Monday April the 24th 1922
Dear girlie I will try to ans your ever welcome letter received Saturday sure glad to hear you was all well I am feeling again we are sure having lots of rain it rained saturdy night & till 9 oclock yesterday then it comenced about 11 oclock last night & its 2 oclock now in the after noon & still raining I never got out & milked my cow till 10 oclock & then I got soaking wet my garden looks prety good I have got lots of letice & onions & radishes & mustard & my peas is beginning to vine I have got them all stuck with stakes & wire & my beans looks nice we had two big frosts but they dident damage eny thing here in this part of the country will Florence this is tuesday morning it is still cloudy & looks like it would rain some more I set out lots of plants

Yesterday & this morning I build a fence around my yard & garden & I have got vines all around the yard fence & I have got my front yard just covered with all kinds of flowers & I have got vines all around my front porch & I have got some pretty house flowers to every body around here envies me my pretty place to live but I fixed it up myself & they could do the same if they would work a little but the most of them is to d--m ornery to work I hate to have to live among such an outfit but I will have to till I can get able to get away rosa [ Mary’s oldest daughter ] wrote & told me I had two much stuff accumulated around me & she wanted to dispose of the most of it & rent a light housekeeping room & then if I wanted to work hire out some where now what do you think about that kind of an idea? I got plum sore when I read the letter but I studied the matter over then I wrote

& told her I thought she had taken leave of her sences I told her if there was just two things for me to do rent a room a light housekeeping room in a d--m rooming house ore jump in the river I would choose the jumping in the river I cant imagine what made her get such an idea in her head she knows I wont rent when I can do better & she also knows that I would not live in a rooming house no not me I wrote & told her I was doing very well where I was at for the present time & I am not hurting myself at work eather I guess I am pretty near old enough to take care of myself shoot I can do more work now then half the young things around here & not grunt about it eather rosa is a worring about me working so much

& about me having a lot of stuff to take care of I wrote & told her that I dident have half as much stuff as I was going to have accumulated around me if I dident have eny bad luck in the next year or two I think I am able to take care of all I can get & then some I am not as old at 61 as I was at 30 I don’t feel old & I don’t worry about eny thing & I am very comfortably feit to live & why should I worry I have plenty to eat & everything want to eat I am right here handy to the stores & eny thing I want I can go get it & I have always got a little money I am never broke & I am very well contented for the present time & I am not going to taire up & give away my stuff & move & rosa need not think it eather I don’t have to listen to her or eny body els for that matters I am going

To do according to my own judgemant there is no body making my living but my own self & I am going to do as I think best well Florence this is Wednesday night it rained all night & all day again today just a slow misty rain but the mornings paper said they had a regular tornado & cloud burst at Ft. Worth was all under water & there was 41 lives lost & million dollars loss in properity & rosa lives in north Ft. Worth right in the Midwest of the flood region I feel uneasy about her & I havent got a letter from her for nearly two weeks the paper said there was over 10 inches of rain fell inside of 36 hours

Well I got a letter from Harry & Eidth & Eidth wrote & told me you had a girl & you was both doing fine I am glad to hear it well today is Thursday I got a letter from rosa & she said they were up on high ground out of reach of the flood she said she never did see such a rain fall as fell there in a few hours she said the flood waters was all around them but it couldn’t reach them the sun shown out a little while today but it clouded up again gone to raining again I did intend to wash today but I dident feel very well this morning but I guess I will wash to morrow for my self & two other parties all three of them is small not over an hour & a halfs work well I set out about 50 cabbage plants today & I have got two dozen tomato plants out the ground where I have got my garden wont grow tomatoes it is to low I don’t think I will try to raise very meny tomatoes

My strawberrys vines is just loaded with green berries but I havent dad eny ripe ones yet I have got one cheery tree that is full of cheerys & my grape vines is going to bare grapes to they are just loaded with bloom tags I have done a lot of work here & I havent been here a little over a year of course I dont own the land here where I live & I am putting all of this work here for some one els where if I was on my own land doing all this work of improvement I would soon have my little home fixed up the way I want it I think I will move to my place that I bought sometime this fall [ Mary bought a farm in Noel, MO ] & go to work & put my work & improvements on my own land it will be some work to I will have it to clear there is timber on it & I will have to build me a house mabe when I sell my improvements

here I will have money enough to build & get started to improve & then I think I can make it alright by cost management I think I can get by if eny body can for the people alaround me here is indebt they owe big grocery bills & they work more then I do & I don’t owe a dime & I have lived & I have helped them lots to they owe me to besides what I have give them no body don’t give me eny thing no you bet they don’t & they don’t apreciate what I give to them the more I give the more they want me to give I am disgusted with the outfit & wish I was eny where els but here I have got a good deal of money out & I cant colect a dime I cant trust eny body here they don’t care eny more for their word then they do for the dirt that sticks to their shoes well I would love to see you all but you are meny miles away & it takes money to travel well I well have to quit for this time as I have three more letters to write this leaves me well hope it finds you all well written with lots of love & good wished from Mother