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Show 241 starting to pay for their books, and Olea will keep her mother informed so that she can give them credit. This implies that Ellis spent time in Churchill during the summer, doing much good in the household and giving some classes while there. Olea has appreciated having Nellie's letter passed along to her and asks her mother to continue the practice because Nellie has not answered Olea's latest two. There is a hint that her brother is not doing well when she says she knows Bard is a "splendid" surgeon, but she does not know what is the reason for some things, that "some people get there with half the brains-Dady Mc, for instance." It is nearly harvest time and Olea wishes her mother could see their good-looking fields. She closes with, "We bless you every hour for what you have done for us-and pray Heaven to reward you." Nellie has apparently married in June and, by October's end, been taken away by a "balky team" to her new home. She looked so beautiful standing on the platform prior to departure that it was all Ellis could do to regain her equilibrium and retain a "respectable" self control. Her mother admonishes this heart's child to rest well before she starts sewing for her new home and to remember what she is to do to keep well. There is such pathos in the next letter, little more than a month after the separation, that it is obvious Ellis is having difficulty letting Nellie go. That is perhaps the wrong term. She never intends to, and never does let her children go, but keeps them |