Botanical (Sa^effe. 



EDITORS: 



PURDUE UNIVERSITY, LAFAYETTE, IND. tj ^ £^^0^ §1 . , /A &d IS Oil > W IS - 



December 8.1891. 



My dear Deane : - - 



You really must pardon my seeming neglect. I truly thought 

 the shoe was on the other foot and that I had written you a letter for 

 which Iwas awaiting an answer. 



Let me give you a brief history of the time since my last letter 

 to you. We left Cambridge on the 5th of August, by the "limited" over 

 the Boston & Albany, which leaves Boston at 2:30 and arrives tn Battle 

 Creek at 12:20 the next day. Mother and Lyle went straight on,arriv- 

 ing in Madison at 10:25 in the evening. I found Mary anticipating my 

 coming with the greatest impatience. She was at that time barely able 

 to sit up for a short time and to walk the length of a not ample room. 

 After seeing that her trunk was packed and a dozen other things attend 

 ed to, I went down to the station, and as I thought engaged a berth on 

 the next day's train. But when we got to the train the next day, the 

 Wagner conductor assured me that the agent had not telegraphed or sent 

 any other message calling f _r a berth; so that not only was there none 

 made up as I had ordered but none was to be had. The' train was full t*. 

 of "Grand Army" people returning early from the meeting at Detrf&ojt. I 

 hesitated, but Mary was determined to get home at any cost so we went 

 aboard. I got a full seat for Mary so that she could recline in the 

 uncomfortable way that a day car permits. Fortunately this lasted 

 only till we got to Kalamazoo ,30 miles on, where another sleeper was 

 put on. Then I had a berth made down and the rest of the journey *as 

 easy. We got home in the evening at 10:25. Mary was tired by the 

 trip, but not nearly so much so as both she and I expected. Indeed 

 getting home seemed to act like a tonic with her, and she began at once 

 to improve^ She had two recurrences of her pain, but has had none now 

 for '■o-'flfvi tv romont hs and she begins to believe that the happy days the 

 doctor prophesied when "there shall be no more pain" are truly coming. 

 She has gained strength quite rapidly and is able to walk out now to 

 the neighbors two blocks or more away. She is nearly if not quite 

 back to her normal weight. Altogether I am quite satisfied that I did 

 the best thing in b rigging ker home and feel that she is going to re- 

 gain her former vigor. 



For two months after we got home the house was in a "torn-up" 

 condition. The cellar was cemented , furnace reset, a new mantel and 

 hearth put in, the rooms all papered, the woodwork all varnished or re- 

 finished, the outside oiled and new storm-windows fitted. For a mofcth 

 we were without a "girl" but have a good one now who is likely to be 

 a fixture---for the winter at least. Mother has been working very 

 hard, not only at the house settling, but for a fancy-work fair for the 

 benefit of the new church. I have been "grinding" like Samson in the 

 prison-house of the Philistines ? trying to keep up with tlv demands on 



