to Uncle Johns with me and read them to the family, and the next day Aunt Sarah asked me if I would care to let her read those letters herself, that they were so good and she thought she could remember more of them to read them; they all thought them good and wanted I should have them published; now I know this expression of appreciation of your letter by your friends and your Mary wont be considered flattery.  I consider these epistles an index of your character, your soul, and I cant tell you how highly I prize every one of them, I have received 37 of them, and those with those of mine you sent home are filed away nicely in my trunk, there are several of them that will become matter of history in a few years.  I believe I wrote you in my last of being to Uncles but I wrote in a hurry and did not tell you as much about it as I wished to; you know Uncle has a sick spell almost every summer, instead of that sickness he is confined to his bed with a running sore on the point of one of his hips, we have some fears that it may terminate his life; what a dear, good, man he is, and how patiently he bears his affliction, I look like death would literaly be gain to one who had suffered so much and who was so fully prepared to die.  Vince is married you know, Ezra has gone to the Peak again, but will be back after her in August, Jennie is teaching up beyond "Eleck" Bondurants somewhere; Billy and Margery are still living at their Fathers; his hip is nearly well and wants to go back very much, he said he wrote you and Marion sometime ago but didn't know whether you had got it or not as he had received no answer.  I had a letter from Alvira last Saturday she too spoke of writing to you and didn't know whether you got it or not.  I think you mentioned getting one from her in one of yours to me; I will write her this week and excuse you for I know or consider how hard it is for you to write at all
