[Note at top:] Be sure to put the ticket in the coat you are going to wear

Dear Calvin,

You certainly are having warm weather for your exams¹, it is so trying so dry and smoky like August, we want rain so much. Am afraid the comet is going to burn us up.² We have just got the double windows off. The snowdrops have been out some time. The crocuses are very bright and some violets; waiting for a man to take off the manure These wretched gardeners are just a nuisance, no comfort with them. Our visitors are leaving us to-day we enjoyed having them very much, Mai Mathewson is a very nice girl and of course Nell, is always herself³.

We are very busy hurrying up our sewing, for when Tom was up at Gravenhurst, he talked with the doctor and found a cottage close to the Minnewaska and when he told me I decided to take it at once. The Dr. thought R.[Ruby] needed a change and to have her own people. So Hilda is to take charge and I am to be there as much as possible⁴. Say nothing if you write, as we have not told Edna or Mary yet. It is $15 a month and we have to take it for eight mos. This is all just now, will expect you Saturday night. Get down to boat as early as you can, if you expect to get a seat inside. Boat leaves at 5. Have your overcoat.

With love your mother.

¹ On April 26 Mary wrote to Calvin about his exams:

Amidst all my cares, I feel I am not half thankful enough for your health. It really is such a great blessing and such a comfort to send you off in perfect health, and after all the disappointments it is a most wonderful achievement to have finally passed all your examinations and be finally launched, for which we have great reason to thank God. One cannot forget the time, when we both decided that nevermore must you attempt examinations. It is truly wonderful, the goodness of God! (W9033)

² It was Halley's Comet and it was due here about 23rd to 30th March, 1910.
"Halley's Comet (HAL-lee)
Halley's Comet has been known since at least 240 BC and possibly since 1059 BC. The most famous appearance was the night before the Battle of Hastings in 1066 AD. It was named after Edmund Halley, who calculated its orbit. He determined that the comets seen in 1531 and 1607 were the same object that followed a 76-year orbit to the far reaches of our universe. Unfortunately, Halley died in 1742, never living to see his prediction come true when the comet returned on Christmas Eve of 1758.
Halley's Comet put on bright shows in 1835 and in 1910. Then in 1984 and 1985, five spacecraft from the USSR, Japan and Europe were launched to make a rendezvous with Halley's Comet in 1986. One of NASA's deep space satellites was redirected to monitor the solar wind upstream from Halley. Halley's Comet was one of three to be visited by spacecraft. The nucleus of Halley's Comet is ellipsoidal in shape and measures approximately 16 by 8 by 8 kilometers (10 by 5 by 5 miles)." http://www.astronomysight.com/as/info/comets.html

³ Mai Mathewson was from Goderich (W6732). She may have been related to Findlay Mathewson, student preacher in W4425. Nell was, likely, Nellie James who attended Mai's wedding on August 22, 1911 (W6758). For the James family, see W4436).

⁴ When Tom was visiting Ruby in March 28, 1910, (W6673), he waited for the doctor's examination and report, and we see by this letter that the doctor told him then that Ruby needed to have her family closer.
For Ruby's illness, tuberculosis, see W6135. For a subsequent "cottage" closer to home on Hamilton Mountain, see W9058.
For more information on Ruby and her treatment for Consumption (Tuberculosis), see her biographical sketch by clicking on "Family" on the Home Page and then clicking on her picture.