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We started about daylight Monday Morning 3d went up to Mt. Hawkins to Breakfast where the folks were most all sick; then on to Little Muddy spending the day there and went up to Richmond just at night when cool. Mr. Smith left his carriage at Little Muddy, for Given to carry certain Ladies to a Ball with; and he rode with me for the rest of the week mainly. At Richmond we found great preparations for the 4th a barbecue etc. Monday evening we saw the cooking going on. It would have amused you. I must try to describe it. Imagine first long trenches dug in the ground say 3 or 4 ft. wide & 2 or 3 ft. deep & almost any length. Across these trenches laid lots of round green sticks, say two or three inches through & peeled. On these sticks for a gridiron lay the Meat, quarters & halves & sides & peices & strips of oxen, & cows, & sheep & hogs etc. etc. Near by an immense fire, piles and cords of wood burning. Lots of smutty & sweaty looking man, some piling on wood to replenish the fire, and more scraping out the live coals, & throwing into the before mentioned trenches, under the meat. It was quite a scene in the night, I can assure. The next day without stopping to see the Assemblage at Richmond which amounted to some thousands, Sons of Temperance Odd Fellows etc. etc. We went on North on the R.R. Line, paying considerable attention to that in its various manifestations. At South Centralia ( The Mile south of the Centralia Station, (quite a village which has sprung up there within a few months) we passed another Celebration, quite a crowd, a thousand or two, with a tall flag, a small cannon, an orator & a PicNic Dinner in a Little Grove. We were urgently solicited to remain but went on. We were there about Noon. Stopping awhile at Centralia Station we went on to Central City two miles beyond. There was another similar crowd & adjuncts; they claimed 4 or 5 thousand people flags, cannon, & 2 or 3 orators, Judge Underwood for one. The Crowd just beginning to disperse when we got there. We went to Dunning's, the most comfortable place it is in the country now. The Family you know consists of Mrs. Hurd the Mother of the Dunnings, mentioned first as most important, George Dunning, & Fanny his wife with Little Charley. G.D.'s brother C.