Letter to Carl from Mabel July 29, 1910

              Ottumwa Iowa.
July 29th �10
My dearest Carl:-	Peace!
	I s�pose when you receive this letter tomorrow you will be busy preparing for the Sabbath day. And so your �supposed boss� had left this part of the county for a while then you certainly can run things to suit yourself especially when he left no directions. You certainly manage to crowd a lot into a week, that�s better to be kept busy than to have nothing to do. 
	So you wondered what time I wrote your last letter, you think I just sleep away the days do you? Well I don�t get much done it seems, but I�m not quite that bad it was about 7:00 A.M. when I wrote that letter, you might have known it was about that time for Mildred had to be at work at 8 o�clock.
	Tomorrow is Emmy Lou�s birthday, ever since she was a tiny tot she had been told that when she was eight years she should have a violin, she had always wanted one, so we had to stay by our promise. Papa and I went to pick out one this afternoon.
	We had an awful rainstorm here last night it blew something terrible. Stonewalls and pavements were washed away and quite a bit of damage done, but we were certainly glad to have the rain. Have you had any rain out there?
	Wed. eve Pandora met up at Albert Swanson�s, Edna and I played at a duet. Rev. Sandstrom of New York is here begging for the Emigrant Home he talked about half an hour. Sat. A.M. Then he called don Mr. Backman or Mr. Sodergren and neither one of them were there, they must not have wanted to speechify. It�s Sodergren + not Benson that is here. Buster was anxious to see them she said, then she added �But you might know Backman wouldn�t come he�s scared to death to look at a girl.�
	The committee to arrange for the reunion met here last eve. I tho�t I could get this letter written before they came, but didn�t so will finished it now. I�ve been awfully poky writing this week, I�ll have to do better hereafter. 
	Next Friday, Sat. and Sunday are the days set for the reunion, we decided to have a reception Fri. eve, and a picnic on Saturday. I do hope it will be a success. All of the committee didn�t come, for some of them were invited to a picnic supper given by one of the boys in honor of some Chicago people. I get stung on these couple affairs now, I feel dreadfully bad about it, yes?
	Received the nicest letter from sister Ethel the other day with congratulations and all kinds of good wishes in it. It is certainly dandy that they approve of it, as they do. Aunt Sophie was over yesterday afternoon, she congratulated me also, so it will be all over the country before Sep., but people have been saying we were engaged for tha last couple of years, so it won�t be any very great surprise to them to hear it is really true.
	Have you heard from your folks yet, am anxious to know what they will say about it. Had a postal from Hilda the other day, but nothing was said about that. 
	I guess I have to go down to the store and try to help a little this A.M. so must bring this to a close. Will really try to be more prompt next week. 
	With best of love.
	Your own Mabel.