April 23, 1890

Sue wrote you last night & I guess I'll write a little more before sending this to the office. I am so worried with the way Dick is doing. I dont worry for him but for the future of those poor little children of our dear Sisters. for I think just as much of them as I do our own children. I am afraid of the future for them. If Dick was the man he ought to be I could rest more easy but the way he is turning out I dread to think what may happen to them. for if he took a notion he could take them away from us & we could not help ourselves. & then no telling how they would fare.

You know what Ma said of him and she was corecket in her opinion of him. Pa was talking to me about it the other day & he sayed the way Dick was doing perhaps it was all right that God saw fit to take Nettie from us. & it may be so for no telling what might have hapened if she had lived. it might have been far worse for her. Oh I wish I could have the confidence in Dick that I ought to have but I cant. his stories dont hang together. His sister Maggie Just as good as sayed she could & would tell us of much more. said that Dick was not raised to do as he was doing & that is what makes me fear for this Dear Little Blanch & Mable that we all love & think so much of. If I knew we could only keep them I would feel different. Oh how could I bare to see those little ones taking from us. to know not how theyv would be treated by such a father & no telling what sort of a mother. Blanch is such a sweete little thing & so smart. Just talking so nice the longer we keepe her the more we get atached to her. I wish we could be asured that we could have her for our own. she is so good I often see expressions in her countinence that reminds me of her ma. This is a rainy day & has stoped us from listing corn. our garden is coming up nicely. it has been rather a cold windy spring. the wheat looks splendid. & oats are nice.

Oh I wish you lived here close to us. how nice it would be. but I dont suppose that will ever happen. fer we may drift farther apart than we are now. Pa seams better than he did before. he had the grip & appears in better spirits. I guess it done him good to have it. I must close. write soon.

as ever your Bro Less