Butiaba, Uganda, May 27, 1914
Dear Ones All:
At last, though it is almost 10 oclock A.M.
I will begin this letter. We are having special meetings now
evenings so I must do my writing in the day time and as John
works out on the road every A.M. and the children go with him
I am pretty free from annoyances except the people who want to
sell and I have been buying almost every thing that came along
this morning and now I think they have all pretty well
dispersed and I am left with the boy who is fixing turnips for
dinner and as he never saw them before I must run out once in
a while or likely he will put the peelings on and throw out
the good part.; besides these there are new potatoes and
squash pie - yum yum! want some too?
Well the latest news is that there is no
news and wont be til June 22. We had mail on May 7th
and that is the last til June 22 we were told - of course that
means that we cant get any mail out either so last week I sent
some postals by way of Irumu and hope they will then go by
Fort Portal and Entebbe and Mombasa then you ought to get them
before you get this - but if they go by way of the west coast
then there is no telling when you will get them. Please let me
know when you do get them - yours Cora, was a birthday card.
and yours mama was a Card with an S” in the corner.
Well, Lora I haven’t answered your long
question letter yet and in the last mail Alice your letter
came enclosing the will and papers to be signed and some from
the County-Clerk but I don’t really know whether those must be
signed or not and with the others I dont know whether they
must be signed before men - I’d have to go to the Boma to do
that as there is no man here but John - Think tho that I’ll
have two of the Ladies sign up and if it isn’t right then I’ll
have to do it over. I’m so sorry that it is taking so long
this time before getting them sent back to you - but as it
can’t be helped I don’t know what more we can do. We are
certainly having about all we can stand of worries and
fretings over things that we don’t know what to do about. It
has been six weeks since Mulungit and his crowd should have
been here and we have not heard one word from them and last
week we sent two of our people to Kilo to learn if they had
been heard of there and last night one came back and said a
white man met him on the way and sent him back and that no
letter can go to the Chief De Poste unless it is in an
official envelope - so the only thing to do is to write and
send it by mail and that takes so long - we would have done
that before but thot one of our men would go quicker and bring
an answer right back. John really ought to go but he has been
so miserable since he got back from Aru that he ought not to
go again and then too it leaves the station without a man
which is undesirable - and then the uncertainty of not knowing
whether or not we would find then even if we went for them -
not being positive that they were allowed in the Congo. The
thing that we are afraid of is that they have perhaps been
shut up in prison for not having the exact papers - they are
awful strict about having boys from Uganda come over here and
it may be the fellow at the landing place was not very
particular and didn’t give them all the papers necessary or
something else and these terrible Belgian Officials are awful
to deal with as they don’t consider the natives as human
beings but animals and they have no sense - not even common
horse sense, most of them and especially if they are mission
boys they seem to take a special delight in tormenting
missionaries. We have written to Kasenye - the place where
they landed and think now it is best we wait for an answer
from there but that takes so long even if answered promptly
and the Officials aren’t usually in much of a hurry. ((((The
worst of it is there is a girl among them who is expecting a
baby now most any time - Of course Alta thot they would be
right with them all the time and she could see to her, but
they really had no business bringing along a girl at all and
especially not one in that condition but it is Alta’s doings -
even though her father objected - but what he should have done
was to say no! and enforce it.)))
But so it goes and what we have to do is to
do the best we can and leave the rest and not worry but it is
so hard to know what is the best in this case. If we should go
and not find them and John get sick we would be very sorry and
if we don’t go and the boys are suffering some place and we
could give them relief we would feel awful badly about it too.
