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1007 West Oregon
Urbana, Illinois
January 4, 1955

Dear folks, 

The $5 which you found came to us as the reward of virtue. After scrimping painfully for several weeks and starting out a new set of two weeks with the usual tiny amount ($15 for food, etc.), of which we had spent more than half for the first week's groceries, two miracles occurred: last night a fellow came over and returned some $4.75 for a record that was returned; and today came another $5. Now we can buy such things as stamps and staples. 

We are sorry to hear about your illnesses. Jack came back from his New York trip with a case of laryngitis, which is now still in the form of a cold which is keeping him kind of low, though not down. I have been well since last week, but was sick with a cold at Xmas. When Jack's mother got down to La. she and everybody else there had an epidemic of virus. Christmas time seems universally a time for sickness rather than good cheer. In that respect it is very much like honeymoons. 

Our cat Penelope seems quite well these days, after recurrences of her eye trouble. Her owners were very much upset to hear of the illness and want to pay her bills, which we will allow, though they have been very small. Her cure was effected more by our sense, at last than by anything a vet did. We changed her diet, from the recommended dog foods and dietary foods which she couldn't stand to something she was crazy about -- cheap liver and hamburg. Now she is getting fat and her eye trouble is gone. We have hopes that the recovery will last this time.