To Bertha from Cora Hendricks –
(Date is approximate)
Miss Bertha Ballou
Elks, Nevada
You certainly could not do the things you do now. I simply cannot imagine you walking and climbing in such snow or going through all that mud and water and not being quite used up.
I can understand you’re enjoying such a trip if you can stand it. I think it was very nice to have a birthday party and rather odd that there were two of you to ______ together.
I thought you ought to be glad to see a pair of gloves. I have one pair of white gloves which I acquired so long ago. I have forgotten when or where, which are doing splendid service. I send them out with the laundry when they get dirty and they come back looking like new. I just got them home today. What a mess Elks must have been after the thaw! I wonder if such things happen after there. One would prefer more gradual thawing.
The Chaplain is to go to the school at Camp Grant in April. We will miss them very much.
Nothing has been heard of Major Brown since he left, and we do not know whether he has gone to his new station or deserted.
An order was sent to Portland for his arrest, but it was too late to catch him there. I rather hope he will not be heard from again.
A letter from Sally today, gave her mark in Algebra for the exam, 80, the quarter 100, and the course, 87. Geometry exam, 97, course, 97. History, 88. Pretty good! She did not knew her other marks as yet.
I shall be most glad to her that Senn has done as well. He should have finished exams on Thursday. Papa has finished a most remarkable workbench which he has been making and has it in the attic. He is now planning various things to be attached to it. Well, he enjoys the work and gets his exercise in a way which is interesting instead of tedious, so it is a good thing whether he ever makes any use of his workbench.
We have both been enjoying some of our own books which we had not read in a long time or not at all, for the last week or two, I believe, I shall, in time like Dickens, better than almost anybody.
The days are growing long very fast. We not go to dinner before it is quite dark, and can read until five, without needing lights. That will not be true today, for it is very dark and cloudy, and is quite dim now.
I had a letter from Aunt _____ yesterday, she has been ill ever since September, but is gaining. She is staying with a cousin. I do not think she has been confined to her bed much, perhaps not at all.
Well, I wonder what sort of a condition this will find Elks in. Probably cold again!
With lots of love,
Mamma