If we were sure they are in the Congo we would go even tho
John would be pretty sure to be done out for awhile. He never
goes on trips any more without having to spend some time in
bed when he returns and the last trip to Aru was awful hard on
him and for two weeks or more he just could hardly navigate -
is feeling quite well again and even strong. We are quite
determined that if he goes I will go too and then he wants to
take the children too and that would be quite expensive and
unnecessary but of course we wouldn’t feel so much like
rushing if we took them with us. I don’t care a bit about
going, I’d rather stay here but I feel so concerned about the
boys and I know that Mr. Hurlburt would have gone for them
long ago and I feel that we ought to carry out his wishes as
much as possible. And too, we don’t want them to think we are
not concerned about them and are careless for there isn’t one
but would risk a good deal to help them but the question is
would it accomplish anything to go. The trip would take at
least three weeks at the shortest and likely more.
I thought perhaps John might make up his
mind suddenly that we would go so I better get this letter off
and as many more as I could. It’s such a long time til the
mail goes that we ought to get everything pretty well answered
up.
Do any of you remember that vase that Becca
gave me - it stands high and was sort of a Japanese ware -
always was so good for a big bunch of flowers and made a nice
ornament when not in use. Well the boys were playing with a
cloth ball one day and hit that vase and knocked it down from
the mantel and broke the top off but I thot it would still be
alright to put flowers into but when I put water in to put
some flowers into it I found a long crack that let the water
stream out so it is of no use but looks and those aren’t very
great since the top is all off. I miss it so as we used it so
much.
We had such a nice squash yesterday - it
was so dark yellow inside - most like the hubbard. Of course
everyone wants seed but we managed to keep some for ourselves.
What we had left as vegetable I made into a pie which is not
as short as the best quality for the simple reason that the
fat is rather on the short side because the boat didn’t bring
my order over. But wont there be heaps of stuff when it does
come. It is now time to finish off the dinner and I thot I
would call John this noon and get a walk out of it. He is
making a level path out to some villages so that we can go out
on wheels and now he is getting quite a ways away and as he
has no watch and mine has taken a notion to gain like sixty -
just the same trouble as before Miss Simpson took it home - he
is without a time piece so we call when dinner is ready.
Last evening he got caught in a rain and I
did too almost as bad - He took a long walk to see where he
wanted the road to go and as it was getting near supper time I
thot I would walk out to meet him as it looked as tho it might
rain and then we couldn’t take a walk after supper - so I went
and went and got to the end of the new path and onto the old
and a woman told me he had come home by the old path so I
skipped along fearing I’d be caught and got in just as it
began to sprinkle but John had not returned, the woman was
talking thro her hat - and John got fairly well soaked before
he got in.
Now I’ll go. ---------------- Here again. 2
P.M. But I can’t write very well as I’m eating an ear of roast
corn. It is just beginning to come in now and it tastes so
good. Had pancakes this morning with some in them - say by the
way if you ever want to get anything in the line of a pancake
griddle get that one from M. Ward & Co. that is like a
narrow griddle holding three cakes and then three separate
individual ones attached to the big one. It makes them so nice
and round by dropping the dough into the single ones and then
flopping them over into the big one. Gribbles had one and he
let me use it while he was staying with us and it is still
here. We seldom have pancakes but lately we have sort of a
notion for them.
I’m getting our order off to M. Ward this
next mail for Xmas. Seems rather funny to be thinking ot Xmas
already but I’ll tell you if one doesn’t think of things in
time you’re pretty well left without anything. We are getting
a clock as I am afraid this one will give out sometime and
then we’d have nothing and it is so awkward to be without a
time piece. Do you know what we have in that line? It is the
one papa got for me the first time I came out - a little alarm
clock - cost something less than a dollar - and it has done
fine; it loses now every night when I wind it I set it about
ten minutes ahead and then it is about right in the morning
and we at least start the day right. Now the one we are
sending for is 3NP7912 - a Seth Thomas make and very plain.
Another extravagance is a Barber scissors - I have such a time
when I cut the three heads of hair; my scissors are all old
and not at all sharp and there is usually enough fuss to get
them to sit still when the scissors work right. I want to send
to Nairobi for pocket knives with a chain to them for the
boys. and nearer Xmas time will get some nuts and dates too.
