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carefully up, as she always put away any thing she laid away in her dressers and there too among her ribands and laces and little personal adornments was the lock of her hair and the little box with the faded roses I placed in her hands after she died. After eleven years the thought of her last days and the time when the fact became realized that she was gone from me, come to me; it is with a sorrow that I cannot express and I hasten to get my thoughts upon something else - for when when I do suffer myself to think of her and her blessed companionship these days and years bereft of her seem desert wastes of sadness and loneliness.

Saturday Sept. 14" 1889. The morning was undecided in character but in the afternoon the sun came out, there was no wind and the air was soft and bright and quiet. A little after dinner while Calvert and I were sitting on the front porch Cantine came up and told us he was authorized to offer us $27,000 for the whole homestead property from Marys line to mine and from Chestnut to Holmes Sts. We declined the offer on the ground that we had gone too far with our proposed sale to recede and also that it was not enough. He rather (It seemed to me) agreed that it would be well to accept but I had no idea of accepting even $30.000 now and told him so. He said the offer came through a real estate dealer and he did not know who it was from but finally said, without our asking the information, that he suspected it was Sam Cuykendall. Calvert went home by 4.05 train having I hope got over his siege of carbuncles and boils. He is not to be here at the sale, having engagements in New=York. Sara and Cousin Rachel have been over to Mrs Van Deusens to hear Mrs Field and Miss Hammersley preach and pray, or something of that sort. Girard came in about 7 o'clock and told me Cantine had been in and told him of the offer he had made me and Girard had replied that he thought we were right in rejecting it while Cantine seemed to think we should have accepted. I am surprised at this. Girard thinks the next offer will be $30 000 and he thinks we ought to accept it and stop the sale. and he says he saw John McEntee this evening and he said we were right in refusing $27.000 but that he would certainly accept $30.000 and Calvert agreed with me. I try to look at the thing calmly and dispassionately We gave Cantine before he went to the Sea Shore the refusal of the place at $30.000. Meanwhile, and partly originally at his suggestion we decided to lay out the place in smaller lots and when we had so decided both Calvert and John advised me to write to Cantine at once and tell him that the offer we had made him would cease on Sept. 30" which I did and at the expiration of that time we went directly to work completing our plan and rather congratulating ourselves that the offer had not been accepted as we hoped to get considerably more for the property. Now we have sent out circulars, advertised &c and had a number of people here to make inquiries and my idea is to go straight ahead and carry out the plan we have deliberately decided upon and not be discouraged or driven from our purpose by forebodings of failure We have limited the lots and if necessary after selling one or two we can raise the limit and no combination can get the property below our limit. I feel quite sure some one wants the place and that person relies a good deal on discouraging us. I am not sanguine but I believe it will at least advertise the place and we will get, in the end much more money for it, and in this conviction with only Sunday between now and the sale I propose to go to bed and sleep soundly in the conviction that I am right. We have tried for years to sell this place as a whole without success and reluctantly I accepted this later plan of selling in lots and for my part I propose to abide by it

Sunday 15" It rained in the night and again this morning but there are clouds and sunshine now by turns, a S.E. Breeze and pleasant temperature. I cant help being anxious as to what may be the result of tomorrows venture. This may be our last season in our home and there may be a partial failure of our plan. We are at least secure against disaster                  

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