[Route] 1 Centreville Pa
August 6th 1916

Dear daughter and family

recd your letter a few [days] ago hope you are feeling better before this I am not feeling very well now I had an [attack] of the gravel one day my urine looked dark like blood what little I made but it [looks] all right now but I [don't] feel all right yet I did not go to Sunday School but your pa went Our dry spell is broke it was so dry [every] thing was [dried] up & so very hot 94 several [days] but we have had 2 good showers & a little cooler but this morning the air thick & [muggy] real dog [days] weather & it makes [most] [every] body feel lazy or it does me enny[sic] but the rain has made [things] grow [fine]

Ellis did not go back to [Kelly's] he did not have much for him to do so he went to the city & got work in the [steel] works he works nights he gets 2 dollars a night & boards with Maye Ralph works [there] [too] he came home last night will go back to work monday night [if] the boys was [here] they could get all the work they could do I never knew wages to [be] so high & they [can't] get men at that price a good many men enlisted for the [war]. [T]he farmers [can't] get men but a good many have their haying [done] I finished this friday your pa has some hand [mowing] to do yet hay was a very big crop all over this country & fall will soon be [here] time [does] fly so fast. [H]ow I wish you could of[sic] come home this summer but we must do the best we can without you

[Wayne] came up thursday to go to the fair Ellis went to and it rained all day so they had a bad time of it I guess Wayne is [making] [quite] a lot of money [there] your pa went to town with the butter friday morning & went to the fair in the after noon. I sell 8 lbs of butter a week it is 30 cts a lb my hens [don't] lay very good now they are molting so bad eggs [are] 30 cts [too] but our 2 pigs are real nice I hope you will good luck with [yours]. I think I would of[sic] laughed some if I had of[sic] been [there] to see you hive the bees they must [be] doing well this summer. I had a letter Eiffel a short time ago they [were] all well Dorcy

[McLaughlin's] wife was dead she was on her way to see her sons in S [Dakota] but [stopped] off to [her] [sister's] & had a stroke of paralysis & lasted 5 weeks [before] she died. She said to [her] aunt Belle was coming [there] to see her daughter Lottie She lives in [Los Angeles] & Olive is working [there] too I [haven't] had a letter for a long time from her. George Briggs had a stroke of paralysis then got crazy so they had to take him to the asylum & Ella Duncon Gillson you [remember] her she died very [suddenly] thursday with pneuraliga[sic] of the heart the rest of the sick are about the [same] Well they will [be] home from church pretty [soon] so will close with love & best wishes & [may] the dear lord [keep] you till we [meet] again write when you can your Mother

Monday got Ellis off to his my[?] all [done] up both well as usual hope this will find you all well had a [fine] shower last night goodbye