Johnstown February 18^th 1864

                                                                                Thursday Evening [?]

 

My Friend Frank.

                                    Your letter which should have reached me on Tuesday of last week did not arrive until Friday. Still that was better than not at all. It found me in the enjoyment of good health, for which I feel that I cannot be sufficiently thankful. Do you know that as regularly as Tuesday morning comes of the week after I have written to you, I look for a letter from the east, and as a compliment to your punctuality I must say that I am never disappointed, unless the mail go wrong.

 

            While I am glad dear friend to have you/express your determination to lead a moral life, I am also sorry. You may think this strange, but you know that a life of simple morality will never lead you to the house of the blest and holy altar; therefore I am sorry. You may say that the obstacles you will have to overcome while in the army are very great. Yes, but then if you conquer them, the greater will be your [?]. With these few words, and the assurance that you are ever remembered in my petitions to a throne of grace, I will leave the subject with you, hoping that the spirit of God may be ever with you.

 

Morning—I will try and finish your letter for this morning’s mail. So you have not turned out veteran. Well I think each one has a right to judge for himself what his duty is in that matter. I think that those who reenlist do right, and I cannot say that those who do not do wrong, for I do not know their curcumstances and [?] as well as they do the matter./

 

            But let things be as they may, I repeat that whenever you favor us with a call, you will find an open door, and a sure hand extended in greeting. Anna has not got home, but we look for her this week yet. A terrible tragedy was enacted in our midst last week. If I can get a [?], I will send it to you, as you are acquainted with some of the parties concerned. There is not much news here of interest excepting that a goodly number of soldiers coming home, getting married, and some of them returning for another campaign. I should not wonder but we might hear before very long of another soldier from a N. Y. regt. being home and  taking to himself an helpmeet. Hoping this will reach you in the season and find you in the enjoyment of good health and spirits I will close with kind regards.

 

                                    Your friend Mollie E. Bowen

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