Mar 6th

There is one piece of good news to tell you and that is that a Mail is to leave here for Benton next Monday. The bearer of this mail is none other that the illustrious John Glen[?] mentioned in ‘From Ocean to Ocean’ as the “typical man”. He is or will not be alone this time, he has brought his wife with him, a pretty little Cree Halfbreed from Fort Edmonton. He is not prospecting now for gold digging, but is back[?] from accumulating the filthy [?] by selling vegetables, butter etc to any who will buy. So you will I hope, before very long get another letter from me. We cannot tell if the letters sent by Baker ever reached Benton, perhaps he was killed on the prairies and the letters [?] scattered to the wind storms. Not a soul has been out here from Benton since our last Mail arrived. It has been blowing hard all day and the wind now is howling outside [?] beating against the house whistling through the many cracks + crevices of our humble homes + [?] mimic [?] of dust upon the floor. Everything in the room after being [?] [?]for two or three minutes becomes grey with dust. The lamps flicker + tremble with a [?] [?] lighten and the mud[?] drops at frequent intervals with a [?] [?] [?] upon the floor. Happy are we if it misses our heads. While I was sitting here quietly writing 8 or 10 men have taken it into their heads to desert. A party is just starting out in pursuit. But my opinion is that they might just as well stay at home. It is very problematical if they catch them, still more problematical if then they can force them back and extremely doubtful what we can do with them when they are brought back. They have been lured away by the tales of the traders about us, of golden visions of high [?] in [?] of the gold diggings. + a general feeling of dissatisfaction with their position[?] pay and work here. I near expect to see them here again. However I must now say Good night it is very late.