Cg057b01f10
JMU
To Elkanah from Mary

Wieletpoo Oct. 8, 1838
My Dear Husband
	I venture to write you a few lines altho it is uncertain whether you receive them. Yours of Setpt. 19, & 20, were received on the 1st, Aust. It is needless for me to say that we were glad to hear from you, as we were looking for you or some intelligence from you with some degree of anxiety. I am thankful you meet with so good a degree success. Mrs. W. thinks the cool reception you met at C. might be owing in part to your not making a favorable impression at first. She spoke as if she thought Mr. E's distant, reserved manners were as much to blame as any thing. She was less severe in speaking of you. She thinks however that you & Mr. M. will be more pleased with eachother on further acquaintance. Mrs. W. still continues to manifest a partiality for us. She says you need not be concerned about me at all. That there is no danger but that I shall behave well. She appears to be very well satisfied with my proceedings thus far. If she were not I should be likely to know it, as she is not sparing of hints to others when they do not suit her. My health has been & is good. Somewhat better most of the time than it was before you left. I wrote a line to Dr. Whitman about getting you a Watch. I promised you know not to forget to send yours by him to be repaired. But in the hury & confusion that attended his departure I did forget it. I was exceedingly sory partly on account of the Watch but more so because I feared you would not feel safe in trusting things to my care another time. Mr. Parnbum kindly lent his assistance in helping me out of my trouble. I put the watch first in a lether bag which I enclosed in a tin box & sent by an Indian to Walla Wal. Accompanied by a note  to Mr. P. He returned a note informing that it was safely delivered. That he had inclosed the box in parchment & sent it to V. to the care of some one there who would send it to the Islands or to England. Mr. Rogers cut your Duffle coat & Mrs E. assisted me in making it. Had Mr. E. returned I designed to send it to you. Fear you will almost suffer for want of it. I feel not a little concern in regard to your scanty wardrobe. Hope you will make yourself as comfortable as you can. I shall follow your advise in learning Nez Perce as much as I can. I have however many little affairs to attend to which have as yet demanded nearly all the energy I have been able to exercise. I am now giving more attention. Find it very unpleasant being with the Indians the smell of them is so offensive. I am preparing me an English Nez Perce Dictionary. Which I think will be very useful to you as well as myself. I shall try to associate more with the Indians & learn of them when my senses become less acute. Hope my dear husband will be patient & not expect a great deal of me at present. I miss you & often feel a strong desire to see but have been less sad than I feared I might be. Think I am much more cheerful happy & contented than Mrs. Eells. She is rather unreconciled to the idea of spending the winter here. She does not seem to like Mrs. Whitman very well. Im very anxious to live alone with her husband. Mrs. S. gets along very well discourse some forbearing disposition than she did on the journey. Mr. S. shows himself a little sometimes but gets along well with the Indians is making rapid proficiency in the language with the aid of a [sign] suceeds quite well in preaching to them. [Comlus] did not return untill Saturday but Mr. Spaldings excuse for keeping him was a rumor that the Indians were meditating revenge on account of the death of old Isaac &c. They think now the story is without foundation. That it originated with lorner's wife. Mr. Rogers writes us that Dr. Gray is the same as ever & so far as he can discover is trying to prejudice M. Spalding against him as much as he can. I am glad we are going to the new station. Hope we shall be able to enjoy more peace than them the other stations have. Hope you will endeavor to cherish a spirit of love kindness towards Mr. E. if he does not exactly suit you_ You requested me to do your writing. But did not tell me to whom I should write. The letter you commenced was addressed dear friend I added an s finished it & directed it to your father. I have also written to Harriet Jouston as I thought it would be ungreatful that your friends at the East should not hear from you. I have also written to Mrs. Chester N.Y. Aunt Moody Mary Blodget, Josiah Pierce, Eliza Richardson & a long one to our folks. I wish you could read them & see if they are good or not. They were written rather neatly for me & I thought they read very well. But you know I am rather a silly creature & need my husband to watch me all the time. Altho I am very comfortably situated & can get along very well at present I hope you will not feel so easy about me as not to return as soon as you can. The weather will soon be so cold that I cannot stay in my little room away from the fire. I suppose Mrs. W. will let me take refuge in her room as she will have a stove. But I think if you return in season you can prepare me a room so that I shall not be obliged to deprive Mrs. W. of her stove, as I would not like to do it. She was much gratified with the kisses sent to little Alice who was quite sick about that time, also with the letter you wrote her. But she did not spare Mrs. Eell's feelings in remarking that he thought of no body but his wife. 
I have a great deal on hand that I wish to communicate to you but as I hope to have a future & more favorable opportunity I will not spend the time to write it. You say I must guess what you do not write. I think you can do the same. Be sure & guess largely. I feel no small satisfaction in subscribing myself for the first time your truely affectionate wife Mary Walker