1864

                                                                                                Northumberland         Dec 12

                                                            Dearest Frank

                                                                                    With how much pleasure I now take up my pen for the purpose of awnswering my dear kind Franks last welcome missives wich reached their destination in due season after they were mailed and you may be sure the met with a cordial reseption by me as they awllways are sure to do and and sorry that I could not awnswer sooner Dear Frank you may be sure I felt and yet feel somewhat anxious a bout that cold you complained of in your several last but I am in hopes when this reaches you it may find you as it now leaves me in the full enjoyment of Gods richest blessings good health free from pain or disease and with a mind as free from care as I consider it most essential to true happiness here below/

 

Dear Frank I did not forget your twenty Fourth birth day you wrote telling me to bear it in mind and wanted to know how old I was or when my birth day comes so you could remember me on that day my birthday had then passed several days before that I was 19 years old The fifth of the same month in wich you were 24 you are allmost five years older than me When I am twenty you will be twenty five it dous does not seem to me as if I had lived so long on the world and in looking over the past I find I am many years older than good wouldent I have like to have given your ears a good remembrance from every one in the house that knew mine I got it my ears well boxed and pinched Mother told on purpose to have some sport but it was rather rough sport I thought I took it in good terms and shall allways remember them kindly Dear Frank you wanted me to/write and tell you how my christmas was spent I will tell you it was very dull for me and I felt so very badly all day that I could not bear to go where where there was any merriment going

 

we had a great deal of company and among the number were John and Maggie Maggie is better but her health yet delicate and the reason of it is her disease has such a firm hold on her the physissians say it can not be remedied she thinks her self she is destined to fill an early grave how I wished you could have been here to partake of the christmas dinner they all seemed happy and to enjoy themselves and perhaps mine was the onely unhappy in the crowd I could not help but think of former christmases when we were a happy band to gather my Mother my Brothers and self a wide breach has been made and a chair left vacant to be filled no/longer by him he was allways gayest in the crowd and never failing to be at home when it was possible for him to be here how changed the scene now our position a a acheing heart and his an untimely grave I hope he is better of and that some day we may meet him in heaven Newyears Day passed very pleasantly with me I did not spend the day at home early in the morning a second cousin of mine came for me with a carriage and conveyed me to the house of a great uncle of mine I had not been there since I was a child of three years They had a gathering of their Grandchildren and as many of their nieces and Nephews as could come I tell you what they were a jovial band we had different kinds of amusements A few of them I will mention Music Music charades chess reading many games of different kinds such as playing wild irishman chase quaker forfeited and so on/

 

Then from my uncles I went among my cousins two or three diferent familys and staid till saturday evening and from there to a very highly esteemed friend of mine with whom I spent saturday night and sunday and had a delightfull time I could not help wishing you could have taken share of our pleasure I know you would have enjoyed your self vastly so now Dear Frank I guess I have given you a good discription of my newyear enjoyment as is possible for me to do so I will drop the subject for the present with my best wishes and prayers for your happiness comfort and prosperity for the year upon wich we have just enterd and with an expectation of seeing you before the year is out I shall endever to keep in good cheer and make the/of the next Eight Months Frank I am so very glad you do not entend to Enlist again I am of your opinion that three years is sufficient length of time for any one to serve in the army my opinion may be erronious but I have allways considered the army a very demoralizeing place and besides the toil and privations wich must be there endured are not to be lightly thought of Many times before receiving your last letter I would find my self wondering whether you would be tempted by a few paltry and perishible hundred dollars but on that subject my mind is now at ease but another thing I want to know dear Frank is why you are going to visit me in disguise when you come home next fall There can be no person here who you are afraid of and if you where to come in that style and I not know you perhaps your visit would not be so plesent to you/and for me it would be no visit at all for not knowing you how could I give you an joyfull reception I have been counting the months as the have slowly passed with the hopes and expetations of receiving you at the expiration of your three years service of seeing you come home the same frank you were the last time you were here and after all you are promiseing me a disguised visit Frank do not do so come home your natural self I want to see you the same Dear Frank of old The weather has been very cold at since the first day of the meyyear newyear and has continued so up to the present time with but little snow  and no sleighing of any account How often have I wished this winter that you could join the merry group wich usally ro surrounds the fireside here at home for we have a few humorist boarding here who with their dry jokes and sly wit makes the long/evening pass yery very rappidly and how much pleasure it would be for me to furnish you with a comfortable bed and know that instead of your shivring and lying awake at night with the cold you were warm and sleeping soundly I think of and feel for all the poor soldiers and where my means as large as my heart They would all be comfortably provided for my dear cousin William Grey has not yet been released and it has been a long time since he was hard from perhaps he is dead I hope not for his familys sake

 

Dear Frank I am glad to hear of the saftey of your brother and some time when you don’t forget tell me whether your sister excepted the name you sent for her youngest darling

 

Mother and Aunt C dan and Aunties little boys said I should bid you a happy New Year for them The elders sends their love we are still very buisy and have a large as usal I think it as the saying it never rains but it pours all or none we are compelled to turn many away don’t you think Frank they are going to heap another coal road up before of our house I am in hopes they will buy us out I do not want to stay beside these black roads any long my sheet is full and I must close write soon to yours in affection and devotion Agnes To FCM

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