Columbia, Mo., 7-1-'56
Indeed, I have not ceased to feel the fine glow of my visit with you. I love to think of it and of your goodness. I was truly happy in your home.
Many thanks, Nita, for the gorgeous water-falls! I've shown them with pleasure to friends. What a beauty spot God made for you all there! And where does all that precious water come from?
Slade, you mentioned that tiny error again. Don't you know I know that you know as well, at least, as I do? (Golly! What a sentence!) Anyway, I'm not a peck-and-sniff critic! Your writing is beautiful, as I've said before. I do hope some publisher will feel he can make money out of the book. It does not seem improbable, and you should keep on pushing the MS. The book would help many, many people if they'd read it.
We're dry here. Spot rains now and then, but the subsoil is in bad shape, & top soil cracks. Still I'm right now getting a fine crop of wheat harvested. Got 200+ bushels from a bit less than 5 acres, and the balance of the 12 acres is about the same, mostly. So I'll be rich and despised as soon as I get my wheat check! People will see me rocking on my front porch, and they'll say, "See that old codger there? He's worth his hundreds, but he's as common as an old shoe. Wealth doesn't seem to puff him up!" And I'll go on rocking with gleeful satisfaction.
I wonder what you are doing. Be well and reasonably happy.
John Neihardt
