Templeton, Mass.,
Sept. 17, 1905.
Dear Lucy:-
Please don't make any remarks on the kind of a letter that you receive this week from me for I have a most beautiful cold. I got it Friday but I guess I had fun enough to make up for it unless it grows worse. I wanted to do something for it this P.M. so I made some peppermints. I dropped them & had real good luck for a beginner. Three of them were real good shape but all were a trifle broad-shouldered. Carrie has been sick this last week. She had cold & about the same as "la grippe." She was out of school three or four days.
The cattle-show was a great success & the common doesn't look very badly now that it is over. In fact I don't think that one would imagine that a "vast multitude of people" were on it Friday. It seemed as if I saw everyone that I ever knew or thought of knowing. There were quite a number of Hubbardston people there & I was introduced to quite a number. I shook hands with the oldest man in Hubbardston - a Mr. Clark.
Alice Miles came up down to the house a little after nine. Mama wasn't ready to go up it [sic] town so I went up with her & we walked the common & stood still until ten waiting for the Parade. It was little but oh! my! The Inn Girls got the first prize. They had a big team trimmed with lavender & white & drawn by black horses. The girls had white hats all just alike with purple strings on them. Smith & Esters sent up a very pretty team. It was decorated with green & white. In it were several pieces of furniture (no coffins). It was simple but extremely pretty. A good many people think that it deserved the prize that Robichaud & Mountain got. R. & M.'s team was elaborately trimmed with all colors of the rain bow. There was lots of work in it but some of the colors didn't jibe very well & that rather shorted the effect.
Dora Bourn drove a team all decorated with Templeton Recorders. Blanche Judd rode in a buggy all trimmed up with pink. She looked rather small driving around all alone. She would have got a second prize I guess if there had been such a one. Lincoln & Johnson had two teams. Moses Winch drove one all decorated up with lavender & white. Mary Winch & Esther Johnson rode in it. Arthur & Warren Willoughby drove the other. It had some red, white & blue on it & a good many small bags of flour.
I tended a table & sold souvenir postal cards for about two hours. That is where a [sic] got a good share of my cold. White I was standing by the table a younge [sic] couple came up & the fellow knew me & knew me well I should judge. He called me by name several times. Who he is is more than I know. I began to think I should starve but finally I saw Helen Bourn & then Rob Bourn so I got off. Rob was the one that wanted me to serve there.
I think that it was Walter instead of George Hadley that won the potato race. I was watching them & I don't think that George entered. Walter got through nearly a minute before the others & called out to the others who were still running, "What you doing that for? I have beat this." I don't think that it was much credit to Herbert Wright to win the jumping. I should think that he could step over easily.
We didn't get up into the hall until most of the things had been carried off I guess we saw most of them as people were carrying off. There were some very cute little puppies out of doors. I almost wanted one. Fannie Sargent have got back. [sic] She is going to stay here about ten days. I will tell you the rest some other time. I don't know what I am writing now. Amber sends his regards. X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X With love, X X X X
X X X X X X X X X Molly X X X
[Full article was enclosed, though only part of it is visible in the scan.]