In the rush of everyday affairs, it is very easy to get our of touch with relatives, of whom they have not seen or heard for a number of years, so it was with great pleasure that I read and enjoyed the past numbers of the Cousins Correspondence Book. It brought back so vividly many of the happy times which we youngsters had at our Annual Campbell R-unions, that I can picture the "heaps of pies and ice cream" that were always loaded on those tables.

Cousin Will Selph has asked that I tell a few personal items of interest, about myself and family; this is a bit hard to do, for one who does nothing extraordinary, and is only one of the regular run of busy fellows, so if my readers are not repaid for reading these lines, it surely must be laid on somebody else.

To start with, my family consists of my better half, Grace, and my three children, Anna Louise aged twelve, William Elisha, aged eleven, and Barbara Jane¹ and my bald headed self. Yes, the bald head is a Horton trait. We are all husky, and good eaters, and believe me, we are living in the best section of the country of which this fair land of ours can boast, and if some of our Eastern friends could only see this land, they would say so too.

On leaving the East eight years ago, we came to Independence and tried our energy at ranching, and after finding out the first year that it takes more than muscle to be a success at ranching, we jumped in for a new comer, they say we did fairly well. During the three years that we farmed, we came to know the troubles and needs of the farmers in this section and it was a very easy step then to go into a hardware and implement business and make a go of it. Today for my pleasure and bread and butter I am selling farming implements and hardware and can tell you the first name of every farmer withing fifteen miles of us and whether he likes a tractor or believes in old Dobbin.

Our Willamette Valley is a garden spot and our sole trouble is to get rid of our produce.

For those relatives who desire good fishing, good hunting, good camping and a glad-to-be-living feeling, come to Oregon and truly live. For those whom we cannot satisfy that way, why, we will keep them so busy that they will soon want to go camping.

We will all look forward to this April edition of the letters and only trust that some of our relatives will drop in on us, for the latch string is always out² and there is generally plenty to eat. Let's see who will be the first to surprise us.

Meanwhile we wish to be remembered to everybody we know and hope that sometime we may be able to see a goodly number of you in person.

With love and best wishes to you all.