Perry letters

As the two only cost $3.00, I had still $2.00 left, with which, as you know, I bought other books.

Yesterday, one of the boys took a trip to Frisco - and were it not for the fact that I am going home next Friday I would have made the trip with him.

Everything appeared so strange here when I returned Tuesday afternoon.

The mornings are cold enough, to freeze a person, and the evenings are almost as bad.

However with the aid of my little heater I manage to keep warm.

This morning I intend to go to the Chapel where Horatio Stebbins is going to preach.

Well, I must close now, with love to all, and with thanks to Auntie for her very acceptable gift, I am

Your loving boy,

Jewell

Sunday morning,

Jan. 31, '97.

My dearest Mama:

It is just eight oclock as I write these lines, and I suppose that, at this very early hour, you are sound asleep dreaming of every-one but your lovely boy.

I have had my breakfast already - and made my bed, - and now, as the wind outside is blowing - a gale through the vines that climb about the porch beneath my window, I have seated myself before my desk to write to my negligent mother - and to gently reprove her for her neglect.

About a fortnight ago I received a letter from you. You, thinking that this one letter would be sufficient for the following month, have shown a great and surprising disinclination to answer my letters.

Surely you can not excuse the fault by saying you had no time. Better, by far, to tay away from lodge Saturday night, to make your boy happy - on Sunday morning by a letter from his loving mother.

But you need not, of course, deprive yourself of this pleasure as there is a better expedient.

You doubtless spend a few min-

utes on the paper each day; nor do I at all blame you for doing it. But when you spend upon a newspaper the time that might be better employed, and with better results, and entirely ignore the worthless (?) existence of your boy away from home, I think that I am justified in taking you to task for it. I am sure that I would derive greater pleasure in reading a single line from you than you do from reading the whole paper.

Day after day for the last two weeks I have vainly looked for a letter from home. All sorts of absurd excuses I made to myself to condone the offence, and hoped against fate that I would on the following day receive the longed for news. But the next day fcame and went with the same result.

Well, I guess I have said enough about this, and I sincerely hope that you will in the future answer my letters with a little more haste than you have in the past.

This is a miserable day. The rain is coming down with all the force of a storm, darkening the world outside and spreading its gloom even in my little nest. I can look out of my window and see the roads covered with water. One would think that they were rushing rivers instead

P.S. send a few stamps, and the Sunday Examiner. There is an account of our Glee Club in it which I wish to see.

of once well trodden thoroughfare. Attending the Chapel service is out of the question this morning, for a trip through a mile and a quarter of rain and mud will dampen the ardor of any Christian. However, that I amy not lose the benifit of the Sunday morning service I shall devote my time to Pilgrim's Progress. I commenced this book during the last week, and find a great source of comfort in the inspired thoughts of Bunyan. I never until now realized the worth of it, and I can now see why it has taken such a great place in the world's literature.

Another book which I thoroughly enjoy is Smiles' "Self Help," which Aunt Abby gave Claude for Xmas. It is indeed a noble book and one from which I have derived a great deal of good. The chapter on "Self Culture" is a masterly treatise in which the author shows that though a man be oppressed by all the sorrows and misfortunes of poverty he may yet obtain the "higher education," provided he makes a judicious use of his spare moments. His illustrations of men who have proved his theory lend increased interest in the book. I would especially advise Claude and Elmo to read and reread it, and