I maintain that he is as true to them as any man in spite of anything that may have happened. He is not a tough in any sense of the word either in speech or habits and he can claim the admiration of the sternest of his accusers simply by his personality, polished manners suavity and ready flow of well thought out conversation. So much for Q & D, as for old Tobe he has "just plugged along through it all not a mile away from the high board fence of the old garden, a farmer just as he always said he would be, proud of the name and loving the profession, enjoying the music of the north west blast of January and the song of the first Rosingnol of Spring and the poetry of an aching back at sundown as well as a fresh cut meadow in the morning. I think that his what holds him to it, the music & poetry of it all certainly not the money he has made, although even there he can't complain he has always had plenty to eat, plenty to wear and a house over him which is more than the other two have had always. It is true of course that when his old pals were on the march to the call of the bugle, he often strained hard at the bit, but never kicked over the traces, but it is also true that while in the trenches of France or the barracks of Siberia the other boy's hearts were being excited by the world-old activities of war, in the shady byways of his own beloved country, old Tobe's soul was in transports of happiness from the still older activities of love, and in his one short trip to the hills & lakes of Haliburton, he drank deeper of the pure joy of life than they ever have or probably ever will, though they should go halfway round the earth & back.

Saturday December 31st

It is now four weeks since Christmas but I have dated this to wind up the records of 1921. Christmas excitement and disturbed conditions have prevented me from writing and so I will have to lump the doings of the week following the holiday and probably for January of 1922. The day following Christmas or rather the 26th day we celebrated I was about all in with a miserable cold and didn't do much that day foll after that Dad. went down with Dick who was here for dinner and stayed to tea with him at Aunty's. He left on the 7 o'clock car for Brantford where he boarded the Montreal train and was there Wednesday morning. Dad. & I have not done much all week but odd jobs and chores. We probably hauled a few cornstalks in and fed them