want to hear from you very much. I will have to wait another week and trust to Providence. I do not know what part of the country I will —....
The remaining part of this letter is missing.
Dear Father and Mother,
... It is time I had [a letter from you directed to Shasta which I hope will be there soon. I have my name on the express list to Shasta which comes here once a week. I have been doing tolerably well since I last wrote you making six or seven dollars per day which is moderate wages. Boarding is very high. It costs us one dollar a day each and cook it ourselves.
I am mining with Andrew Davison, Mrs. John Crain's son. He is a good fellow to be with. He knows all about mining which I do not yet but I am learning. The Doc [Partlow] has gone off in the mountains prospecting. He may do well and he may not. I am going to stay here as long as I can make five dollars a day. ...
This place has improved very fast since I came here. It was composed of a few log cabins when I came here but now it is quite a city. There have several large frame buildings gone up and several more going up. ...
I will now give you our bill of fare and the cost of the same. We have good bread which I make myself. The flour costs us at present eighteen cents per pound. Of meats we have ham, the cost forty cts. Beef thirty to thirty-five cts. We had a mess of sausages at fifty cts a pound which was rather steep. Beans twenty-five cts per pound. Sugar and coffee thirtyseven cts. Molasses one dollar a qt. O yes, we have something extra, a keg of pickles which cost us three dollars per gallon but they are extra. We have some butter at times which is from one dollar to one dollar twenty-five cts per pound. There are about three Dairys. Milk is worth fifty cents a quart. ...
There is beautiful weather here now, the rains are all over. There are snow-capped mountains all around us which makes a cool breeze all the time. The nights are cool, not like the summer nights in the States warm and sultry. ...
They are sinking deep shafts here for gold. If they prove to
