Now my dear quit thinking about what you have read & I will talk awhile about matters at home & I will try to think of & answer every inquiry in your last & ask some questions.  Has Austin received a long letter I wrote him about the 15th or 20th of Oct, relative to my going into the stock buisness with to the extent of our means for say, five years?  I have not heard a word from it since - you speak of Father & Stewart digging a a well & failing.  Tell them to dig & cement a large cistern right where they want it by the barn & have spouts to lead the water from each eave to it, this is the best council I have ever had the privilege to give either of them.  The cistern if large & properly put up will be worth more than all the wells they can find room for, & as for finding streams of water under ground by means of hazle switches its no go.  The day of witchcraft passed with the dark ages.  I have have seen enough in the south to convince me that a cistern is the institution.  You ask me, if I think that property should come down, why not wait & buy then?  Well my clear headed wife I must confess that your question is a verry rational & you are almost - entirely right.  I will try to give you my idea as clearly as posible, & I know that you will see the "pint" whether I am correct or not.  I think that land has reached about its highest figure unless the R.R. should have an influence on it, but inflated as property of all kinds is at present, that it is safe to presume that our farm may bring as much now as it will for years & especially if there should come a wet season, this is what I am afraid of, & my idea for buying is that where we will want our farm land will not come down in price
