May 17th 1885

Dear Sister & family

This rainy Sunday morn I will try to ans your good long letter that Will brought from town about sun down last night & O how glad I was to get it. I set down by the kitchen window & read its contents while the thunders rolled & whilst he milked the cows for the clouds looked threatening & we waited our supper. I was surprised to get a letter at the same time from Aunt Lib & Alie but I was so anxious to hear from you that I read yours first. I had looked & looked for it so long that I began to feel "blue" again. A week ago last night I rec'd quite a long letter from Han. I was glad to hear of course but then I couldent help but think they ought to have been two letters instead of one or else that one from you. was afraid some of you was real sick & wouldent let me know, now would you do so & so. but I believe you are working to hard. you are not used to working in the garden & doing so much. you no doubt find a little baby makes one a great many more turns & steps through the day but take the advice you gave me "Parker."

we was sorry to hear of Dicks sickness & poor health & think he had better be doing something for himself. for the hot summer is coming on & that will be the worse for him. O dear now they are all agoing to scoot right through Mo. as fast as the cars will take them & not one of them will ever come to see me. will it be possible that you will get to see poor Ma’s sisters & be with them & I will not.

it is just as I expected. none of them would ever think it worth while to come & see me just when I am better prepared to enjoy their visits.

Aunt Lib said she was going with Uncle Marshall but they would stop there & make a visit first about the first of June. She wanted me to meet them at Barber Co. if I could & all make a visit together. for she said she dident feel as though she could make me a visit. O, how well I would like to do so but how can I now. & then to think of going now after poor Mas death. & I did not get to go when she was living. How you will miss her when they are there, but go with them where ever they go for there is so many for them to visit. & enjoy their company all you can for her dear sake, she said you didnt care to write to her any more since you married & had a baby. that she had wrritten several times to you & couldent get any answer & seemed like she almost felt hurt about it. I intend to answer her letter soon as I can. Allie said she dident knew as she ever would get down there it was so far away. Just think she has quite a large family & has to keep a hired girl. there must be nine in family then, but enough of this. Aunt Lib can tell you more than I can when you see her, but poor Aunt Lyd how destitute her home must have looked after the flood. her garden all washed away & I suppose her chickens too. I felt like crying if it would have done any good when I read that paper. Han said in her letter that Mr Sherwood told them he heard that Sherwoods family was drowned near Medicine Lodge but he dident know whither it was true or not. but I can tell her different when I write but it must have been terrible if it was as stated in the paper. why dident you folks go & see the waters & the sights. Dobson was the first to tell us about it when he was here to see Blanche. that was before we got your letter or the paper, also Bantz & Sam Davis was asking us about it. the 1st of May they had read an account of it in some paper. but we got the paper that night as we cane home. but I just supposed it was a pamphlet sent to Will & dident open it for quite awhile after we got home. & Ross wanted to see it & he said 0 there is the Kan Cattle in it. then I soon noticed that it was.

I got enough cashmere to make a full skirt -- the grey dress shrunk up so I had to wear it as a plain waist & the skirt with two wide pleatings on it. was all the way I could fix it.

This is lamp light & time to go to bed. Ross will take the Normal Second reader & a new copy book to school in the morn. the reader is a new kind of book they have in use. now he is proud of it. he reads well. the bird don’t sing. it has been on the sick list but seems better now. its little body looks swelled & I am afraid its ruptured. but it eats & is not stoped up but looks bad & looses its feathers.

