571

You owe it to yourself to
make some estimate of the
amount you have expended
for taxes and retain the
same. What disposition would
you make of the remainder?
Does Mother hold simply
a third, and is the rest
to be divided equally among
the heirs?

Am so busy during the
day that I can find no
time whatever for writing, and
at night I am generally
very tired so that I can
usually write no more
than is absolutely necessary.

I shall try however to
send you some specimens
in a short time, for what
they call "spring" has come
here too, though with so
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changed a [?] that I
scarcely recognize her. The
temperature has sent the
mercury up to 90º quite
frequently of late and I
apprehend that very hot
weather must soon follow.

Several varieties of the cactus
family are now in bloom,
and the other throny and
prickly plants — for almost
every plant that grows in this
desert land has a pricker on
it, or has a sharp point
and so is one itself — are
beginning to show signs of
life, though I can't see how
they can, growing, as many
of them do, on the dry
hills on which no rain has
fallen for many months, and
on which the sun has [?]