The spring to me is generally the happiest & most cheerfull time in the year, but this spring has a sadness for me that it never had before; there is a void that the opening flower & the songs of birds, can not fill; I presume that you do not feel my absence as much as I do yours, you are constantly changing from one scene of excitement & bustle of military life to another so that the time does not pass so slowly as it does with me, but I would not have you think for anything that I go round constantly with tearful eyes & a woe begone countenance, the most of the time I am cheerful & happy, & I think that I will enjoy myself better teaching than I would at fathers, I have accepted the school in Robinsons district; I begin teaching in about three weeks, I got a certificate for six months, if I can get the school I will take it for that length of time, & I do hope by that time you will be at home my dear husband
  Saturday Morning 11th  Good morning dearest Lyle, how I wish that I could say those words instead of write them where you will not see them perhaps for two or three weeks.  Cy brought up your No 27 of the 29th & 30 late yesterday evening.  O you may believe that I was glad to get it, it was such a good long one too, my dear husband I know that your thoughts are with the loved ones at home, you are so punctual about writing & write so easy & as if your heart were in it, & you are away down near Vicksburg that stronghold of the enemy that has proved up to this time impregnable but I hope before this reaches you will be our, not that I wish to hear of a battle there, but that the matter may be decided, you say there is little probability of a battle there, O! I do hope there will not be, with how much anxiety I will wait & watch for this news from the south, it is strange how selfish we are now when we get papers, I always look for the department of the South & feel but little interest as to how the war is progressing in other places.  I have examined the maps in connection with the reading of the Tribune & know pretty well where