2nd - Well new I will write some more. Will got hungry for his dinner. fixed the fire & peeled the potatoes & invited me out to get the rest of the dinner but I thought it would seem pleasant to have someone get the rest, & since dinner he went upstairs & went to sleep. I turned my bed head to the west & like it better. & now Jap has come in & I have give up the room to them & took my place by the kitchen window. & Blanche is trying to fix up the fire. a few minutes ago the wind changed & is now sailing down from the North Poles again, & thier bare feet begins to look cold. I think there has been another storm some place there was an awful heavy rain south of us last night. from the looks it rained quite a shower here but we needed it, it began to shower at noon yesterday. John would have got done planting if it had not rained, some are done planting. I think your weather & ours about alike. we had no snow but a big frost two or three nights & so cold that there was quite a scum of ice. & we were caught with our stove down. it was to cold for house cleaning. the cherries were just coming out but I guess they were not hurt much. they was white with bloom & our papers all speak of a sudden change in the weather the 7th all over the United States, we almost rounded up house cleaning last week & I am not sorry. & I do not feel much worse of the wear. the week I sent my last letter away we cleaned the new part -- Will just more then made the dirt fly. we white washed the bedrooms. the carpets never had been taken up in them & I wanted them to corrispond with our new one so we turned them & they look tolerably bright. but the chain is broken in several places so I had to darn it. While Will done the white washing & dirty work. he thinks he can’t be beat at white washing & he has done well. I picked up the brush sometimes & finished the carpet on Saterday morn & put it down. it is real pretty. there is a fancy stripe of green red black blue edged with yellow & then a hit & miss stripe. & the colors are through it all so even & nice. & the colors are bright four widths & ½ covered it, it was so wide & I am sure the room looks prettier now then you ever see it. I spread new yellow buff table linen over the center table & rocks underneath the legs & books & album on top so new you know how it looks. & put them under the Lamp of course. & last Sunday was a lovly day here. while you doned your polka dot & set chat to me I was putting on the finishing touches as I dident get it all finished Saterday. & the other part looked so bad I couldent bear to stay in it long at a time. but a week has added greatly to the looks of it. we used the painted carpet all winter & it was loose. we took it up thinking the floor would be awful dirty & dusty but to our surprise it was clean. only the edges where it had been scrubed & run under. It stood the racket well through the winter & is a little dull again but Will had some green paint left & bought enough drab to give it another coat sometime this week. O the good we have had of that carpet & it perfectly preserved & good for some time. yet the other carpet is riped into & on the fence & I was waiting for it to rain on it before it went down. then the hard work will be about done. we set the cook stove about halfway between where it did set & stair steps. it is much handier to get around & cook especialy if its cool weather. the same length of pipe and two elbows takes it to the chimney as it did in the dining room. it takes more room but it is plenty & I think it heats up more & will make it pretty warm sometimes. the house is white as can be & my big flowered blue & white curtains with little angels on & climbing roses hanging at the window in the dining room makes it look blue blue blue. it is oil calico & for the sum of 5¢ yrd only. & Moberly threw in over a yrd because it was a little soild. & I knew it was a bargain even if they faded perfectly white. they are long & are better then paper for the wind to flap. well I have filled two sheets & have wrote nothing much & am not through yet. I forgot to tell you I have done most of the washing this last week while Will whitewashed but I wont tell the Dr when I see him.

John is going above Galt tomorrow with Morgan & I will send this by him.

I dont see what object he had in telling lies unles he wanted us to think Less was getting awful poor. or just wanted to tell something.

The new spring hats are high peaked crowns & narrow rims & trimed with bright gay ribbons of different colors. Most everybody wears black Jersey Jackets but me & they cost so much I cant afford one. they bring them on ready made & all braided so nice. Jennie Overton had one on Faney S. wore one - last fall that cost 2 or $3.

I am sorry your flowers died. My rose bushes has all come forth but many are the tops that are killed. I have one hollyhock only. the other froze out. they both bloomed last summer but I am afraid the [illegible] is dead since I divided. But if your half will only live. there was just four little flowery ammons bloomed close to the ground. & I went out many a day & looked at the little sweet things & thought how Ma held the [illegible] things in her hand the year before & loved them for thier beauty & I could not keep the tears back.

The lilacs are in bloom but are not many this year & our yard is so pretty. the apples are in bloom & I am afraid there will be another frost. our old apples held out til last week. I have not been down in the orchard yet. it would remind me so of last year. I am writing on the Geography & in it I have seen your writing. it will be a year tomorrow since you wrote it. the 18th. & then just one more week you was here & then gone & poor Ma is now gone forever. O dear how bad it makes me feel. if I could live it over again. poor soul I dont remember about her mits but it seems to me she did wear them that day. how quick she peeled the turnips that day & said she was hungry but when she sit down to eat she dident eat much. & that was the last time she eat at my table. & the last work I see her do. Poor Pa. I wish I could see him tell him our Raspberrys need hoing bad. but if he was here he shouldent hoe them. yes the house is painted white. Will thought that the prettiest. Swayze wife come home last week, the organ is still at Cobles. Will & Blanche went up one day of an errand & he said that Ellen set down & played precious jewels. & it was nothing like it. her playing one kind & singing another & wanted me to go up & hear her play. he knowed I would laugh. they bought a New Home sewing machine the other day & traded the old one towards the new one. Howland has been there twice since. he was here one morn & wanted to bring it here if he couldent sell it there. I told him we couldent buy & it wasent worth while. Well I guess I have told you everything & will close. is it enough. My ove to you all & kiss the baby for me. Write soon & often for I worry myself about you if I dont hear. Good by

(notes on section 3) Mabels dresses are real pretty & so many of them. You make them with little ruffles or trim one with the other is about all the [illegible] you can make such little things.