"December 10th.
". . . After you left we were a little blue, and hung
round loose for a day or two. Sunday we missed you
especially, but Asaph made a good substitute, and Mrs.
Leonard led the singing. The next day we moved the
Leonards into L and M, which we christened Leonard and
Mary (Mary is for your wife). They are pretty dark, but
very dry. Leonard has swung hammocks, as Whitman did.

"Asaph came to me Tuesday and said he thought they
had better turn to and put a shed over the unfinished
circle, and so take occasion of warm days for dry work
there. This we have done, and the occupation is good for
us. . . ."

"December 25th.
I have had no chance to write for a fortnight. The
truth is, that the weather has been so open that I let
Asaph go down to No. 7 and to Wilder's, and engage five-
and-twenty of the best of the men, who, we knew, were
hanging round there. We have all been at work most of
the time since, with very good success. H is now wholly
covered in, and the centring is out. The men have named
it Haliburton. I is well advanced. J is as you left it.
The work has been good for us all, morally."

"February 11th.
". . . We got your mail unexpectedly by some
lumbermen on their way to the 9th Range. One of them has