[Written on the back of a public auction flyer]

Monday morning Dear Helen

I will try & write a little on some cheap paper too. how do you like it. for my part I like it very well. anything that will do to write on suits me. this is a clear bright still & cool morning. we had our first heavy frost last night & an awful dew with it. I have not been out to see what damage it done. so far as tomatoes is concerned it cant hurt them much for the worms & stink bugs have worked on them till its hard to find many sound ones. I went out the other evening & got too buckets full but I wont get many good ones for sweet pickles. I was in hopes I could get green ones anyhow. The men are fixing up thier stables & getting ready to make a cattle shed & feeder. dick is off of the Section again. Joe got orders last Sun week ago to frap another hand & of course its ruleable for the boss to keep his oldest hand & Dick did not happen to be the lucky one. but very likely Joe will be ordered to drop him in a few days. I wish the road would go so the old train couldnt run over it & then they would have to put on more hands. I am sorry for one thing & glad for another. for he was so near give out & this morn he has the Rheumatics in one knee till he can hardly walk.

Pa feels better than he did for awhile. His shirts hangs like bags on him yet. I put new collars on his shirts after he come from Mo. You remember they were to small around the neck. Well I cut them down a little & made them to fit but now they are lots to big. His head bothered him a good bit for some time. some days he said it seemed like his head was all hollow & everything sounded so funny & dull & if he would lay down it would get over it somewhat. Well it hurt his head & made him look hollow eyed. I got some cotton & put in his ears & he has kept it there & says it helps his head. he has been so nerveous & weak till lately he says he feels better. he cant stand what he did a year ago. Late was real sick one day last week but was billious I guess. vomited such awful green stuff. then he got better. I guess I am about as stout as any of them. Mabel seems well to hear her talk & play. but her leg is all swelled up & a big hard lump on the other side now. but she dont complain only when I pull her stocking. if I touch it she says it hurts. Oh I dont know what I would give to see her as she use to be. she is just as full of the Nick tho as she can be & a second Ross Clark about it. she lets off some of the biggest laughs some times just like him. but looks about the eyes like Blanche. she so often talks about up to Helens house & the big apples. & here she comes with her bonnet cape all tore & says just see here what my girls done. they just grabed me & tore it. she lets on sometimes like she has a big family & comes to see me every day. the other day she was playing with something & says well I cant get my billious fixed. she heard me say that Late was billious & she thot it was some thing.

Sue complains a good bit about Carrie. they sent them a Post office order for $15 & Sue says she expects they will send it in dribs till it wont do them half the good it would to get it all at once. Carrie wrote to Sue once.

Did Carrie tell you that Emmetts have another boy baby which makes four boys. I think they had better take the tariff off dont you. Sue says Carrie has not wrote hardly anything since Ed went back & she thinks she got mad because they would not keep him. Well Ed is to be pittied but then he can do more than he does. but he has got so down hearted he dont care for himself or anything or anybody. for no one wants him.

Our neighbor Sherman left here three weeks ago for the eastern part of Ill. Less got a card fom him Sun. they were in Cass Callo. Hughs started the same week for Iowa & only had $12 to go on & feed for teams & grub to buy. Hains went to Fort Scott, this state. Bill Sellars will move in Shermans house before long. there has lots & lots of folks left towns out west & had to beg. & they said there was a family out in Clark Co that had to limit themselves to one meal a day. they couldnt get away either. the men has not gethered any corn only to feed & have not gethered in the best so I dont know how it will turn out. but one thing is certain we will have more then we had last year & enough to make us comfortable. & its right good corn too. we have had some new meal & had corn bread & mush & milk & its awful good by George.

Well Lamplight has come again & the kids & None has gone to bed. the men has gone over to Franklin school house to hear a Union Labor man speak & None come up to stay with me. oh dogone such rallies as they have this campaign. why cant they have sensible ones like they did eight years ago. I would just love to go to one like they had at Bethel eight years ago. but now they have them after night. just like they do in Mo. the Republicans had one at the Lodge last Tuesday night & torchlight procession. Dick & George Sellars & Ed Carter, Less & Sue & Mrs. Williams, Tom & Liss all went. Late was going but that was the day he was sick. they got home just as the clock was striking four. Sue & Liss & myself & I guess Ollie helped. at least us three threw together & got Mrs W a dress. she is awful distitute of dresses. has one cheap blk dress & a lawn is all she has & she said she did not know how in the world she was going to get any. so last Monday Sue was up here & we was talking about her. I said if Dick had got to staid on the section I was going to get her a dress & Sue said she would help & would get Liss & Ollie to help so by that it wouldn’t be very much for any of us. so that night at the Lodge they got: & she was well pleased. I never saw it but she said it was muslin calico regular dress goods but real wide. 10 ct.

I declare Helen I feel like we (Dick & I) are about broke up. Old queen laid down & died last week so we have just old John left. poor old fellow grieved over her for several days. would go off in the pasture where they drug her & stand over her & lay down by her. I felt so sorry for him. she got choaked on dry oats & the men couldnt get her unchoaked & she could not eat or drink. & so she just starved & choaked to death & was a walking skeleton before she died. aunt Lyd said that Jimmy Pringles woman makes him walk the mark & if he lives many years he wont have enough to bury him. I suppose she is running thro with his property. she didnt go to Bethel. this is a mooney night & real cool. I am cold & will have to go to bed soon to get warm. Oh Helen If I could only see you I could talk & lay in lots of complaints to. Yes I do wish I could live where Japs live. wouldnt we be too happy old souls. I would take Blanch a straddle of my hip & walk up there till you would get tired of me. No Helen tell all you want about your work. I bet if I had the apples & fruit to put up like you have the holes would go unpatched here & do lots of times as it is for I am tired of patchin old pants. I hate the smell of them & Late cant keep his seat in his pants any more. I gess its to big.

if Dick goes back you wont be so lucky to be rid of him for he thinks as much of going to see you as any of his sisters. & tell Blanch she must not be afraid of him for he wont bite. & it will hurt his feelings for her not to talk to him again. for he talks about the way she done here & hates it so much. I expect if nothing happens you will see him this winter.

Oh how I would love to go back to but it is no use for me to think of such a thing. now dogone it I want to see Will so bad. you dont get jealous for I want to see all of you but I do want to see Will so bad I hurt a way down in my stomach. Who is your teacher this winter. Aunt Lyd said Laredo was quite a little town. Kate told her she wasnt for own your [illegible] when she was there. & she said Kate said that Bear had wrote some of the hardest things back there about this place. & yet he lets on to us that he likes it. he is going back & says he is very apt to be back before spring but the country will be better off without him for he charges so. he charged Late $9 for [illegible ] twice & a little bottle of medicine & one dose of calomel.