses & was after Japs old Gip. Will offered to let him have Bill for her to ride (Just 'for fun & he laughed & said he wouldent do. but Jap dident consent for Gip to go. & then he said there would be two other girls ride behind her -- not 'on the same horse though -- in red & blue & the rest follow. but then it may be different. & I will tell you in my next of the doings of the day if we go. & send you the paper beside. & then you can know all about it. now dont feel so bad & think we have the best time in the world because we go but its too the contrary. I dont enjoy it very much but I feel to know it does no good to stay here & grieve because you are not there to enjoy it with me. & I think we ought to go to swell the number. Are you a democrat or have you turned Dick over to your side of the house.

Blanche pays our cream man in apples when she takes my letters out to him & tells him they are for carying ma's letters. It is Wm Cowhick. Will laughs & tells the folks about Johns fooling the people there. tell him that Bill Stillwell said he was going there & would see John before Saterday night but since he told him that' he married a girl up by Scottsville & he may not go there at all. Ike Winters has come back to Galt. Will has seen him. There is a family of Jones from Galt are going there close to you. The man was down there & met Robys going back to Corbin. Will says Pa can just as well keep his shirt on for it has gained a [illegible] residence but dident care much about Tom having it. he will have to have some new ones any how before John gets here. Well Ma Blanche keeps pesseling me so I cant hardly write. she talks an awful sight of poor Granma & the poor soul & has to see your picture so often & if you had her there & the bird I expect you would laugh till it hurts. you she is just now talking of Sam Davis & him being as tall as this house & how did he build it Ma & now she wants a little fumery on her' nose. Just to smell good. & every little while its clear the track, or here is your nice sweet cider red hot. Just off the ice. Well I guess you read about the picnic in the paper but I dident know who the speakers were. they were mostly from Galt or Humphreys & the organist. one was Miss Bhuel a music teacher of that place. & the other was M. teacher of the Galt school. each played only for thier own school but Miss Bhuel played once for Fairview. But I think you will have to be more careful when you scratch your back. it might have been worse. & do be more carful about taking colds for that would go hard with you. I almost forgot to tell you that Sarah & her two youngest came down last Tuesday afternoon & staid till school was out. she was very agreeable & wanted the pattern of Rosses Sailor Suit for Everett. but I had none & cut his by his other waists only longer & looser & drawed around the waist with a string. & the waste bags over. You know how they are but she dident & thought they were made some other ways. Well sheet is full of the worst, writing you ever read & I am sorry it is so. & I dont know whither to quit or what to do about it. but if Will don 't come home for dinner perhaps I will write a little more. he said he was going to tell you how he paddled me. I havent told you what a present he bought for me. & it was not needed either but I am froze to death this morning with the doors shut

Well I have just now saw a wagon load go down & just after them a couple in a buggy. the hickory nuts are falling & we havent but a few yet. I read of earth quake shock in our Democrat & some of the points it shook up. I have had no word from Kan yet. & oh yes I think you failed to' send the measure of that sweet tater you spoke of for you said this is the exact measure but I saw nothing that I took to be a measure.

we have lots of big ones but I dont knew whither they will measure with… Well the day before the rally at Bethel I thought it would be rather cool to wear my white hat & concluded that I could turn in as Mrs. Goquire says). & fix up my black hat for the occasion so tore the crown of & added about an Inch & a half of paste-board on the bottom of crown which made the crown some higher & then covered it up with my brocade velvet & turned the rim up a little all around & my ostrich tip on & was pretty well pleased with the effect. & Will would tell me it looked fine & sometimes would say it looked awful but I knowed it looked well enough & was satisfied, but he went to town on the 11th & come home with a little flat paste board box in his hand & handed it to me. I shook it & said there was nothing in it for it was light & then opend & out floped a great long ostrich plume for my old hat that cost $1.50. it must be nearly a half yard in length & the first price $1.75. Now don't you think that is extravagant. I do. & now I shall have to turn in this week & give the old hat a coat of shoe polish make it go with the plume. & then I think it will do as well as a new hat. but I guess he could got nothing that would last longer' & always be nice & fashionable as they are but would rather he would have saved his money for something else that was needed worse.

Mrs. Davis has brought on fall goods. We saw them eating thier dinners at the picnic & they seemed to enjoy it. she was with Mrs. Dobson part of the time. had her hat covered with plumes & looked very well. did you ever hear that Cam Smith is married again to an old maid that lived up there – her name is Newman - tell John that Willie Cook & Polly Ann Owens are married. he knows them both. Well Will has come & I guess he has had his dinner . Blanche grabed her bonnet & run to the Barn where he is & soon the cream man will come so will send this by him for fear it might rain & Will would not go to Trenton as I have told you of everything I can now think of. I will close & you no doubt will be very glad. I thought you knew that Reynolds was the one that took his wife to the mountains for her health while you was here. her death was in one of the papers that I sent you. Just after John went. & is Martha Anns sister.

do write soon for I am so glad to hear often. I am afierd there will be more due if I write more. love & kisses to you all. be carful of yourself & Ma set the women to work when they come. I am your sister Hellen & Blanche.

I am sorry that I never told you I always used 3 yds & 2 for short dresses but I thought you knew it requires more than two for that pattern. the wind is blowing a perfect gale.