Transcription:
1 Ward? Nevada Saturday morning Sep 28th 1878. Dear Doctor, Your kind letter of the 8th illegible reached me yesterday.
having been forwarded from Hamilton This is a little three year old mining town where we are making a few days halt to transact
some business rest the wary animals. We arrived late when it was too dark to set the tents we recklessly camped in a corral
on a breezy hilltop. I have a great horror of sleeping upon any trodden ground near human settlements not to say amoniacal
pens but the captn had his blankets spread alongside the wagon I dared the worst lay down beside him. A wild equi illegible
tial gale roared tumbled down the mountainside all thru the night sifting the the dry fragrant snuff about our eyes tears
notwithstanding all our care in tucking rolling our ample blankets. The situation was not exactly distressing but most absurdly
damnidly ludicrous. Our camp trups basins, bawls, bogs went speeding wildly past in screeching rumbling discard with the earnest
wind- -tones. A heavy mill-frame was blown down, but we suffered no great damage. Most of our remaining gear having been found
in fence corners. But how terribly we stood in need of deodorizers not de- -alkalizers as you suggest. Next morning we rented
a couple of rooms in town where we now are washed rubbed dusted combed ourselves back again into countenance. Half an hour
ago after reading your letter a second time I tumbled out my pine tails tassels burrs was down on my knees on the floor making
a selection for you according to your wishes was casting about as to the chances of finding a suitable box when the captain