address of your friend in Salem or any other. I shall find time to
write, and I am not going to let my baby prevent me from having many
enjoyable outings. We call our boy Henry Clyde for his father. He is a
dear little thing, but he is a lusty yeller for baby's rights.

With much love,
JERRINE AND HER MAMMA.




XIII

PROVING UP


_October 14, 1911._

DEAR MRS. CONEY,--

I think you must be expecting an answer to your letter by now, so I
will try to answer as many of your questions as I remember. Your letter
has been mislaid. We have been very much rushed all this week. We had
the thresher crew two days. I was busy cooking for them two days before
they came, and have been busy ever since cleaning up after them. Clyde
has taken the thresher on up the valley to thresh for the neighbors,
and all the men have gone along, so the children and I are alone. No, I
shall not lose my land, although it will be over two years before I can
get a deed to it. The five years in which I am required to "prove up"
will have passed by then. I couldn't have held my homestead if Clyde