[Some paragraph marks added for ease of reading.]Templeton, Mass.,
Oct. 6, 1902.Dear Lucy:-
I am only going to write a few lines as Mama has the news for Sunday. The Lend-a-Hand had a meeting yesterday. The [sic] were only seven beside Mrs. Parkhurst - Mabel, Grace Stanly [sic], Bessie, Flossie, Helen, and I. Grace gave a report of the musicle. [sic] We have thirteen dollars now to give to the Wilsons. Mrs. Parkhurst read us a letter from that man down at Beaufort who has beening [sic] trying to start a school. He has received our books all right. He has succeeded in buying a farm and buildings for the school. We voted to dress a doll this winter. Each one make her a gored skirt, waist and hat. Mrs. P. will show us how. When we have her dressed we shall either sell her or give her away.
Mrs. P. wants to get Bessie Bourn and Cora Akers to join the L.A.H. We voted to spend fifty cents and get some fruit to send to Mrs. Hudson, Mrs. Meecham, Mrs. French, (Flossie's grandmother) and Mrs. Isaac Bourn. I was to carry them around to-day but it has rained so and I have a cold I haven't gone. After the meeting. Mrs. P. served hot chocolate, cookies, and pickles. After the rest had gone, Helen, Bessie, and I went over to the Lord's piazza where Helen and I two-stepped. Then we went and climbed apple-trees. That as Maud Richards that asked me about you. Auntie says that if she had known that you were going to play such a trick about the sofa-pillows she would have finished hers before she sent it.
With Love
Mary.