(part of a letter from Whitfield’s mother. He's in Shuswap by now, post-1870)

 

I have not heard from the girls lately they were all well the last we heard. Elvira talks of coming here this summer. I don’t know whether she intends to stay or only for a visit. The girls all complain they get no letters from you. I suppose you hear from George occasionaly. I got a letter from him a few days ago, all well and Jane with their three youngest children was here last August. Whitfield you say you know so little that is going on in the world, you have nothing to write about. I want to ask you a good many questions, if you please to answer them you can fill one sheet. First do you live in your cabin alone, do you do your own cooking, have your learned to make bread, cake and pies, was there any improvement on your place when you went on to it, is your land timbered, what kind of grain do you raise, do you keep cows, if so what do you do with the milk, make butter or raise calves, have you any kind of wild fruit, berries, plums or grapes, can you raise apples, is there any prospect of the country being settled for long years to come, have you white neighbors any nearer than you had at first, are there many Indians.