Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-01-24
',oIIIjIlllloArl
Kirksvil!e No, JAM 4:

ing OIL GOOO Cneer Farm at the
end of these three miserable
years, although this last year has
been somewhat better than its
predecessors. But an inventory
of friends shows a long list to the
l'good, and l have been thinking
over the men and women with
whom lived and worked for six
VERY busy years. The Missouri
Valley crowd seems to be badly
scattered. If were to return to-
day. there would be so many alb
sent faces that fear there would
he more pain than pleasure in the
Experience. But we have never
known more loyal, royal, lik-
able, worthwhile group of people
than the few choice souls whom
we learned to prize in the Valley
And you know right we'll that the
Burbanks belong to that category.
You are often in our spoken
words and more often in our
Thoughts.
These last few years have been
a pretty severe test for you, and
for your good wife. If you have
mot become a chronic crouch and
she a complaining nurse, you
both deserve first prizes for pa
thence and good sense. | am sure
that you have used philosophy
and that either of you will grant
that the other should have
crown. Well, here is hoping that
the new year will be very good to
IyOu.
We have been shut in for four
of the last eight days by series
of billiards.. think the first two
were from Manitoba or the coun-
try farther north that Cook dis
covered. The last one from the
southwest feels more like the
Texas variety. 1t is our first
snow to amount TO anything and
it has been whipped back and
forth and piled up in the wrong
places by high gales. The mer-
curry has been around zero most
of the time, dropping down TO 10
to 10 degrees below during the
long nights. The mail carrier
could not reach us and we do not
know when it will be possible to
get through the, great drifts. We
have done nothing but care for
the stock and sit around a hot
stove. The stock has. come
through in pretty good shape, we
think, but ths regulations of the.
crowd around the stove are not
as good as they were before the
storm.
If you could be here on one of
these cold mornings, we would
feed you griddle cakes from our
Town buckwheat, sweetened with
sorghum from our, own patch,
with home made sausage on the
side. Does that sound like war
times or does it make you hun
CRY? We threshed Sc bushels of
buckwheat and had most of it
milled over at Narrow in an old
water mill. There was nearly a
ton of the finest flour you ever
saw, and the surplus sold for 8
cents at the mill.
All our crops. were not so good.
The oats were splendid and the
| rye good; but the hay crop was
short and the corn poor. We had
no rain to amount to anything
since last June, so there was no
pasture in late summer and fall.
We have fed stock since some
time in August, and feed is get
ting scarce. But the young stock
has done pretty we'll and we hope
to get through this winter with
out much loss.
Carl is in the draft. He filed
his questionare last Thursday.
But he is in Glass ~. and has
crippled ankle. So, while he is
anxious to CO., we do not think he
will be called for a good while or
accepted even then. A fellow
seems to be more patriotic, it
|.seems 10 me, when he is past the
draft age or knows that his own
boys are not apt to be accepted.
l'Such fellows as I would make
ideal orators on patriotic occa-
sions, don't you think? But 1
really feel that this awful war is
our chief business now until it is
settled and settled right. | am
Hiking Wilson better as we pro-
coed with the great issues. II
seems TO me that some Of his
state papers have been exception
Tally excellent.
But just now, one of our neigh
Dor families are coming through
the drifts across the meadow and
must stop.
All the family join in best wish
es for both of you.
Sincerely yours,
A. b. WARNER.