Oct. 14th task

Oct. 14th NaNoPrep Task



My Dear Friend,



I hope this finds you and the family well.  I had the gripe but have now fully recovered and am in the midst of my final preparations for returning to Massachusetts permanently.  I should have listened to you all those years ago.  So much for the slogan ‘Go West…’ The West has not been the land of plenty it painted to be.  I have very little more to show, after twenty years of toil, then I did when I travel here.



The sale of my farm is imminent.  Let us hope that the man purchasing it is a good God-fearing man of scruples, but he is new to the area and therefore unknown to me.  I have sold all of my personal property, with the exception of my clothes and a few books and keepsakes. And I return to my birthplace with only a few trunks and the old carpetbag that travel out here with me.



I have purchased twenty-five adult horses of good quality—to break and sell as mounts or for carting—as well as half dozen ponies.  I have also been most fortunate in procuring three fine brood mares (one with foul) and a stallion for breeding.  They will provide a strong base for us to build our business.  They will travel east in the same train that I will be on.  In that way I will be able to check on the two men I hired to tend to them.  As you have always said, ‘Hire good men, but watch them.’



I know that you are troubled about the impending transaction, but it is assuredly for the best.  And it is not as if the farm is lost to you and your family.  Of course, you will always be welcome here—just as I have always been welcomed in your home. 



But it is a good business decision for both of us.  And really, what do the girls have to say about how you conduct your business?  You rarely ever used that old horse of yours, so what do you need the sleigh and buggy?  I will buy them as well.  And I’ve already agreed to provide you with a horse and buggy if the occasion should arise that you desire one.



It is a pity that neither of the girls procured husbands.  Then they would be long settled in their own homes with children and even grandchildren around them.  You, of all people, deserve some peace in your remaining years.  That Emma chose not to wed, even when you were able to find a suitable man who was willing, never surprised me. 



However, Lizzie’s enduring spinsterhood has always puzzled me.  As a child she seemed very much the romantic dreamer.  In truth, I once worried that she would do some foolish thing and run off with the first young man who looked her way.  And I think you thought this too at one time. 



But you have said that she has become more cold and distant as time goes on.  Perhaps if my dear dead sister had survived to raise them they would have been more womanly and pliant.  Sarah was the very model of the female virtues.

Ah well, the current Mrs. Borden was older than Lizzie when you honored her with your name.  Unfortunately, widowers are made everyday.  And perhaps, if our business should become known and someone approached her, she would be more amiable.



I will close this to make certain it makes this evening’s train east.  I will write before I leave.



Most sincerely,



John