Northumberland May 14 1864

 

            Dear Frank

                                    I supose long ere this time you have come to the conclusion that I am one of the mose careless and Negligent girls in existence and indeed it would be no wonder if you did think so I oft times think you have a surpriseing amount of patience or you would scold in your last you told me you had not received a letter in three weeks I have awnswered one since I received the ambrotype if my surmises are correct from the ones I received since that time you had not received it up till last tuesday or sunday I should say/but perhaps by this time it has reached its destination I will say again I was very much pleased with the gift Dear Frank you are very kind to me much more so than I deserve I do not think the likeness could be better it is a very fair picture but I believe I like the Origonal better how I would love to see Dear Frank to day I have spent much of the day thinking of you and have wished the four short months at an end but time flies very swiftly it will soon be two months since you paid your last short visit to me it has seemed a short time. we have been very buisy making garden and cleaning house doing our spring work for the last three or four weeks but are now nearly done I should have writen last sabath I did not feel at/all well but can not complain at present I was lying down the greater part of last sabath but to day I have been trying to make amends for lost time The result will be I supose a Sergt some body will be after getting a letter as the Irishman would say     I have sown those flower seed you sent me and they are coming up nicely I supose by the time you get home they will be blooming I had but very little encouragment to plant flowers this spring last summer I gatherd together a splendid lot of plants and roots they flourished finely through the sumer but last winter they were frozen dead and our flower beds presents a sorry apectrale appearance our garden lies so low and the water runs from the street over the beds and freezes in a thick ice I have tried to renew my selection/

 

The trees are all in bloom the air is fragrant with to the odor and are out in full leaf Oh the glorious summer time what could be more beautifull The picncs are comenceing to go of in fine style How I wish you could be here to attend a small family party there is to be on the Hill next month My Cousin Kate Ashenfelter is to be in from the west to spend the summer with us Mr and Mrs Atticks is comeing from harrisburg as soon as they get here it is to go off It will be a family party married and single I enjy enjoy that kind most One of our favourite resorts has been spoiled by the ruthless hords of our town rowdies perhaps you remember the old leaning house on the blue Hill several sabath ago a lot of/young men and boys went over to the Hill and tumbeled the old house down the hill the town people were very angry about it and the proprietor was going to law or going to have the perpretrators arrested but they got to hear it and in a very few hours had all left town and I don’t supose very many of them will ever dare to show their fae back faces again Frank when you write again th tell me whether you have heard any thing from the old Northumberland Comp since this battle we have had a dispatch since the last weeks battle that the captain was killed and I heard my cousin or rather second Cousin was killed Lieut B Condling is his name/

 

I would like very much to know wether it is so or not he was married when he was here this winter I have not heard one word from my Cousin Arthur Gray since the battle either His sister is here visiting with her two children her husband is in the same regiment poor Allice is allmost distracted she cannot hear from her husband she sits around and frets all the time

 

I earnestly hope you are still in Washington I do not want to hear of your leaving there till your time is out then of course I do not care how soon you lave leave I suppose you are of the same opinion. Aunt Charrlotte is here just now/she says give my love to Frank and tell him to take good care of him self but I guess that is a needless caution When you answer this tell me when you heard from your brother last and where he is do you ever hear from your friends in Wmspt There was a jentleman visiting town last week at a friend of mine gave me a short account of your friends wich was volentary on his part He commenced by speacking speaking of our town and asked me whether I was aqainted in Williamsport or with any one residing there I told him I had a never been there but was aqainted with several persons from there he Asked me who I Mentioned severall names and Among them the name of Miller/but had not reference to your Family at all The millers I know are a different faimily and are relitives of my Aunt Letties it was at her home I became aquainted with them he thought I was referring to your family said he knew the family by name but had no very intimate aquaintance then two of the boys are in the army says he I guess Ben and Frank are their names and if I am not Mistaken said he I heard something of one of them going to see some young lady in this place He asked me whether I knew of any young lady receiving the attentions of a person by that name I told him I could not say but I guessed he made a mistake in the family fro for from his conversation I knew it was not the name of one I had reference to a few more words and I Close you spoke of a sergt/Mcgragor Frank I know him very well but can not say I know any very little good of him if any Frank he is a bad man and the less you make of him we have to say the better of you will be take warning from me and in the future have as little to say to him as possible an aqaintance or friendship with him will soon lower you in others estimation I do not consider him a fit subject to even comand Colerd Men Dear Frank do not take offence from what I have here said I have done it all for the best Frank I will now bid you adieu for the present hopeing soon to hear from My Dear Frank

 

                                                                        Yours very Afetinately and

                                                                                    devotedly A F V

 

                                                                                                To F C M

PS Mother sends her love dan is away boating how is Johny Crosser getting along

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