Dear Cousin Dorcas,
After severl weeks delay I will try to answer your much apreciated letter. I don’t feel like doing any thing else this evening & I suppose writing will be the same. yesterday I was cleaning the yard I don’t no if I taken cold or if it was the work I did. I am so stiff I can scarcely get up or down to day. I imagine I feel as if I was a hundred years old. I will have anice yard when I get it fixed up but you ma no what a fix it is in now. Mr Burns fed his cow and hogs in it all fall & part the winter. It has been raining here most all day & is now thundering Oh, we have so much rain. The ground is so wet all the time. We have no garden made yet. I have beautiful cabbage & tomato plants. Mine beats any thing in this hole country. The tomatoes looke like they will soon bloom. Phil & Jake is sawing to day. Billy & Charley is putting up fences & gates. Evry body seems to be busy building and reparing Billy has put up one building this week for Mr. Edwards & just any amount of work to do all around us Next week Billy is going away severl miles to work on Mr. Mullinixes house he will not be home evry night all night. I will get Jake or Charley to stay all night with all night with me then. Dorcas I want you to come down. I have a beaux rite here for you. He is not so bad looken but he has red hair & mustache. (Mr. Warfield) Billy has him hired to help him at the carptenter trade. Their was a party in town last night all the young boys & girls were their. At Mr. Bakers. Bout 1 month ago Mrs. Baker had twin babies. I suppose they had the party to cerinade them. Ditha Lewis was to be married at the church to-morrow but I heard today it was to be next week. How many young chickens have you. I have none yet. My hens was so long about setting. I have five setting now some will hatch next week. I get ten & twelve eggs evry day. They all lay in the hen house. I have no trouble hunting eggs. Dorcas you can not imagine how good Fletcher is. He sits on the floor half aday atime. Yesterday I washed & set him down when I commenced and diddent take til I had all my clothe hung up. I often think what a pleasure it would be to me to be with you all my other babies was so cross and he is big and fat. Dorah was so proud of her flowers. (I smelt them before I opened the letter) she tells evry body Auntie wants her to drink sweet coffie with her. No I havent been fixing any thing for Jakes wedding yet but I have a gradeal of work I want to do before that time. I expect he will get married when Mr. Sibert comes down. Oh I wish you could be here. Dorcas come down with Ma this summer. I don’t think by the way Father wrote in his last letter he has any notion of coming. I don’t expect it is worth while asking Aunt to come to see us. I don’t expect to get up to see you all mabe for severl years. Not because it would not give me pleasure to do so. This leaves all the family in good health please write soon give me all good & bad news. Our love to you all
from Clara
