If I was one fourth sure of getting home in
sixteen months, I would like for you to have a house. For my part, I am perfectly
willing to leave it to Father, James, and Lee to say whether it would be best to wait
till fall to build a whole house for you, whether I be dead or alive, and you stay where
you are till then or build a part of a house now and finish it next spring or fall,
no difference where I am or finish you (or me) a house now at a cost of say seven
hundred dollars. Sarah, I really do not know what to say. What does Father say and James
and Lee. If I knew where the lot was and how much loose change was scattered around.
After I hear from you in answer to this letter and I then answer it, that will be the
last word I will write in any manner or shape about a house. They can build you a
house, kitchen, or smoke house for you to live in, or let you stay where you are till
I get home or shot through the heart. One more letter about a house and it is my last.
We have had two days very cold weather, a little ice last night, but today is clear
and warm. The wood is green, and Yaller Top (a weed) is two feet high. Everything is
green and growing. I received a letter from [undecipherable] raking me for something I had written in
some of my letters that my dear father had seen, and it hurt his feelings.
