Narok,
Masai Reserve, British East Africa,
Thanksgiving
Day Evening, Nov. 27, 1919.
Dear
Ones on all sides:
Who
isn’t thinking of “home and mother” today especially when one
is a widow. John has left me again and by this time is in
sight of
Kijabe or is already there, so we have not had a very
wonderful
thanksgiving day today only we really had our time on Sunday.
Rainbows were here and we had a roast chicken etc, etc. We
have thot
and spoken of you all a lot today and wondered what you were
all
doing and eating. We had strawberry shortcake for supper as a
special treat so we think we had a pretty good time and this
P.M. I
let the children off about half hour sooner and they were
pleased. So taking it all round we had a fair day of it even
without the
daddy.
There
are two letters from Lora here and one from Cora but none from
mama. Guess I am pretty prompt for me this time and may rather
startle you
but if I don’t use this machine when it isn’t in use I can’t
get it. Raymond is my stenographer and prepares the lessons
for
school and there are not many evenings that something doesn’t
need
to be done and when I write I like to have the whole evening
to
myself.
Wish
you could all see the flowers on the table. A Calla was open
for
Sunday but is fading now and then there is a bunch of
nasturtiums
which Claudon and Billy picked for me and they brot some
pretty new
ones, pink, that I had not seen before and C- was so pleased
to be
the first to bring them. Then this eve I picked a big bunch of
pansies. They are blooming pretty well now but the stems are
rather
short because it is pretty dry again. Quite a “collection for
the
day” isn’t it?
I
must tell you about Sunday. We had planned that Billy should
always
go home on Friday and, they were willing but kept putting off
getting
him and I could see they didn’t seem anxious to have him over
Sundays but thot she was needlessly worried about his not
wanting to
return but Sunday after dinner here all at once he came in and
got
her around the neck and began crying and after that would not
let go
her dress for a minute and when she went to get onto the mule
he
simply tore at her clothes and screamed and his father had to
loosen
his fingers one at a time. He was determined to go with her
and they
couldn’t do a thing with him. I know what he would have gotten
had
he been mine. But they never correct him but when he does
something
that is really naughty they laugh about it and he calls his
father
names faster than a horse can trot. After she rode away then
he
clung to his father who had ridden a bicycle and we all went
to the
brow of the hill with him and then he had to pump it up and
Billy had
to let go of him while he did that and sort of cooled off and
he put
the pump away and then hustled right down the hill before
there could
be any more protest. Billy watched him go and even waved to
him when
he went up the opposite side of the hill and shed no more
tears. But
he clung to my hand as we went down to the village and when we
got
back and had a story he couldn’t sit close enough to me and
every
once in awhile his breast would heave with a sobby sigh. My
heart
ached for the poor youngster and I don’t think he would be so
bad
about leaving if they hadn’t fooled him so often and sneaked
off. I will never think that is right. By the next morning he
was almost
himself again and now I don’t think they will come again nor
will
we think of sending him home til school is over.
We
are planning a little on going to Barnetts for Christmas and
then on
to Rumuruti to see about getting the iron or exchanging with
some one
there and if we do that we want to leave here early enough so
as to
visit among the people on the way and see where there is a
chance for
steady camping.
Two
weeks ago John and Mulungit were out north from here for Five
days
and took their loads on the donkey and mule - they belong to
Mulungit
- and John thot it was a fine way and as Tagi has two donkeys
out
among the people somewhere we thot we could make the trip to
Barnetts
with the four of them and not bother with porters, saving
expense. But we will see what we see when he gets back from
Kijabe. We are
expecting Mr. Hurlburt down for conference and Mrs. H- has
asked us
to stay with them during conference week so as to get a good
visit
with Mr. H- and we are so glad for the chance. We have heard
from
some sources that there is going to be a great change of
things soon
and there usually is a perfect tumbling upside down of things
when
Hurlburt comes around. But we have known ever since the office
was
moved up to the Congo that if there was a chance to dispose of
this
work here Mr. Hurlburt would like to and now we hear that the
Scotch
Mission wants Kijabe and the Kikuyu stations and the Friends
want the
up country places - have heard no bid for this work as yet but
someone may want it. We have always known that Hurlburt’s plan
was
to go to the places not wanted by other societies and that he
felt we
were not in the right place when territory has to be divided
out or
parceled out to the societies as they do in Kikuyu country and
then
up in Congo there are not nearly enough to put one in each
tribe -
which seems very onesided. The Friends said they would take
over the
Masai work if we would stay and work under their mission which
we
would just as soon do if Mr. Hurlburt is willing or we may go
on as
A.I.Mers even if most of the workers are moved to Congo. We
are
expecting great changes at any rate. The reason John has had
to go
to Kijabe is that he is on the program committee to arrange
for
conference and then too his bridge work finally came out and
he will
have it put in again. We expect him back a week from tonight
so his
stay wont be very long. He gets there tomorrow and they have
the
meeting on Sat. and he goes to Nairobi on Monday and hopes to
start
back on Tues. He has taken the leopard skin along and may
dispose of
it.