John has just come up from the garden and
says it is awfully hot down there - he is just about all
knocked out. He was feeling quite a bit better and it seems
just that little that he walked fast to get out of the rain
last night has upset him again so it is rather hard to decide
to start out on a long trip like going to Kilo. He gets sort
of giddy and staggers so he must walk with a cane. He had that
trouble since his last trip and then was getting over it but
yesterday seems to have brought it on again.
He went at the organ again last Sat. and
recovered the bellows all over and it went much better and
then we felt so good but he was fixing at the reeds and the
more he did the worse it got so it is just the same as before
and now he has given it up - can’t imagine what else is needed
and thinks the wood is at fault having been so soaked perhaps
the wood is warped and does not fit as it should. Now he is
doctoring up the little organ it has been squeaking and wheezy
for some time. And now Cora here is a mission for you if it is
convenient; we want some more springs for the Bilhorn organ we
have - Style 3 Bilhorn Folding Organ - Two pair of springs.
Now how to send them is the question. But I suggest this: send
them to M. Wards and order enough more to make about a three
pound package or seven pound or even eleven pounds and let
them send all parcel post.
Anything for the children in the line of
kindergarten or school helps - I need a table cloth too or
anything you may think of that one always needs and then send
in the bill to us. One of the springs now is a piece of old
saw and either one may give out any time and I do pity the
rest of us as well as John if he can’t have something to play
on. Then if you go to the Bilhorn Music store for the springs
see what they have in five octave folding organs and send us a
catalogue and prices if possible and not worrying you too
much. There Cora you have your orders. Now mama, I would like
something that has the next years Sunday School lessons in for
the boys. Something like Torrey’s little red book on the List
of the lesson or something that would have the lesson for the
whole year. We get them in some of the papers but not regular
and then always behind hand. I’d like some helps too not just
the lesson from the Bible. Soon now I want to start them in
regular work in school and then I think they ought to have the
Sunday school lessons too. I could read to them stories from
the Bible and always have talks with them on Sunday and every
evening but I’d like to think I am teaching the regular lesson
that the rest are getting. I tell you what, you always want to
know what to get us for Xmas that can be your gift to the
family. See? and Lora - John has taken such a fancy to ginger
we wondered if it would be possible for you to get some ginger
roots to us when they are in season - so we could plant them.
You will know perhaps whether they would live or survive the
trip.
Just happened to think Cora that there
might be some cretonne procurable at M.W.’s Something that
would go nice with the things in our room - grey and pink -
either color predominant. I must get something for curtains at
the clothes closet and the windows and a cover for a trunk and
think you might be able to find something in their catalogue.
Well I have been a long time fooling around
and now have put the potatoes into the oven to bake for supper
- the boy is having an extra lesson at this hour.
John has finished the organ and it goes
very well --- he just said that I should write that if you
mama come out you should bring a five octave folding Bilhorn
and we would settle with you later. Even if we should go home
soon there are always people who would gladly pay the price
for one and we could easily sell it and get another when we
got to America. We don’t want it sent out tho as freight-only
if you should come then bring it along. --No more sending
organs as freight for us please. This little one has lasted
well and such hard wear - on safaris and all over and still
pretty good only it is getting old and may give out anytime.
I must write Aunt Annie and tell her how
much we appreciate her vegetables. Have so enjoyed the beans
and the vegetable oysters and now the cabbage is coming on and
John is so fond of it and we have never been able to raise any
with nice heads but this is doing fine and we are looking
forward to sourkrout.
