All kinds of herbs are scarce except those which grow on the prairie. The babies, poor things, have to do without t heir catnip tea, because none grows here. Wyatt says nothing will every make him leave Waterloo but the scarcity of timber. A good chance to get wood land would be a great temptation. In other respects we are well enough suited here, but wood will be high and hard to get before many years.
Lumber is too dear and scarce.
I shall be very glad for I have it very inconvenient now. We can have an excellent cellar as there is no danger of water rising in it as at North Manchester, for the wells in West Waterloo are all, I believe, over twenty feet deep. Our lots descend very much from the house. The town plot is not level, but rolling, not abrupt and hilly, but gentle elevations, which adds greatly to the beauty of the place. Almost everyone who sees Waterloo likes the place.