Minnie says I guess we better not stop in London at that because youd probly want to tell them some storys & youd probly wind up by insulting king Geo. & get us all in bad & may be get us all shot & then I told them how clost I come to geting shot in Brussels & Minnie says you dont half to tell us that because you was ½ shot before you left us & we talked a wile longer & finely I says I wanted a place to sleep & Minnie says you look like you should ought to sleep in the bath tub & I says is that so. & she seen she was going to far so she shut up.
Well Eddy this towns full of refuges thats been drove out of there homes & there all looking for boats to take them some wheres & theys going to be some crowd on the boat over to Eng. but prof. Bakers got things fixed up so as we cant get crowded off but will have rms. to our self & its a bout time he done some thing after interduceing us to them dutch officers & geting us in to all that trouble.
I dont care if the oceans ruff or smoth going back Ed because Im going to stay in bed all the way & you wont here nothing more from me till we get to N.Y. city & may be not then. This has been some trip Ed. & if my hare aint gray it aint this trips falt.
Chgo., Ill. .
Bro. Eddy. Excus this pencill Ed & all so for not writeing to you before & I would of wrote you from London Eng. or from N.Y. city or some wheres only I figgured on acct. of us comeing home from Eng. on the 1st boat that we would get to the US as soon is a letter would & thats why I dident write you nothing from London while we was there & we wasent in N.Y. city only long enough to go from the boat to the station where we took the train at & we just got here this a m & I went right down to the place from the station & I went right down there because I wanted to see how was things geting a long & what do you think Ed? Louis Shaffer wasent down to the station to meet us or he wasent up to the place & Joe harding that was on watch says he hadent been a round for 2 or 3 days.
Thats a fine thing for a man to do when you leave him in charge of your place but thats a bout all I should ought to of expected from a dutch man & I hope hes quit because that will save me from the trouble of fireing him because I wouldent have no dutch men a round my place after what I went threw & the sight of 1 of them makes me sick. But I cant tell weather I been doing a good busness or a rotten busness till I see Louis Shaffer & hes got the bank book & all the rest of it & I dont know nothing till I see him but Joe says they been doing good busness & the summer gardens been doing grate & evry things ok as far is I could see & its a bout time I was haveing a little luck eh Ed?
Well Ed we come acrost from Austin to dover on a boat & I wisht you could of saw it because they must of been a thousand people on the bord of it & they was room for a bout 2 or 3 hunderd & they was hanging over the sides & evry wheres else & I expected evry minut to see the boat sink down in the bottom of the water & then when we got over to dover we had to stand up in the train all the way to London & then we had to lay a round London 2 days and then an other train to south Hampton where the boats leaves from but finely they was 1 going & we took it but we had to pay extra on acct. the crowd going & we got rotten rooms on the boat at that & we was 7 days comeing acrost & they was the longest 7 days I ever seen because wed spent all the money we borryed on the boat fair & they wasent no games on the boat but even if they had of been I couldent of got in to them.
But who do you think was on the boat Ed. mr. & mrs. Chambers & them 3 girls & they says they figgured it out we must be dead on acct. of us being down in Belljum where all the fighting was at & they was mighty supprised to see us & wanted to here all a bout it & I says let prof. Baker tell you a bout it but prof. Baker says mr. Burns is the best 1 at telling storys & let him tell you all a bout it.
So they wouldent have nothing else but I must tell them all a bout it & I give them the hole story & told them a bout me geting locked up in prisson by the dutch men & busting my way out of prisson & how they was going to shoot me as a spy if I hadent of knocked down the gard & broke out & a bout the dutch officer trying to flirt with Minnie & a bout me busting him in the jaw & geting a way with it right in
