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Letter.

Dear Sir
Excuse the delay I have made in answering your last valuable letter. Buissness has been urgent till the present time. There has been considerable sickness this fall hereabouts. Winter has come unusually soon. Several snows have fallen; but like the clouds of King Richard ‘in the deep boosom of the mud lie buried’ at present the ground is frozen & 2 or 3 inches of snow lies upon it. We have had some cold weather; so cold indeed, that one of my ears froze in the Prairie. I have since I last wrote, enjoyed good health, but am sorry to hear that yours is but reasonable. Your news is new to me, & I appreciate it as an exile in a distant land. Oh how delightful it is to hear news from where I am bound by the tenderest ties.

There is one subject upon which you wrote however, which of course you well knew would be unsatisfactory to me. Why did you do part and leave the rest? Delicacy, yes, delicacy! So note it be. You gave Lucinda my letter & she sent it back. But forgive me, friend, I have no right to judge your feelings. — We estimate men too much perhaps from the shade of our own thoughts, and as in the fable of the Spectacles, their hue is according to the medium through which we see them. I did not expect Lucinda would travel up to Paynterstown to tell you how the case was, delicacy might forbid it; but I did expect you would say something to her on the subject, although I knew your habits and thoughts were moody and solitary, and your delicacy fastidious. But pray good friend take no offense, although your letter sadly disappointed me. Be kind enough to deliver the enclosed to her. I take the liberty of sending it to her by your hands, which liberty excuse, as I wish to be certain of her getting it. Whether she answers this last epistle or not, this will probably be the last time in our correspondence in which I shall allude to

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the subject. However I shall take it as a high boon, if you shall continue to advise me of her health and happiness. You may ask, but if all be well, when will you return? If she should answer me according to my desires I may probably return in 3 months, but certainly in six; if she does not, I do not expect ever to be back, at least not for years yet, and then it will only be at the urgent solicitation of my aged parents.

You hoped my motives were pure. My disposition is not one to take fire from a stragling spark. Your relation to her well justifies your guardian care. I can assure you I might in my opinion connect myself with the fairest, and most wealthy of this land, if my taste did not lead me another way. You may think that I might have set all to rights before I left; as things have turned out, I might, I know; but I did not know everything. I was venturing beyond the aid of Friends — a stranger in a strange land, and naturaly timid I feared to bring any one to want from my misfortunes. I thought to return in season, and bring her to my new home, which I trust and pray I may yet be able to do.

Crops have been abundant. Corn, wheat &c in profusion, prices low & money scarce.

A specimen of Illenois pumpkins is to [be] seen at Springfield. One weighs 224 pounds. In future I shall promise you more details of this country than at present; please write soon and oblige your friend.
H. Rutherford