I have done most of my cooking at night, have milked seven cows every
day, and have done all the hay-cutting, so you see I have been working.
But I have found time to put up thirty pints of jelly and the same
amount of jam for myself. I used wild fruits, gooseberries, currants,
raspberries, and cherries. I have almost two gallons of the cherry
butter, and I think it is delicious. I wish I could get some of it to
you, I am sure you would like it.

We began haying July 5 and finished September 8. After working so hard
and so steadily I decided on a day off, so yesterday I saddled the
pony, took a few things I needed, and Jerrine and I fared forth. Baby
can ride behind quite well. We got away by sunup and a glorious day we
had. We followed a stream higher up into the mountains and the air was
so keen and clear at first we had on our coats. There was a tang of
sage and of pine in the air, and our horse was midside deep in
rabbit-brush, a shrub just covered with flowers that look and smell
like goldenrod. The blue distance promised many alluring adventures, so
we went along singing and simply gulping in summer. Occasionally a
bunch of sage chickens would fly up out of the sagebrush, or a jack
rabbit would leap out. Once we saw a bunch of antelope gallop over a
hill, but we were out just to be out, and game didn't tempt us. I
started, though, to have just as good a time as possible, so I had a
fish-hook in my knapsack.

Presently, about noon, we came to a little dell where the grass was as
soft and as green as a lawn. The creek kept right up against the hills
on one side and there were groves of quaking asp and cottonwoods that
made shade, and service-bushes and birches that shut off the ugly hills
on the other side. We dismounted and prepared to noon. We caught a few
grasshoppers and I cut a birch pole for a rod. The trout are so