Thursday Evening
Oct 9th/62
Dear husband
Your letter written last thursday was received by me last night. Mrs Herrick got home last tuesday afternoon and brought me a short letter, in which you said you had written before, so I waited to get it. I wrote a letter last night for Mrs Sweet to Len, so you see I am writing to other boys besides you Mr Sweets children are having the whooping cough. Addie is having it very hard, but the other two are coming to school again next week. Some times I almost think I have got it too for I cough a good deal but I do not whoop any. Lillie and Clarence cough some but they both have colds, and you know Lillie had it when she was a baby. They talk about you every day
Fradenburg stacked about three fourths of that hungarian a week ago last tuesday, and the rest of it lays there yet just as it did when you went away. I tried to sell it to him to night but he did not want it. He said as soon as it come off dry he would finish stacking it. I told him I would rather he would take it for I did not believe Mrs Carpenter would buy it now, and it would be a loss to me. He said that would not make any difference to him
I expect I offended the whole crew to night. You know when Rogers come and got those pigs he could not find that little one that was nursing and so he left it. The next sunday he stopped and told me he had given it to June Bowers, and if she did not come after it in a few days he would. They neither of them came after it, so I fed it and it is / about as large again as it was when you went away. To night John Thurston and Fradenburg came to get it, and I told them I had made up my mind to keep it. Did I do right?
You wanted me to write what things I wanted. Well in the first place I want some paper, envelopes, & postage stamps, for I have only one more sheet of paper and the last stamp I shall put on this letter. I would like ten yards of factory. Groceries you need not get unless you bring me a little sugar. You know what we want just as well as I do, but I am going to get along with as little as I can. I am going to get some stocking yarn of Mrs Sweet on that hungarian. I am going to get my certificate next saturday. I have borrowed a dollar of Mrs Vrooman for that purpose and I expect Mary will go with me
Monday Evening 13th
Well here it is Monday and this letter is not finished yet but I have been waiting for a chance to send it to the office but have had none yet. Mrs Warner told me to day that Mrs Austin is going to Wyoming tomorrow, and if she does I can send it by her. You complain, that I do not write often enough but I have written as often as I could get a chance to send to the you
I did not have any trouble at all in getting my certificate. Mary went with me.
I do not believe Fradenburg intends to stack the rest of that hay at all, for he told me as soon as it came off dry enough he would finish it but he has not done it and now it is fixing for another storm. I expect I have lost my pig after all, for it followed me as far as Fradenburgs last friday morning and I have not seen it since. I stopped there saturday but I could not find anything of it. He would have taken it away when he got the others but he could not catch it. The apple you sent me was a good one & those nuts are nice. I have them yet. Tell Ed I am very glad he feels so much at home and I would like to have him write some inside of your letters once in a while. You must both be good boys and keep your noses clean. I have fun looking for you to come home, for more than a week. It must take a long time to organize a Regiment. /
[margins]
If we cannot see each other we can write & as you have more time you ought to write more than I do, and besides you can send or go to the office every day, but it is different here there is but few men left and when they go it is ten chances to one if I know anything about it untill afterward
Clarence is about one third heavier than he was when you went away If you can get him a pair of shoes cheaper there than you can here you may get them
I think of you very often this bad stormy weather we are having especially nights I suppose you do not have very good accommodations for sleeping, but perhaps you have better now than you will have after awhile. If it was not for the hardships you have to endure I suppose you would like a soldiers life better than any other for you have so much going on around you, that you do not get lonesome at all, do you?
I believe I have got this letter about full so you cant complain about waste paper. I
[faded] is the length of Clarence's foot allowing for stockings and you can do as you are a mind to about getting them there
Good bye
From Mollie to Oliver