Dear Daddy – The Farm Letters

Dear James,

Another week has come and gone. The weather turned very cold Sat. night, it had stormed off and on all day, but Sunday was lovely and today is warm but cloudy. The children played outside most of Sunday and in the afternoon I read to them from “Kidnapped” and we popped some corn and wished you were here too.

I have heard Mr. Shaw cutting in the woods once or twice. Remember that John is pretty young to write as often as Ruth but I can see that he gets pretty lonesome for his daddy even if he doesn’t say much.

Love from us all. Martha

Dear Jim,

We received your letter this morning. Thanks for the ” Fiver “. I’m glad Jim is going to room with you, it won’t be so lonesome. It’s nice to have this big pile of wood. We carried a lot of it into the shed today as it looked like snow. Saturday it was way below zero. The car battery is still OK. I have the meat packed in a box and keep it in the car.

We went skating on the lake Sat. afternoon and Sunday. The ice was a little rough near shore but we found some nice smooth stretches and had lots of fun. John tried Ruth’s skates for a while and did pretty well and then we pulled him around on the sled. Mr. Peterson said they would start fishing thru the ice this week and he would bring us some fish. Mr. Shaw asked if he should cut us some wood and I said yes. I’ve heard him working all day. I suppose he will cut the ten loads for each of us.

We walked to the schoolhouse and got the children’s books. The teacher never said a word and neither did I. The children miss going to school but I believe things will be better when they go back. I wish we could get to town so the children could go to Sunday school. We get dreadfully lonesome for someone new to talk to sometimes.

We haven’t kept fire all night yet. It doesn’t take long to get the place warm in the morning. We are well supplied with groceries. I wish you could send me some woolen cloth for a dress for Ruth. I have a pattern. It calls for 1 and