Fort George Wright, Washington
November 7, 1920
Dear Bertha,
Your letter came this morning and I have been thinking of you a great deal both before and since it came. I guess we are all a little lonely dear, you and Sally and I all miss each other a lot.
I am very sorry it takes so long to get here from Elks, it does not leave much time out of your Christmas vacation or much chance for you to enjoy it if you spend four days and nights on a train. That might not be so bad for anyone who enjoyed travel but it would be hard on you. How long a time do you have at Christmas? I suppose quite a member of the pupils live at some distance and will go home for their vacations. What will the other teachers do?
I wish we could plan something different for you enjoyment. I fear you are going to find the winter pretty tedious . It will be so cold and long, but perhaps it will really not be so bad. You know we always strike exceptional years where ever we go. I believe we are having exceptional weather here right now, anyway it is remarkably find. It freezes at night and the air is pretty sharp in the morning but the sun shines out warm and bright every day. He don’t put in very long days, goes down at 4 P.M. I think, dear, you must be right in so far as a really good teacher is concerned, she, or he, must give very largely of the best that is in her and so make the work very wearing.
Well, we have just had some callers from town. I will say for the Spokane people, they are more interested in the Army people than is the case in most towns, or they would not come out to call as much as they do. It might help to make this a pleasant station.
I am sorry to hear that Dan is disappointing but hope he will not disappoint you altogether. You are certainly making yourself felt among the pupils as well as teachers. No, you had not told me before about the situation of the school. It must have been planned to take all the superfluous joy out of the youngsters.
Papa says to tell you not to work too hard and not to worry, which is more wearing than work. If you cannot keep your expenses down quite as low as you hoped to do, I guess you will find that everybody else is working under the same trouble.
Well, I do wish _____ bathroom! We could easily spare one. We have had some of the walls down over the last week and the floors downstairs varnished and waxed. The floors are unusually fine, and the house will be quite nice when we get something in it. It is two weeks since our furniture was shipped and I hope we may get it in two weeks more.
How are you getting on with the Campfire Girls? Or do they call themselves Girl Scouts? What is the plan of work with them? I read some of their laws or rules just a day or two ago, which sounded very good. Are there many of them? We see quite a lot of some of the people here as nearly everybody goes to the mess for dinner and the people who have no babies to look after are apt to sit and talk for some time after dinner. There is a lady visiting here from Florida who is a neighbor of people we knew well when you were a baby. Her son is, I believe, the only bachelor in the garrison.
At first, I thought there were a lot of them, but they all seem to have families somewhere, if not here.
By the way, I am having my blue suit made over quite completely. I do not believe I shall get another suit. I think I should really prefer to get a nice looking wool dress after a little. I shall be likely to wear my big coat a lot. I hope you have the stockings now. Have you good warm underclothing and pajamas? It is snowy there now. I hope you will not have much snow to go about in. The cold will be enough. I wish you had one of our cots in place of the big bed you dislike only I am not sure you could sleep so warmly in it.
I cannot help you out much, girlie, dear, but if it is any comfort to you, you may know I am thinking a lot about you and missing you a great deal.
Your loving mother.