Hetzes
have another baby boy since Nov. 15 and Brolins have a girl
and both
families want to get home as soon as there is a boat. So many
of our
people are going home that we are beginning to feel very
thinned out. There hasn’t been a party out since July or so.
Conference is
Jan. 27-Feb. 1. You may get this in time to think of us at
that
time. I rather think there will be sort of an open program -
mostly
devoted to prayer as all are thinking much along that line
just now -
sort of a letting the Spirit have His way.
Cora
I said we had a letter from you but we really have two for the
one
you wrote to the boys came the other evening. One from Miss
Simpson
from India too. Otherwise no foreign mail. The one to me was
written Sept. 11. Needless to say we were glad for every word.
Glad
to hear of the accomplishments of our new relation - she
certainly
puts all the rest of our children in the shade. Talking before
teething is rather turned around from the civilized way but
Chinese
do do everything backwards, don’t they?
We
DO have exciting accounts to give of our work, don’t we? If it
wasn’t for the gun trap we couldn’t even tell many animal
stories. But there has been an old man here this week that has
asked
for land for a garden and he has three children and he said he
knew
of others that wanted to come when there is more land under
irrigation. Let ‘em come. You are right about the home people
expecting “results” to be reported, the work is mighty slow
and
after five years of being tired there isn’t much to
show for
it. We have thot that now since the war is ended and doctors
are not
needed over there so much there would be some that would be
glad to
come out here but they seem to be very scarce for such work.
There
is a fine young man in Philadelphia that wants to come very
much but
his wife is not in sympathy much and then he has his parents
to look
after too and they think he is crazy to think of giving up his
practice to come here and he doesn’t know how to overcome
these
difficulties. My we would like him here. He was so kind to the
boys
when we were living in Phila. He has a boy smaller than
Claudon.
My
servant problem hasn’t been so great for awhile as we have a
boy
who is about ready to be baptised and altho he gets snappy,
spunky
spells I usually let him go rather unnoticed until he cools
off. He
is a very fast worker tho I wish sometimes he was a little
more
thorough still we get on alright. We had been giving him his
food
and a dollar but this month he thot he could get his own food
so we
give him about 3 dollars. He goes to school too.
Wonder
if I should let Raymond answer his letter himself - guess I
will. He
can do it on here and that will be funs for him. Time to go to
bed. Gave Mrs. Rainbow the Dere Mable books and will send them
to you when
she is finished.
Goodnight.
Mon.
Evening: Dec. 1, At it again. Is tomorrow Lois’s birthday, I
forget if it is the second or third. Well may she have a very
pleasant one and many more of them. That picture of her in the
highchair is too cute, I have two of them now so I can eat up
one if
I can’t resist. Right under that wee ear is such a soft spot
and
just the place to kiss her dear neck. Wait til I get hold of
her. But she is fairly safe I guess.
Say
mama, tell Alice I am using two towels with “St Paul and Minn.
R.R.” woven into them and at first thot John was the guilty
culprit
but I remember she gave them to me - I think that Elmer had
taken
them some time when he worked on the R.R. I am wearing some
old
white waists that Mrs DeGroff gave me when we first got home
she thot
that I could wear them on the train and then throw them away
and here
I am wearing them now and no train in sight. They are old and
wont
stand many washings but I have quite a bit of such stuff and
am
trying to get it finished up while we are here alone. Cora you
surely remember how you made two covers (corset) for me while
I was
teaching in the Hollow and running the house at Georges and
you had
nothing much to do after Byron left, one of them was flour
sack and I
only wish that colors wold be as fast now as those are for the
print
is just as bright as tho new, and the material is in threads.
It has
worn well. Lora, I tried the new wearing apparel you sent for
my
Christmas present and it is great - think it must be a higher
priced
one than I usually get for it feels so comfy and “just right”.
I
am going to keep it new and fresh for Conference. Just as tho
anybody there cared what I wore, but I do. Now for yours of
Sept.
22, Lora. Thanks for the photos of Lois and the one of the
family. Cora to whom shall I send the extra one? Do you think
Della S- would
be glad for one? But you may have other plans for it and I
will wait
til I hear from you. My it seems a long time that you didn’t
hear
from us. I know I was very negligent those days for it seemed
every
minute was taken up some way or other with three meetings
every day
and meals and mending etc to do and I ask your pardon and will
try
never to do so poorly again.
Glad
for the convenience of the bath room for you. By this time it
can be
most worn out it has taken so long to get news and return
answer. You are no doubt finding out what a northern Michigan
winter is like
and I hope you aren’t finding it very disagreeable and that
you
both stay well. It was so bitey cold here this morning that
Raymond
said it seemed as tho Africa had forgotten that it should get
warm in
Dec. instead of cold like America. We put a pot of coals under
the
table while we have our breakfast and so keep nice and warm
but this
morning while studying Raymond in his restless way put his
sandalled
feet on the edge of the tin and it tipped and a coal fell onto
his
toes, you should have seen him jump around. It didn’t make a
blister but it hurt him a good deal.
