Sunbury Nov 23– 1902

My Dear Girl & Boy

I believe this will be my second epistle it may be short I will know more about it when done I am somewhat gloomy tonight poor Mother is verry sick and we have just sent for a physician heart trouble and rheumatism seems to be the prime cause of her illness an I fear that she cannot survive verry long unless relief soon comes in one way or the other /

 

She grieves for Warren constantly and much of her conversation clusters around him, his little trinkets in every room in the house placed there with his own little hands so careful and partickular just as he left them calls to memory so many traits of his character and lovelyness, but he is not dead only gone away as those beautiful lines you sent us say and I believe that our loss is his eternal gain and ere long I trust that there will be a happy reunion on the other side and in those beautiful lines of the poet

After weve been there ten thousand years

bright shining as the Sun /

Weel have no less days to sing Gods

praise than when we first begun

Now dear children we have much to be thankful for, above all else the hope that is within us, that after times tooth and disease has gnawed and rendered the house in which we live untenable our minds and thoughts that control our every word and deed and prompts our actions will live on and on as the ages of eternity roll in a place of peace and rest and I believe that we will know each other there

 

I know not what your views are in this train of thought but I infer that all intelligent beings believe in a future state and there is everything in this beautiful world to please us the happy days of childhood O dear I believe that boys have more fun on a square acre of ground than older people can find on a whole plantation. I often in company of some one of the family take the pony and go out to my old home. My heart oftimes leaps with joy when so many happenings crowd in upon memory, tis true after a lapse of a half century many changes have been made modern buildings have taken the place of the antiquated log houses and large well filled barns stand by the road side and thrifty orchards and well cultivated fields are every where to be seen nevertheless there is the lay of the land the same as of yore, and as Whitcomb Riely says The old swimming hole still remains The great trees many of them are gone by the way of the woodmans axe and the poisinous ivy that clung to them has disappeared which had but little terror for us boys. [faded] creek that flows down from the mountainside over rocks throug meadow and marsh over cataract on its journey to the ocean is there Some of the stately Shellbarks have been spared where we used to watch the nimble squirrles feasting and when they would spy us they would hide behind the limbs but oftimes their bushy tails would reveal their whereabouts and the old mill stood hard by the tail race dry and the old water wheel silent /

 

I thout of that old song could you but tell how many turns you have made and the millers canoe had gone into decay and my fright at the sight of a huge blacksnake as thick as a mans arm and long as a fence rail oh my he was looking me square in the face his jacket glistened in the morning sun and his eyes sparkled like diamonds I did not stop to parly long I discovered readily that he was monarch of all he surveyed and for his right there was no one to dispute. I started homeward the thought that he was on my trail was an incentive to urge me on and you may talk about a locomotive and forty miles an hour with lungs of fire and ribs of steel as the boys say [?] in it I rushed in the door way and dear old Mother wondered what in the world was the matter when I recovered from my experience I tried to relate to her what I saw and her reply was that in the end it might be a good thing to keep me away from danger. I never to this day pass the place but what I think of that race as I thought at the time for life it is riveted in memory

 

But my dear sainted Mother loved me. When I stood by her coffined form many things that I done to cause her pain crowded in upon memory She nursed me at her bosom and watched over me many sleepless nights when my body was racked with pain and scorched with burning fever.

 

how she tucked me to sleep in the cradle and sang that quaint old song Hush my babe be still and slumber Holy angels guard thy bed and later on tucked me away in the old trunnel bed long since hidden away in some recess on the garret, but she lived to see me grow up to manhood and go out into the world to fight lifes battles. I bade her good by and volunteered in the army She wept and bitterly and said she believed that would be the last look at her boy I tried to console her as best I could and tore away from her.

 

I went to the front Battle succeed battle rapidly I passed through it all from Bull run to Appomattox having received but one serious wound at the greatest battle of modern times I allude to Gettysburg when forty thousand lay dead and wounded I saw them dragged into hastily dug trenches and covered over without shroud or coffin song or prayer oftimes a tear would steal down my cheeks when I saw some of my best friends go down in the clash of arms and the booming of cannon. I know full well they were Mothers boys and they had went through the gate at the old farm house for the last time / but I returned home and dear old Mother was so happy she ransacked the house from cellar to garret and gave to me the best she could find and Father mother lived a good old age Mother 76 & Father 80. we laid them away side by side and I trust I will some time and some where meet them and know them

 

but you may tire if I continue in this frame of mind there is so much that is uppermost in my mind to night that I hardly know which part I should select to interest you I might tell you of deaths and the happenings of our staid old city / but gloom should not pervade our thoughts all the time we hear enough of and see this on every hand. a little sun shine in our souls is worth more sometimes than a pocket full of gold. life is not long and tis ours to enjoy everything beautiful placed here for us. I feel cheerful to night and if Mother was well I would say that I am happy. My health has been better than usual this summer. I have been at the shops most of the time and you know that means comfort and plenty at home one by one our family grows smaller. Roscoe has gone for good to Danville to work on a newspaper and Ed is the last boy on the list he will graduate next spring and what he will do I cannot say but I know he will be all right Lillian is busy in the school room and seems to be contented Mae is busy all the time looking after home affairs Herman has not been home for some time but we occasionly get a letter from him they are all well so far as we know but I dont believe that they will be home on Christmas of course we look for you and Etta and will be greatly disappointed if you dont come. I assure you we will give you the best in the ranch I trust that you are both happy to night and when you have a little leisure tell us a little something only so we know that you are both alive you cant get away very easily we will stick to you and claim you

           

Your Father                 W H Thurston

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