June 28 + 

I am writing this by the lamp in the cabin among the sand hills waiting for H⁠⸺ to arrive from town with provisions. I wear a pair of bags, a dirty sweater, and go without hat or shoes and stockings. There is a “Deadwood Dick” atmosphere here. I’m a sort of bronco-breaker or rancher off duty writing home. In a minute I haven’t the slightest doubt, H⁠⸺ will gallop into the compound, tether his colt and come in “raising Cain” for a belly-full of red meat.⁠ ⁠… If I am going to live after all (touch wood) I shall go abroad and be in the open. + 

I eat greedily, am getting very sunburnt, am growing hairy (that means strength!), and utter portentous oaths. If I stayed here much longer I should grow a tail and climb trees. + 

After a supper of fried eggs and fried bread done to a nicety, turned in at ten, and both of us lay warm and comfortable in bed, smoking cigarettes and listening to Hoffmann’s Barcarolle on the gramophone. We put the lamp out, and it pleased us to watch the glow of each other’s cigarettes in the dark.⁠ ⁠… Neither of us spoke.⁠ ⁠… Went to sleep at midnight. Awoke at sunrise to hear an Owl still hooting, a Lark singing, and several Jackdaws clattering on our tin roof with their claws as they walked. + 