The papers came in last mail also the typed
copy of funeral etc. was so very glad for it and shall always
keep it. Tell E.H.B. “thank you so much for it all” The
Messengers I am reading as I get at them - having no mail for
so long makes one appreciate the extras. Tell Mrs. Urban that
I am very grateful to her for saving them for me. We haven’t
received any Messenger for awhile but perhaps they have stuck
some place and will come next mail. Did you mean you were
sending a Republic to us? There has none come yet but I thot
that perhaps as you sent the typed copy there would be nothing
more in the Republic or it may come next mail too. All these
things come and I try to think that it must be different
without papa and think how happy he is now and all he knows
about things how they are and how they are going to be but
with it all I find myself again and again expecting him at
home when we go there again. I can’t make it seem the natural
thing yet that he really has gone from us. I don’t believe I
ever will be able to realize it until I have been home and
learned to adjust myself and thots to things as they are now.
I do so hope you are planning to come out mama. Some days I am
so sure of your coming that I am planning what we will do and
what nice times we will have together picking over wool for
comforters and doing so many little things that I haven’t had
time for yet but think by that time I will get at it. Don’t
just dismiss it and say you can’t for it wont only be for our
pleasure but think how much more intelligently you could speak
on mission subjects for you would have such a chance to study
them in so many different countries and denominations. Where
John is making the path now it is so lovely to go for a walk
as it is along side of a hill along the deep valley to the
front of us and the views are something grand – really I don’t
believe there is anything to surpass it in the world - don’t
see how it could. Now Lora, you add your persuasive powers for
I know you are just as anxious to have her for a visit as we
are. And what an education to get around so far - I know you
don’t need the theoretical education for you have all that but
to really see is much better and not to be compared with
reading. Think! Consider! Reflect! and Decide! then Come!!!!!
Can’t tell you Cora where you will find
Bilhorn Brothers but John was there before and got some
springs and says its down in the business part someplace and
you can look them up in a Directory, can’t you?
We have had a siege of sickness here for
about a week we were all down but the children. I was feeling
miserable and thot it might be fever but had no rise in
temperature until toward the end and then only a little but I
finally went to bed one P.M. but was up again the next
morning. First Miss Hurst came down with fever and then Miss
Harland. Miss Stirton was taking care of them but she is so
stiff with Sciatica that it is hard for her to get around.
John was in bed most of the time that week and then I finally
gave up one Sat. P.M. Miss Harland is quite miserable yet at
times with her stomach but otherwise we are alright again.
Must stop now.
There! Just got the vegetable oysters put
on for soup for dinner - there’s a recipe in the last Woman’s
Home Companion that sounds good - I always made it like we do;
regular oyster soup but this has a few more flomadoodles to
it. My it is so dark I can hardly see - the clouds are blowing
in awfully this morning makes it seem as tho it was snowing.
John has not gone on the road this morning because it looked
so much like rain - he has set the men to work and he is
playing the organ. Of late he has been so interested in the
old German songs and you know I have Aunt Cora’s Hymn book and
he plays from that all those good old songs that just hearing
them played puts one into a worshipful mood because of the
memories connected with them. Page 456 has always been my
favorite and whenever I go to the organ - which is very seldom
- I play and sing that one and the next one to it makes one
think it is summer and the church windows are open and the
birds are singing while the preacher - Mr. Schutte usually is
preaching. We got the College Chronicle with his picture and
biography in. I can’t realize that either. Yes indeed I do
think papa and Rena and Mr. Schutte are enjoying one anothers
company. How fast they are going.
I’ve signed up everything and hope it is
alright. Alice if you don’t write without hurtig your leg Lora
and I will soon wish you would hurt your leg about once a
month, not so, Lora. We certainly did enjoy your letter and
want you to do it again for it is as different from mama’s as
if you lived in a different country. Please don’t let it be
another year and a half before you write again. Why you’ll
forget how. Of late Claudon sticks “but though” into
everything - He says “Well, I want you to but tho”. Yesterday
he fell on his nose and scratched himself awfully and made his
nose bleed and had hardly stopped crying for that when down he
went out of the back door onto his poor nose again and made it
bleed again then the first thing this morning he fell again
and we have told him he’ll rub it right off his face if he
doesn’t look where he is going. He falls so much and I can’t
see why. His slippers are about the right size. Its when they
have shoes that don’t fit that they seem awkward and tumble
around a lot. He is so tanned - looks like an Indian.