Your
aim in the Conference is fine and I hope you can realize it.
At one
time if you had written about Albert preaching on the Holy
Spirit it
wouldn’t have made much impression on me but we have the last
few
months been studying and reading along that line ourselves and
find
it so helpful and searching too. Here is a verse that I never
noticed in this way before, but Andrew Murray writes so
helpfully on
it. Ephesians 5:18. “Be not drunken with wine, wherein is
riot,
but be filled with the Spirit”. He says that we are careful to
follow the first injunction but the second is just as much a
command
as the first and is just as necessary to be pleasing to God.
Your
list of canned fruit sounds good - and Cora canning plums -
well we
can can monkeys if we want to and you folks can’t. Tagi has
killed
three in the week and still they have riddled another piece of
corn
for us. We had used some and there wasn’t just a whole lot
there
but was coming on very consecutively and they finished it all
in a
hurry and are taking that that is just tasseling out.
How
strange I had just written about ties for the boys and your
next
letter has two. They aren’t the style they like best but they
wear then anyway tied the long way. Thanks for them. The boys
know
nothing of them. I am keeping them for Christmas. Today and
for
some time Raymond has been teasing for a piece of rubber to
make a
sling shot and I have none that I can spare so I told him I
would ask
GENEROUS Aunt Lora to send some for him and also for C- a
sling shot
for if Raymond has one there will be trouble if C- doesn’t get
one
too. Think Chas. used to get some plain rubber just for such
things
when he was a boy but I don’t know if there is anything like
it on
the market now or not or if you could get about two feet of
half inch
elastic would do too. I am just aout out of that line of stuff
and
ought to have sent to Nairobi for some for the boys waists but
they
so often haven’t any that I didn’t trouble John to look for it
and I will put a band on the bottom of their waists.
Thanks
for Mrs. Kletzings letter am always glad to hear from her and
when
you next write, if you don’t forget, remember me to her, and
tell
her I enjoyed her letter too.
You
people are certainly early enough with your Christmas gifts
and have
avoided the rush. Have neither seen nor heard anything of
mama’s
Ward gift but it will find us in due time no doubt. Say I’m on
my
last dark apron, I had intended to add a few yards of dark
material
to my Ward order - it takes about a yard and a half to make a
plain
string apron and if you want to some time send a piece or two
by a
party or when I send the order to Wards I will let you know
and you
can send the parcel there to have them put it in with the
other
things. I will wait now til John gets back and we can talk
things
over and look up just what would be nice to get and then when
we send
the order I will let you know.
Is
it possible that Mary Bubeck has a girl in College! talk about
feeling ancient. Claudon, my baby will be nine in two
weeks -
that’s awful. But John and I often say, we can see on all
sides
that we are really getting old. A little work soon tires him
out and
while I haven’t had that trouble so much I realize in other
ways
that I am crawling up in years. Every time he leaves it gets
harder. I think we haven’t been separated for a year and a
half or so and
I most had a fit when he wanted to go camping with only
Mulungit. Mostly I think because he gets sort of fainty spells
and I am afraid
of his going off entirely sometime when alone so I don’t like
to
let him go alone any place. Mulungit is on the job and stays
pretty
close around and John enjoys to have him and so they get on
alright. Mulungit went with him this time too. Today, if plans
carried out,
he was to spend in Nairobi and then start home tomorrow and
reach
here some time on Thursday. Every evening from about half
after five
til half after six we are pulling out weeds and cutting the
new sage
sprouts that are growing and are going to surprise him by
having a
big piece of the hill cleared. The boys help fine, even Billy.
I
have an envelope addressed to you Lora so I think I will send
this to
you again this time. There has been a sort of grip around and
the
women at the kraal had it and then I got it too and now it
hangs on
with lack of appetite and a sore throat and cold in head which
seems
to me is increasing the ear difficulty. Otherwise every one is
well
and hard at work. John has finally finished correcting all the
translations and Tagi is now doing Revelations which will then
finish
up the New Testament. Today I gave Billy a little Pocket
Testament
and he is proud as a peacock about it. He can only read about
a
dozen words but when we read I read it and he repeats after me
and
holds it just as tho he were reading. I have a hard time
making the
children keep from laughing at him.
Forgot
to say that we have just had word that Mr. DeGroff passed away
about
Aug. 24 I think. Don’t know what she is doing. They had been
out
on a trip of speaking for the work here and had returned on
Tues. and
Wed. morning when she went to him he was unconscious and never
again
regained consciousness til Fri. when he died. I am sure he was
glad
to go so, but it must have been rather hard for her. Now I
must stop
and get to bed. May you all have a fine holiday time and a
blessed
year all thro 1920 if the Lord tarries and if He doesn’t it
will be
all the more blessed. Your own loving ones
John,
Florence & the boys
|