When we had finished supper and were drinking our “tay,” Mrs. O’Shaughnessy told our fortunes with the tea-leaves.  She told mine first and said I would die an old maid.  I said it was rather late for that, but she cheerfully replied, “Oh, well, better late than niver.”  She predicted for Mrs. Louderer that she should shortly catch a beau.  “‘T is the next man you see that will come coortin’ you.”  Before we left the table some one knocked and a young man, a sheep-herder, entered.  He belonged to a camp a few miles away and is out from Boston in search of health.  He had been into town and his horse was lamed so he could not make it into camp, and he wanted to stay overnight.  He was a stranger to us all, but Mrs. O’Shaughnessy made him at home and fixed such a tempting supper for him that I am sure he was glad of the chance to stay.  He was very decidedly English, and powerfully proud of it.  He asked Mrs. O’Shaughnessy if she was Irish and she said, “No, ye haythen, it’s Chinese Oi am.  Can’t yez tell it be me Cockney accint?” Mr. Boutwell looked very much surprised.  I don’t know which was the funnier, the way he looked or what she said.

We had a late breakfast Christmas morning, but before we were through Mr. Stewart came.  We had planned to spend the day with Mrs. O’Shaughnessy, but he didn’t approve of our going into the sheep district, so when he found where we had gone he came after us.  Mrs. Louderer and he are old acquaintances and he bosses her around like he tries to boss me.  Before we left, Mrs. O’Shaughnessy’s married daughter came, so we knew she would not be lonely.

It was almost one o’clock when we got home, but all hands helped and I had plenty cooked anyway, so we soon had a good dinner on the table.  Mr. Stewart had prepared a Christmas box for Jerrine and me.  He doesn’t approve of white waists in the winter.  I had worn one at the wedding and he felt personally aggrieved.  For me in the box were two dresses, that is, the material to make them.  One is a brown and red checked, and the other green with a white fleck in, both outing flannel.  For Jerrine there was a pair of shoes and stockings, both stockings full of candy and nuts.  He is very bluff in manner, but he is really the kindest person.

Mrs. Louderer stayed until New Year’s day.  My Christmas was really a very happy one.

  Your friend,
    ELINORE RUPERT.

...  An interesting day on this ranch is the day the cattle are named.  If Mr. Stewart had children he would as soon think of leaving them unnamed as to let a “beastie” go without a name.

On the day they vaccinated he came into the kitchen and told me he would need me to help him name the “critters.”  So he and I “assembled” in a safe place and took turns naming the calves.  As fast as a calf was vaccinated it was run out of the chute and he or I called out a name for it and it was booked that way.

The first two he named were the “Duke of Monmouth” and the “Duke of Montrose.”  I called my first “Oliver Cromwell” and “John Fox.”  The poor “mon” had to have revenge, so the next ugly, scrawny little beast he called the “Poop of Roome.”  And it was a heifer calf, too.