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up the vacant plans, if you please! Do you? I think I shall try to get another book to put my "tame flowers" - garden plants into. Have as many, I should think as of wild ones, and very handsome. It is more work than I expected to fasten the plants in neatly, but they look pretty, now they are done.

          I rec'd a letter of six pages from Joseph this week. A full account of his recent stormy journey to Boston. He has probably written you about it. Says when passing through Topsham a fat old lady came to the door and called after him "How does your wife get along?" He thinking it of more importance to himself how he got along, neither stopped nor answered. She raised her voice aloud and called again "How does your wife do?" So finding he could not get rid of her he said he "turned square round and told her. " What a queer fellow he is. A dear good brother, though, but I wish he had a little more sociality about him. He does not recieve credit for what he do. serves, among people generally, of kind intentions and good feelings. But I suppose you would rather read something else than a dissertation upon the characters of our brothers, would'nt you?
    Well, would you believe it, - the old Cook house is fairly moved up to the barn for a well shed, calf pen and granary? It really looks quite respectable, but we are at quite a loss what name to bestow upon it. Can you advise?
    You know I have considerable "crack-louse" about me, don't you? Well, I persist in keeping a fire in the sitting room day after day! Hiram helps me. Quite a gathering at Uncle Joseph's Thanksgiving day was'nt there? By the way did you see Gov. Dana's Proclamation, which made so much noise all about? One Minister in this state read it on Thanksgiving  day, then read the whole of Lamentations of Jeremiah, before commencing his sermon. Our friend Wooster Parker refused to read the Proclamation, and said he had spent one whole day searching the Bible for a text to send the Gov. but unable to find one, had suited himself. Did you know that their little Mary died a few weeks since? Their prettiest child, I thought. Mr. P. has sold his place to Rev. Eusebius Hale, and boards with him. They had a real good time at the Institute, I guess. Mr. Tash got pretty