Sometimes he wears socks like the English do and from above
his knees to a little above his shoetops he is so very brown
that I don’t like to put anything onto him but long stockings
so as to cover it up. they have both been so well for quite a
while now and I am not giving them much quinine - only about 2
grains a week.
What a joke on the flowers but really it
was too bad you didn’t get yours. We do enjoy having some in
the house once in a while. Have a few roses and now one
carnation is blooming in the garden but these on the veranda
don’t seem to do very well so far as blooming is concerned.
Have some salvias blooming and of course they do make a nice
show. Its rather hard to get seedlings started - they come up
alright but something seems to eat them off before they get
much more than above the ground. I did want so much to get
some pansies agoing but the little seed I had only a few came
up and then those were taken. I have something a growing that
mother S. sent me the seed and I planted it in the garden then
set the plants up here and they are just growing and growing
and not blooming. They look a little like Sweet Williams. I
don’t care much for them and will put something else in when I
get something agoing. But I’d like them to bloom before I root
‘em out.
Sat. Morning; Mail leaves tomorrow, so I’ll
add a little before folding these up. I really ought to write
a lot yet but I will write again next week - the boat seems to
be making an extra trip but we are glad of it as we haven’t
had a chance to send out mail for a long time. We have had two
mails within the last week - in the first one your letter,
mama, came of March 28th and finally some came from
you Lora, 4 - no three letters and a card - and last night a
parcel with a piece of goods - tan with red dots and you never
said you were sending anything so I was surprised and a parcel
from Father S-. We were so glad for them all and another good
thing was that we had a letter from Mr. Miller at Dungu saying
that Mulungit and his crowd got there about May 6 - If we
weren’t glad to hear that for we had never had a word to know
where they were and if John had been well enough we would have
gone to Kilo to look for them.
Now I’m chuck full of talk and would like
to rattle on for the whole day but there are some others that
I must get off and so I’ll continue next week and try not to
forget anything. I am so very sorry that this will business
has taken so long - here is a coincidence that isn’t very
common: In last mail Miss Hurst got about the same thing that
I did, only it was an uncle that died and some of the property
was divided and she got papers to sign and return at once and
she too has had to wait so long before replying.
I will put a card in that Mrs. Haas sent of
some pictures she had taken but they didn’t come out very
well.
Miss Hurst got a parcel from her sister
last night with chocolate Easter eggs in it and this morning
she called the boys down and gave them each one and how
tickled they are. She had given C. a little fluffy chicken for
his birthday and now they are putting these eggs under it so
they will hatch - we have a hen setting now and they can
hardly let her alone for wanting to see if the chicks aren’t
out yet.
Glad you suggested, Lora, about washing out
ones ears for mine has itched so much and Miss Stirton is
going to give it a cleaning with oil and the water. hope it
will help my hearing, for it bothers me.
But I think I really must stop now and
write father. Only this yet last week our box came that
fathers sent almost two years ago. Can’t imagine where it has
been sticking but we got it and things are in perfect
condition - they had sent some dry apples and they are so
fine. They will be glad to hear about it.
I’ve brot in about a half dozen cabbage
heads and am going to make some sour krout then some day in
about three weeks you can all come here for a krout dinner.
Goodby for this time and expect another very soon. Hope you
are all well and hard at it. We are feeling so glad since we
know that the Kijabe Boys - Mulungit etc are well and safe. I
had to take quinine again last night as I keep feeling like
fever - yesterday I had a real struggle; I dont understand
myself lately for I rarely knew what it was to get just real
shakey tired but lately I cant do anything without feeling all
done out. After walking up from the garden yesterday I was all
perspiration and had to lie down and rest. Think I can
sympathise with John better - for he cant do anything yet but
watch the workmen.
More later
Lovingly Flo.
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