Dear Kate:

I got the grandest idea. I just can’t wait to tell you. I thought it all out in the middle of the night, and I had to talk to somebody, so I got up and went into Mrs. Cassidy’s room and got in bed with her and we talked till most morning. She was awful nice, and we talked it over and over. Here it is now, Kate, don’t you think it is wonderful? You and Billy and Jack can live at Lake Rest when you come out! now what do you think of it! The house is there all furnished, and Jack will do the farming. He is just crazy about it, and he says sure he can make it pay. Tom says he will cough up and buy the things Jack needs to start, if the little money Jack’s father left him ain’t enough. You give the farm and the house, and Jack will furnish the farming things and the work, and you can go halves. That sounds all right, doesn’t it? Anyway, even if you don’t make much the first few years, you get your living, which is about all we get anyway, ain’t it, Kate? I feel awful bad that I can’t do much, but my money all went to Jim, but I will live on eggs and buttermilk, and every cent I make will go into the place. You can’t help but get along, Kate, and out there the old crowd will never get on to you, nobody will ever know nothing about you, and you can begin again as if you was new born.

Oh, I think it is grand, Kate! I can see Tom and Mrs. Cassidy and me coming to see you on a Sunday morning, and you and Billy and Jack waiting for us at the station when the train pulls in, and we will drive over to the place and look at the chickens and scratch the pig and pick the cabbage and hear about the onions, and then after supper we will set on the porch and listen to the frogs and the whip-o-wills and see the shadows come on the lake, and feel that everything is all right, and Somebody must be a sure taking care of us.

Write me soon, Kate, and tell me you are as glad about this as I am.

Nan.