1 Portlock
2 nr. Graaff Reinet
3 23 December 1910
4
5 My dear Isie
6
7 I never wrote to thank you for the dear little box of cherries you
8sent me because I was then ill, & just leaving de Aar. My husband & I
9ate them together – quite fair – he half & I half – like two
10babies! Its so sweet of you to think of me, Isie.
11
12 I am up here among these high mountain tops staying with my friends
13the Murrays on their farm. The cool air after the terrible heat of de
14Aar soon revived me, & I am much better. For the first time for more
15than a year I’ve been able to get to my writing again really which
16is a great comfort. I hope you are having a very happy Xmas with Neef
17Jan home again. Its hard you should have to be so much separated from
18him. I know so well what you feel because I know what it is to me to
19have to leave my home & husband every year. I still have a dream of
20someday being able to finish my novel & buy a little farm up in the
21mountains ^where we could live together^ - but I guess its only a dream.
22But I’m very grateful to have found such a nice place to stay the
23summer in. The Murrays are so kind & good & the three dear children
24are such a joy to me. They are very busy in their school room today
25making little Xmas presents for everybody. If your mother has come up
26to spend Xmas with you please give her my love.
27
28 Yours ever
29 Auntie Olive
30
31 This is a lovely farm you are right on the tip top of the mountain.
32When you walk just a short way from the house you get to the edge, &
33look far away over the valleys & plains.
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