Transcription:
4 in margin: if it should be dry again as for several years back. he has been trying in different places to find a position
to work for a salary ? anything else but without success sometimes he talks of renting a farm but in either case There was
nothing on the place in Kansas but a few horses the cow J. thought Harry could take care of everything there if perhaps he
could earn a few dollars to help keep us this winter he has worked a month or five weeks breaking horses, but the weather
has not been favorable for about three weeks now, and yesterday Harry's bill of expenses was sent us. he is too young, or
not old but too thoughtless a boy, to be left, so, (he is nineteen) it has taken him a good deal more to run the place then
it would his father. nothing to meet it. it costs to go down to see about things, J. thinks, or fears he could make little
or nothing off the place 1 Crete Neb Feb 1st 1890 My Dear Brother John Your kind and comforting letter of Jan 13th
was received yesterday. I am glad to know you are all well I had made up my mind to write to you within a few days as it began
to seem long since we heard from you, but not such a letter as this, may be, our always happy pleasant correspondence has
been badly mixed for a long time with distressing affairs I don't like to write about them John, but your ever kindly interest
in us encourages me to confide in you The land at the illegible that we