Back to Edith Catherine - when she was old enough to get to the barn by herself she would go down and slip through the doors when she saw Daddy coming in at noon and wait for him to put the horses up. You could put her down someplace and tell her to stay there, and she was waiting when you come back. Her Daddy used to go to the woods to feed pigs. He would leave her sitting between the roots of a big tree while he fed and came back for her. She always waited. Andy told me once that Grandpa had shown the children where he used to leave their mother. We have pictures of Cac feeding chickens from her little sand bucket. She loved that job.

On the 22nd of December in 1923 Mabel and Jesse were married at the home of E.R. Lewis in Ind-polis. Russell and I went with them leaving Edith C. with Arch and Mamie. I believe Ralph and Fayola went with us. We came back to Arche's for supper and they went to their home where Norma Russell lived. Ella McKenzie owned that place and lived with them for a while when Mabel was teaching.

The summer of 1923 was a busy one for me. Grandpa and Girstle were living with us and I had extra men for hay making - shocking wheat and oats, threshing - silo filling and shredding fodder, etc. I inherited the big threshing dinners with 25 or 30 counting women and children. We planned our first vacation at Lake Manitou [Rochester, Indiana] that summer, going with Mabel and Jesse. We were to leave on Sunday but threshing was held up and by mid morning on Monday I found I was to have several extra men to cook dinner for. I don't know how I ever made that day but I did. Mabel and Jesse left on Sunday and we went on Tuesday. I don't think I'll ever forget the thrill of that first vacation and my first glimpse of a sizable body of water so blue and lovely in the sun. This was the first of several vacations at Lake Manitou up by Rochester, Ind. The next summer we went back with Lowell [Nitha's husband], Nitha [Edna's sister], Edith [Edna's twin] and Girstle [Edna's brother]. I was expecting a new baby in October and was a little uncomfortable on that trip. The first year we had many places to explore and visit. We went to Winona and saw the big tabernacle and got acquainted with Rochester.

          end of part twenty-eight

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