Feb. 28th '88

Dear ones in dear old Mo

Your letter of the 23rd & postmarked yesterday reached us this afternoon & was read in double quick order for we was awful hungry & thirsty for it. was glad to hear you was all well & enjoying yourselves but it seems to me that he is visiting others more than he does you & I dont like to hear tell of him reading so much. he can read when he cant talk to you. now Pa I want you to drop that part & visit & let the papers alone. we had rather expected to hear him say in this letter when he thot of coming home. but am glad he has not thot of it yet for we don’t want him to but stay & buy half a doz farms yet before he comes back & I think he will want to go right back there even if everyone ot them is bellie deep to a horse in mud water & slish slish. I would rather live in it than be blowed up & chuck full of wind & dirt. it would strike just boss, to me, about the farm buying if there was more truth & not quite so much Poetry about it. but as to his anticipations living on it I feel the strike would not be so Bossie. we are all well or about the same as when I last wrote. i can see a little improvement in Mabelyet she looks frail & heavy eyed. She is getting very anxious for Grandpa to come home with the red apple & the little Dick Bird. & says we will have to watch old Jumbo Cat or he will get it. There is some sickness around. Annie Sellars is very sick with regular old Lung fever some has very little hopes of her. have not heard from her today. Grandpa McCarty is not long for this world. as he is failing very fast yet he may last longer than we think. he went out one day last week & the wind was blowing & the wind & his diziness together, Sue thinks, threw him down. she saw him clutch at a peach tree but did not get hold enough so but he fell & wrenched his back in fact hurt him so he has not been in his right mind much of the time since. he sleeps the most of the day time & lays awake nights & fights the covers & talks everything. Jen was here a while ago & said he wasent any better. & said her Ma thinks that Paralysis is going all over him he looks awful bad. but I have noticed him failing everytime I have seen him lately Joe Morris wife & baby has been almost sick with colds. but I guess are better now. People can get sick now for they wont have far to go for a Dr as there is one located in Isabel. Pa you remember the one that came here last fall to consult you & you didnt give him much encouragement well he came back last & hung his Diploma up in the old man Robisons house. there is three Drs at Nashville one at Isabel & one at Sawyer so we dont need or want them old drunken Bears of Haseville & they need not come. Glover has his Shop up & is at work but his wife got so tired of waiting for the Preachers to move & liveing at Shermans that he rented Cliffords little house for a month & then he thinks of building a house in Isabel. so the old preacher just cheated Late out of renting his house for a year. now they will stay over here till after conference. his wife was very sick for a week or so with catarrh fever but is better. & Late has been complaining for some time I dont know what to tink but from the way he looks & acts he is getting to big for his breeches. I heard him say the other day he did not know what he would do he weighs 172 lbs he has got so big I cant put stiches tight enough in the patches on his seat but he busts them out again. he put a pair on today that he got just after he come out here & they come up to his ankels or above & was so tight around the waist that it cut in to his dinner pouch till it podded out above & below the waistband & the legs & seat was so tight he had to make to or three attempts to sit down. Dick had his whiskers shaved off last week & he looked like he had been sick he went up to Isabel & in the store & Tom Knight did not know him. You did not say how Petes family was· but I suppose you left that for Pa to tell. well I expect he thot the Whites had all blown away till he heard Pa was back. for we never ans his last letter. Less did not write the piece that you read. it was that Ben King that was in Isabel when Pa left & I dont suppose he knew anything but guess-work. I never saw it & did not know Less had sent it till after he had done it. I suppose he wanted you to see about the Cash also. the Chief has played out now & got to be the star.

Mabel has a little slate & she takes lots of comfort marking on it. she never fails to make a melonpatch on it I had some flower seeds I intended to send you but did not think of them till after Pa had gone. O yes Helen if you have seed of any real good big tomatoes I wish you would send me a few we only had a few to get ripe & they werent good. Mabel is fussing to go out says she aint been out for O a long time ago. I dont think I have any more fruits just now for B. but saw that page & I will send them as I get them how large is her book will it hold good sized pictures.

