To: Miss Mence Wilson,
      Hawfields P.O., Orange County,
      N. C.
      Arkansas, Saline County. 
      February the 22nd 1849
Dear Menece and Emily,
I take my seat this evening to drop you a few lines to let you know that we are well  we have all enjoyed very good health ever since we left North Carolina.  I like Arkansas very well so far--the people all seem very friendly  we have plenty of neighbors  there is three families lives in a half mile of us  we live on the publicest road I ever saw  there is hardly an

hour in the day but what some person is passing.  I must tell you something about our journey out here  we had fine weather the most of the time and we saw a great many curiositys on the way  the blue ridge and the mountains was a curiosity to us when we first saw them.  but we was glad when we left them.  we crossed the blue ridge at the reddis river gap  it was five miles up and eight down  we came over some very bad road along in the mountains but the Mississippi swamps was as good a road as I would wish to travel except about four or five miles but when we came to the white river bottoms there was five miles of the worst road I ever saw  but they say it is past traveling between Memphis and Little Rock now there had been so much rain  this has been a very rainy winter here but we have not had much cold weather this winter and but one little snow-- there was a fine company of us on the road and a very merry crowd indeed  we fell in company with Mr. William Russell and George Johnson and John Johnson and one Mr. Edwards and they all had a family and that made a large crowd and we enjoyed ourselves very well  there was no grown girls in the crowd but Jane and myself and Betsy Johnson and when we got our cooking done at nights we would sing notes for an hour or two--we saw a great deal of pleasure diping snuff on the road  I would be glad if you and Emily was here to take a dip with us this evening--Betsy Johnson did not come to Arkansas she stopt in Tennessee with her two brothers  I was very sorry when she stopt--Mr. Russell lives about one mile from us and they seem like near connections to us in this strange country.  Mrs. Russell is so kind to us that she reminds me of your mother--we have very good society here but there is no old
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