Russell came home in June of 1919 and walked in one morning when Nora + I were calmly seeding cherries and really gave me a surprise. His dad had met the 9 o'clock train every morning for quite a while thinking he would walk in on them and Russell was surprised instead of his dad when he found his dad waiting for him. I had to take a bunch of children to Ft. Harrison the night he came home to repeat our Children's Day Program for the service men. It took awhile to get reacquainted and back to normal. He had given me a diamond before he left for service but young folks were more conservative then, so we waited until he came home to get married. "After all we had only gone together four or five years". Ha! He wanted me to go east + see him before he left for over seas but Dad never heard of such a thing as a girl visiting a camp and I doubt if I would have had the courage to go that far by myself. When I think of young folks today and the ease and ability they have I really admire their capabilities and independence. They can do things we wouldn't even have dreamed of.

The winter Russell was overseas he found himself in the hospital on Christmas Day instead of "on leave in Paris" as he had planned because - he had the mumps. It turned out to be a good day for he had 25 letters that morning and that kept him busy and was a good way to celebrate Christmas. He had his Mother and Jesse get me a red fox fur scarf and muff. When Jesse brought them up I was really surprised and pleased. I wore them for a long time. We were at Grandpa Hague's on Christmas Day. Then the mail was delivered on Christmas and I had my first letter from overseas so that made my Christmas special, too. I remember going into the little hallway at Grandpa's and calling Russell's folks. Their letter came the next day but since all the family was together they were happy to hear from Russell. We had had no mail since the 1st of November except a form card that he was on his way to over sea duty. He was put in the ambulance corps in France and evacuated back from the front. He was in France, England + Germany + since the war had ended and the armistice was signed while going over he saw no active duty and had an interesting experience.

My first gift from Russell was a silver dresser set - I still have a piece or two of it. He gave me two or three rings - one an emerald I always liked a lot, a lavalier, a wide gold bracelet with my name on it that Lynn wears, several pieces of my ivory dresser set and other things I supposed before we were married.

          end of part twenty-one

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