Grandview, Mo.
December 14, 1911
Dear Bessie:
I have been dissipating this week in Pleasant Hill. The town is wet and I really could. The Grand Lecturer of Missouri was there and Mr. Blair wanted me to go learn a lecture for him! I have a hard enough head so that when anything is pounded into it in a strong manner, it stays. That's why I got called on.
I am very glad I was, for one of the good old brothers down there took me home with him Tuesday night and gave me quail on toast for breakfast-all I could possibly hold, with a plate full of them still on the table when I left. It was a downright shame to leave them. Even the old Lecturer himself looked at them with regret. He came over specially for breakfast. This good brother begged me to stay Wednesday night, too, but I just had to come home. Papa says I only visit at home anyway. I am trying to make use of my time before we fire the hired men, for it'll be home for me then, sure enough. One reason why I attend these instruction Lodges is because when I visit K.C. Lodges or Independence they make a point to call on the farmer Master to do something-and if it is bungled they say, oh well he's from the woods; it's to be expected. If it isn't, they won't believe I'm a farmer. I am though, and I'm glad I am.
Miss Betty is a very good cook to ask me to dinner next Sunday and I shall be glad to go, more than glad, because you are going. Then I'll still have a dinner at your house to look forward to. Tell your mother that I will be pleased to have lunch there Sunday provided it won't cancel a future dinner.
Do you suppose Allen Bros. could be persuaded to take us out and come for us without a J.P. Morgan fee? It would be much more convenient than a rig because there'd be no horse to look after.
My sister has an old beau in Pleasant Hill. I accidentally ran into him and it entered my head to play a joke on her. I got one of the boys in the instruction school to write her a card and sign the fellow's initials. I beat the card home, so I don't know how it'll turn out. She has never seen his pen ability, so if Vivian gets the card we'll have a circus for a while.
It certainly is nice of you to say that you enjoyed Lucy more than Trovatore, and I am glad. I enjoyed it more than any Grand Opera I ever heard. The Christmas wish hasn't struck me yet. But it never does until the day before. I guess everyone will be happy when it's over with. Life would not be worthwhile without a Christmas, though. Be sure and save me a fig. An atrocious pun could be made here but you must give me credit for not doing it.
Nellie Noland called me up the other day and her voice sounded as if she were in the last stages of acute excitement. The cause was a visit from some people who had entertained her at Standardoilville. She wanted me for tomorrow night and I have a Lodge election and Third Degree that night. The people decided not to come until next week and I am very thankful. I could neither turn Nellie down nor miss the meeting. I don't know what I'd have done. Probably sent my astral body one place and my temporal the other.
Girls go to an awful lot of work and worry for Christmas, don't they? They'll sew and paint and do fancy needlework for weeks and weeks just to give away. It just takes me about thirty minutes to do the whole stunt. I go grab two or three boxes of candy with pretty pink ribbons (I don't know if the ribbon has one b or two) and holly on them and a piece of tin "joolry" for Mary and the job is done. I usually have to take my four girl cousins to a show Christmas week and then I'm square for the year.
Ethel says men have no business giving girls things to wear, even cousins, because they use such horrid taste in selection. I think she's embittered because a fellow gave her a solid gold bracelet with an amethyst (I wish Theodore Roosevelt spelling were in use) as big as an English walnut in it. It really wouldn't do for Liza Carilen to wear on the stage.
I have been reading The Shuttle, by Mrs. Burnett. It is not so good as The Rosary, by Mrs. Barclay, on practically the same subject. Life and Adventure are my standbys. Adventure is the only magazine printed on cheap paper that I can read. Some people like realism in their reading for entertainment but I want refined Diamond Dick in mine. I would nearly as lief read geometry as George Eliot or Browning. Sometime I am going to read Daniel Dronda though.
I hope to meet Mary in K.C. Saturday for the purpose of being bled for Christmas and will call you up about going to Mr. Pritchett's.
I certainly appreciate your making my Sunday invitation a standing one. Remember please that you are in debt to me for a letter, which I shall expect after I see you.
Most sincerely, Harry