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Ames, Iowa.
Aug, 16, 1881.
Dear papa,
I want to see you very much. I think the engines in Toledo are very funny. It was so cold here yesterday morning that we had a fire. To-day it is very warm.
Nana has gone to Boone to-day. How warm is it in Cincinnati? Are you coming home in the day-time or in the night? Please write a letter if you have time.
Good by
From your little
Eddie.
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El Paso, Feb. 17th, '81.
My Dear Brother,
I've just time to answer yours of the 3d [?], but not enough to write as I should like to; but I can assure you that I am all right, although you have not heard from me for a long time. Neither the Indians nor the "children of the sun" have me, though some other poor fellows in this country have not been so fortunate.
You spoke of the marriage of Pres't. Welch's daughter Vera. Ah Well-a-day! still well-a-day! Surely I must be "all unblest", and my way of life ready to fall into the "sure and yellow leaf." But blessed
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be the [P?]acts for their consolation, for doth not the poet Laureate say? "'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all". and another "There's naught in this life sweet If men were wise to see it But only melancholy, Oh, sweetest melancholy!"
But the occupation of the fates is game, so far, at least, as I am concerned for there is naught for them to comfort. It's all a blank.
I am indeed fortunate in escaping the signs of this winter in the North. All, except Californians, agree in pronouncing this a good place to winter, so far as climate is concerned. The proportion of cloudy to clear days is very small here, and when clear
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it is always warm and pleasant. But I do not like this part of the south; I've long since concluded that I cannot reside permanently in a region where it doesn't rain. I now see that we need the rainy weather in order to fully appreciate the clear sunny days, and vice versa. Why: I would rather see a howling winter's day just now – or an "April day" than a fortnight of this clear, dead, dry weather, which needs to be interspersed with rainy days in order to be appreciated. I don't know what sort of spring they have in this land but I fancy it must be a shabby affair. Try to imagine a spring without warm rains dashing over the
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Write often.
fresh green grass – without the fragrant breath of orchard and meadow – the "first appearance" of the warblers and songsters, and the warm south wind after the rain. The croak of an Ohio frog in early spring is more pleasant than any bird's song I have heard in this desert.
But this land certainly has the advantage in winter. We have not been compelled to sit by the hearth and shiver as you of the north have done so long this winter; and when the thermometer got to zero. I thought all the time it was about 20º above – and could not believe it had been so low till I asked the man at