Athens O. U. Mar. 9th, 1872

Dear Sister;

As the receipt of Joe's letter happened just in time to convince me that the folks at home had not quite forgotten me, I take up my steel quill this morning to let them know I have not forgotten them. I was anxious to know how Bro. Wakefield was getting along at Valley Chapel, but Joe gave no information. I am still enjoying excellent health, and at times such an exuberance of spirits that I can hardly stay inside of myself. Perhaps the regular receipt of news from the East will in part account for it -- although as like as not you will misconstrue my meaning. I am glad that you have been enjoying yourself at school (why indeed shouldn't you with such a favored teacher?), and to hear that you have been studying Geography and "Grammer," although I fear it has been at the expense of Orthography. If any other couples become united in the "Holy bands of Wedloc," I would be pleased to be informed of the fact, if you take care hereafter not to make the "loc" quite so sharp. However there is very possibly a good reason why you could not persuade yourself to finish the word when you began it. You say Joe has been once "throug" the Arithmetic. I hope he got through it in a more successful manner than you got through that word. -- But lest I expose myself to an outburst of genuine feminine wrath in your next, I had better desist.

I had the honor -- and embarrassment -- to fill the M.E. pulpit in town last Sunday morning a week, in the absence of the regular pastor. The Hon. H. S. Bundy was one of the audience. Six or seven years ago I was one of a crowd in Portsmouth addressed by Mr. Bundy on the political topics of the day. Had any one told me then, that on such a Sabbath morning in 1872, I would occupy the pulpit in the M.E. Church at Athens, with Mr. Bundy as one of my hearers, and that he should even be affected to tears under my discourse, I don't believe I would have believed it. But the fact, I suppose, is only another illustration of the old adage, that "truth is stranger, etc." Tomorrow I have my regular appointment to fill at Wolf's Plains (I wish it were Tupper's), about three or four miles from here. The walk is a good exercise for me, and the good dinner I get always repays me for any trouble I have.

My studies have been unusually interesting this term. In Chemistry I have learned a large number of very interesting facts with regard to the composition of matter, light, heat, magnetism, electricity, etc., and those terms which once sounded so formidable to me, such as oxygen, hydrogen, sulphuric acid, hydro-chloric acid, etc., are now full of meaning. In Trigonometry I have learned how to measure the width of a river without crossing it, how to find the height and distance of an inaccessible object, and other problems of utility and interest. Also how to measure the shortest distance from one point of the earth's surface to another, with simply the latitude and longitude of the places given. I computed the distance from New York to Paris this way, this morning, and made it about 3,300 miles -- which corresponds very nearly with what you will find in your atlas. It took three-quarters of an hour of close and careful investigation, however, to solve the problem.

The term closes next Friday, and on Saturday I expect to go up to Haydenville to spend a Sabbath with R. D. Morgan. I shall probably stay until the middle of the week. I am looking for Wm. M'Kinley next term, and shall be much disappointed if he does not come. The prospect is that there will be a large number of students here, and we expect to have a very sharp Literary Contest in June. The Philomathean Society challenged us last night, and we were not loath to accept the challenge.

I am afraid I shall have to borrow ten or fifteen dollars from William to enable me to get through next Term. Tell him to be ready, if he pleases, to respond to my call, if I am under the necessity of making it. I shall know in three or four weeks.

Please write soon, write right, and tell me everything that has happened, or is going to happen. Especially about the Blue Run Class -- how it is prospering, etc.

P.S. (For Joe) Latest from N. Y. -- The month of March began on the lst inst. Mercury in the thermometer. Albany is still on the Hudson. Prospects for a summer this coming season good. More anon.