Lamplighting

2) Well I have almost forgot what kind of weather we have had since I last wrote. but I think I started my last off on friday & it was such a pretty still warm day. I had the door open & Mabel played out till she was almost peterd out by night Mrs Williams came by & stoped a while going from the Store told her. I bet it was a Pet day & I was up with Mabel during the night & looked out & there was a heavy fog. & awhile after daylight it began to rain & we had just the nicest all days rain it wasnt a regular old gully washer. but came down so easy without wind or sleet or hail & rained hard after dark. but in the night the wind got in the north but was not cold enough to freeze even. the sun came out & everything looked like spring if I remember we have had nice warm days ever since then. farmers are plowing for oats & fool Haines has his oats sowed & three acres of corn planted. & Ella Joe Morris as Mabel calls her,has onion sets out & onion seed sowed & other things also I will just take back a little I said. it was some colder Sat afternoon & clouded over but by night the sky was clear & Moon shone bright but when I went to bed it was clouding over & in the [?]. there was some snow on the ground about like a big white frost.. but being clear it soon went off. well about 10 it clouded over & seemed so warm & damp like it would rain. Ed & Ollie came up & after while big snow flakes began to fall & it snowed for awhile as hard as we ever saw it.. then the sun shone out.. then a big cloud came over & here come the snow harder- than ever & then the Sun come forth again just a regular old March weather if it was in Feo. well while we was eating dinner old Hughs come•. going from Isabel I guess he sniffed the old Hen & noodles for he didnt refuse to sit down & partake.. he had also come to Class meeting but there was only a few come & went home without meeting.. Well the wind was coming down from the north by night with a roar but did not seem cold but grew colder after it cleard off in the night & froze the water in the bucket & nipped some eggs so they sprung a leak.. but the wind got back in the south again Mond & has been blowing hard from there since is real cool in the morns but gets warm thro the day again.

Yesterday Late went to Cairo for flour for Isabel. Dick & old Mr Johnston was going to the Lodge today to get their seed potatoes. Dick went down early but the old man was not feeling well & he would not go so Dick came back. & was glad that he didnt for the wind has blew a gale all day. did you read of the terrible storm in Mt. Vernon, Ill. wasent it awful & so early in the season dear dear I dread the comeing summer on account of them. Nelly Roby & her Grandpa came back last week. Nellie run right into the whooping cough up there & since she come home her folks thinks she is taking it I want her to keep her distance from here. Ollie has never had it either. her baby grows so fast & is larger now than Mabel was when she was 5 months old. & begins to laugh & coo & is real sweet. but oh dear they have got it spoiled. she has not heard from Aunt Mag since before I wrote last. Al Gruber wants to buy Uncle Marshalls place & has wrote to Liss & Ollie about it. but Ollie says she thinks Toms is afraid they wont get enough & did not write back very encouraging. The boys are reading & Mabel is asleep long ago. she thot the little papers the children sent awful nice played with them awhile & then put them in her Inez book she says a book Inez D gave her & thats what she calls it. I am bound to send this off tomorrow so you will be more apt to get it Sat. but I have about run out of sass for tonight so I guess I had better wait till tomorrow & finish. O yes Pa if you get pleanty to eat up there I advise you to stay as long as you can for when you come back you will find hard tack to chew on. Old Mo can beat Kans all to pieces for good things to eat as well as everything else. if there is pleanty of mud mixed in with it its better than sand & wind. We have not seen or heard from any of Browns since we was down. they are all fer California in the fall. I some doubt their going & I would hate just awful bad to have things go if I dont go down very often. they did hate it because Late was slighted at the time of the Party, Nell thought Frank envited him in the store & did not know any better till they got halfway home & she asked if Late was going & he said he never asked him & she tried to get him to turn & come back but he wouldnt. he was mad because they wouldnt kill turkey & go to a big expense & have a big supper & crowd just because it was his birthday. but Aunt Lyd would not do it. Nell said she had a birth-day before he had & she couldnt even have a party let alone sugar to make taffy with. Well my back is about broke so I will quit for tonight & write a little more before mail time tomorrow. good night to all Less got a letter from Ed he was at Wills & said he wished he was back in Kans he did not feel so well he did not like Mo any better than he use to & he did not know whither he would go on to Iowa or not Ed Overmann thot he could get him a job of work this summer near Topeka but that aint as far west as he wants to go Less is afraid he will come back here with Pa & right here he will be than for the summer for he wont have money to take him any farther west.