I read before our lyceum the story of Jimmy Brown and his monkey;
it made everybody laugh. My uncle sent me a pair of Italian Leghorn
chickens. They are beauties. We call the rooster John, and the hen
Biddy. Biddy lays an egg every day. I think it pays to keep a hen.
We live in Southeastern Kansas; this is the great coal, lead, and
zinc region. We have had a very mild winter so far. This country is
thickly settled. There has been a large immigration during the last
two years. We have school nine months out of the year. I am eight
years old, and read in the Fifth Reader, and study geography,
grammar, arithmetic, spelling, and writing.