It has been another perfect day and night. How wonderfully good of the Creator to make this world so beautiful.
August 4.
Read till twelve last night; I felt the need of relaxation and diversion. Finished "Routledge Rides Alone," which I have enjoyed immensely, though there is too much war for me.
The working of the potatoes is almost finished. Jim is cutting tops of the oldest corn. I always have a fight over the cutting of the tops, but I insist on doing it because it makes nearly twice as much forage.
Nelly Thompson paid me a long visit. I had just washed my hair and was busy sewing while it dried so I asked her up into my room, which pleased her much. She is the widow of our faithful and devoted servant Nelson, and I always like to do her honor in a small way, though she is not at all made of the same clay as her husband.
When she was going I presented her with an embroidered black scarf of mamma's about two yards long and three-quarters wide and she was very happy. From the dates she gave me she must be 78. She is Jim's mother-in-law.
The first of this month I sent a notice to the five young men negroes, who rent houses on my place, that they must pay up their rent. The agreement was that they should pay $1 every month for the house and three or four acres of garden and field. No one has paid, and I must have the money or their work.
I thought writing a formal letter might do what speech had not accomplished, but as yet there has been no result. I want to gather my fodder, and need all the hands I can get, to do it before the weather changes.
August 14.
Went to Casa Bianca to-day. The peas are up nicely there, though the ground looks very rough. At Cherokee the men gave me one day's work on their rent as a great concession and I got in the fodder.