It is now the winter of 1886. I am sitting in the kitchen and I am going to write a letter to Nell. The lamps are lit as Ma came for a visit with baby Eva and built up the fire in the stove before I got home, so it is warm. Ma is better but not strong yet. She brought soup and fresh bread so I will not have to cook tonight. They have gone now to visit with the neighbours before Pa picks them up in the sleigh to go back to the farm. Sometimes I wish I could just go with them, but that is not going to happen. I have made my choice and I am determined to succeed.


​​I will pour myself a cup of strong tea and take my pen and ink pot to the table to write to Nell and Ab and Will in Toronto before I begin my homework It is quiet except for the hiss of the gas lamps that Uncle John had put in over the summer past. I think I like gas lamps. They are easier than the old coal oil lamps, and certainly give more light than the candle that I take up the stairs to my bedroom

I shall tell Nell all my news of home… 

Dear Nell,
     I am using the pen that you gave me to write this letter. It it a pleasure to have such a fine instrument. I am getting along pretty well at school. Latin is still hard especially that Euclid. I am not embracing it as I should, but I have the same professor as you had and he tells me I am progressing. 
     I saw my brother Tom today and he was just after having a pitch out of the old sleigh. He got his cheek pretty well bashed around the eye. He had Gramma with him and she is at Dr Jones and is pretty bad. I hear she will need surgery. The horse took a fright at a sleigh with two little boys in it shaking a horse blanket. I hope Gramma will be well soon.
     Ma told me that Mr..Laurent’s cow broke into the Addison’s barn and took a great gorge of their potatoes. It bloated up and died a few minutes after. A great loss for the poor man and sad for the cow, too.
     The men are busy at the pumps today and all this week as there is flooding on the farm. I hope that you are not studying too hard, Nell. I will write again soon.  
​Lovingly,  Jennie

Another year has passed and Ma is still not her old self. I hope all will be well with Ma. I wish Nell was here. She would know what to do but she is still in Kingston leaning how to be a doctor for ladies and babies.

Uncle John and cousin Will seem to eat a great deal, but I am getting better at fixing meals and no one has complained. I should tell them off if they did so, for I do my best. Nell says to pay them no mind, as they complained when she cooked, too, and she said she just told them she was doing her best. It is splendid when I get a letter from Nell. She is doing fine and is almost finished learning to be a doctor.

The worst of it is that I am left alone here every night and I don’t like that too well. Uncle John has his church and now his Council Meetings. He is a Councilman for the West Ward.

We are all troubled very much by this ‘flu and also how to get money in these hard times. Work is very slack in the blacksmith’s shop and what work Pa does get, he is seldom paid for. It is said that having a farm means you go without and I find that to be very true.

I hear from Uncle John that Nell is going to practice medicine in a big hospital in Toronto and she will have her own doctor’s office with cousin Ab, who is also a doctor. Uncle John is pleased that Nell will have Ab with her. Cousin Will wants to go to Toronto to be their assistant. It is strange to think that I will miss him.

​It is now 1884 and when I went home last weekend the new baby was born. She is called Eva and my sister Ellen is sick but Ma says she will get better soon. Nell sent me a new apron and some gloves for Ellen. That made Ellen feel better and she ran to the box asking where are the mitts that woman sent. Ellen is too young to remember Nell.

Ma is still not well and she wanted me to say home with her to look after the new baby but Pa says Bertha can come to the farm to help and I should stay in school. 

The ladies at Church think I should stay home, too. Mrs. Wilfers, our neighbour, came to see Ma and the new baby and she told me school was silly for girls. Pa says I should not mind them when they talk so. He is the one who decides and Uncle John, too. I wish Nell was here so that I could talk to her about what I should do.

​Last week my brother George got a pitchfork right through his hand and he tried to pull it off and put it right down to the handle. Also the dog bit my brother John on the hand and it swelled up but it is better now.

I am going to get my teeth filled with gold. There are two of them decayed. Cousin Will gave me three dollars to get them fixed. I thought that was very kind of him. We are getting along splendid now. 

It is getting very cold and snowing a lot. While Bertha is home, we are going to make a quilt together on the weekends. I already spun the wool and knit myself and Ma each a pair of stockings. I also spun enough wool to sell to Mrs. Wilfers, and earned fifteen cents to get my rings fixed. My Aunt Eva gave me a present of them because I was doing so well in school.

Nell’s brother, Albert has got a school up in Newstaad among the Dutch. The Master of our school is going to stay with us until the first of March in spite of the trustees. I don’t know why they don’t like him. I like him fine but I hear that he is going to leave and go to a school in London. I hope not

Today was a full day at school. I still do not do so well at mental math. I will have to practice. I really like the stories specially the ones that tell us how to behave. Mr. Reid says they are stories with a moral. I like them fine.

When I go home on this weekend, I will help Ma can plums . She says they will be ready for picking by Saturday and so will the crab apples. The boys will help pick them if they are not too busy. I need to find Nell’s receipt for how to put down the crabs.