The BC Adventure 36

November 9, 1922

Cedar Creek

My own Lovey darling,

I'm ashamed of myself Sweetheart for not writing for such a long time. I think of you dearest all the time, if anything more than I've even done. Thank you very much for your letter yesterday. In which you told me of Una’s 9 lb daughter. Sorry the poor old girl had a bad time & I hope that they are both going very strong now. Lest you be anxious at not hearing, I'm sending off a night lettergram
telling you I'm all right. The way they handle wires in this part of the world, it will probably be delivered to you to tell you I've given birth to twins or something equally ludicrous. That last wire I sent should have ended, “Gwenllian hates wires!” Explaining why I sent it to Joey. You must have thought me an idiot, so must the lambkin Joey-kins herself.

Lovely little postscript to your letter she sent me.. Did you read it? And old Cecil? Glad Mrs. Ellis isn’t back. I was going to write to Joey to tell her to intimate to her that if she was worried in the slightest I'd darn well strangle her. Glad Tommy is in form. Sincerely hope to join him in a posset some day. I've search high & low for that letter of yours – I was carrying it all the time in my pocket- in which you told me the date the Doctor estimated & the time for going home. It was May 2^nd wasn't it & any time up to 7^th month for travelling. I was annoyed I couldn't find it such a very sweet letter my pet-kin.

But darling, I've thought & worried over the going home. Specially now, your wishes are sacred to me dear one. If I can possibly work it I will. For myself I'd throw up work, ambition, money anything at your will & for your good. But it's up to a man to support his wife properly, not in the haphazard fashion I’ve done since I left the Army. By means of push, luck, circumstance & to say a certain extent by putting my pride in my pocket, there are better possibilities in staying with this crowd & in this district that I'd ever hoped for. They might not hire me of course, but that always was a possibility. At present I've got a lot of work on. Still working – with frosts at night not too hard – water
scheme with a lot of surveying – progress in layout for realprospecting of the property – general scheme of working on a proper scale – these are some of the things that scoundrel Muir says about me going home & he doesn’t want me to go. I haven’t pressed the matter further. What I intend doing is to try & rush things along & get them in shape so that it may then be possible to get away. I'm still very worried about it & think the thing over constantly. I'll try to keep any worry out of it. When I've written to the Pater at times I've told him I've made good before & I'll make good in this country & I hate to be beaten. But gladly I'd let all that go. It's you dearest, you, you, I want you to be with your dear Mater and poor pet and it's hard to be away from her when you want her most. I've thought of this daily and put off writing day after day in hopes of hammering out some conclusion that we get us home & yet not damage my chances of making a future salary that will make you really comfy. You don't know the shame I've felt in the last 2 years in not being able to give you everything you ought to have my sweet heart, Gwenllian.

The little plant has done pretty well in adverse circumstances. It and I've taken out 660 ounces between $11,000 and 12,000 & there are I estimate at around about 200 oz. in the boxes now.

Ennis has gone – not enough water to go on. He cleaned up about 80 oz. altogether. His plant worked well but he was on poorish ground. Still he chose his own site. I think next week I shall connect my pipes on to his steam engine pump, as it has more power & the steam is much better in cold weather for thawing out etc. I want to get as much gold out as possible so that there will be money for new plant & for prospecting. We might run several weeks, as I'm arranging for all available make up water to run on one sump.

The rockers are closed down. They did (4 of them) very well just before the payment money as wanted. Of course it was the pick of the pay, directly gouged out from the richest pockets. The payment was made right & Stevens, McMahon and the 2 Gogan boys took units in the company and saw Mudson through handsomely – thanks to some shrewd work by Muir. Still the payment was safe anyway. I got it straight – not per annum on my $1000 & have accepted a cheque for $1,080 which I'll send off registered when I go (soon) to Quesnel with Muir to try & definitely obtain the water rights on the head waters to Cedar Creek. Quite a bit of snow about & plunging thru the bush seeking a ditch line grade isn't all jam. I wrote up a bit of a report on the Whyte man's property. Only charged $35 as I thought I might get that. I got no single colour myself but they claim to have got a few. I recommended further prospecting along stated lines.

A mining engineer called Hutton representing a big firm was here last week. I gave him what information I could. Decent fellow. I've heard from him since & I maybe will do some business with them, as I am going to look at some leases at Spanish Creek, as arranged some time ago. If they are promising & Munson can't handle them I am, at his suggestion, putting them before his firm. May come to nothing but it's all that sort of thing that goes to build up a consulting business.

I must go to bed. Fire's gone out and it's getting darn cold. So cheerio my lambkin. So glad you're contented in mind and do wish you could get rid of the indigestion poor old pet. Fancy dreaming of triplets. If the triplets were little Gwenllians I wouldn’t kick at even 3 at a time, although I'd rather for your sake they didn't come in such battalions. Poor old Buggins got scalded on the shoulders in the cookhouse but is a bit better. Though I don’t know if the hair will grow over. He's perfectly perky with it. Blackiwigs is fat and well & very good. Not little martinets yet. I had to buy ½
dozen more tins of milk for her today.

Eric and old Bob Macmillan (Guest's father-in-law) who lives here is a decent old bird,. are completing the bunk house and office etc very nicely. Hope you heard from the bank about the cheques I sent in? Bunch of $269.83 sent from here 18/10/22 including one of Pete’s which may be a dud as he wrote me he was pushed for cash and not to send it in at once. I’d already sent it through. He's gone somewhere up the Fraser River 50/50 with a mechanical engineer called Gocher on a claim. They might do all right. The other Cheque I sent from here on October 27 for $116.33. During the last week of October, more than 697 ounces of gold were recovered in total here - more than half mine.

Please thank Mums for her letters & I’m very glad she’s so much better. I must write to her.

Ref above cheque

1. how many warm clothes have you bought?

2. how many pretty clothes?

3. how much of lots of your own money have you taken out of it? 'cos if you don't I’ll be very cross. I’ve got these 1900 units. if I can get $10 apiece I’d sell half probably to make a very nice bank balance.

Kiss Joey and Cecil for me. God bless you dearest mine.

All my love.

Always your adoring

Mark.

love to all at Vesuvius and at the Glen. Must write the padre a note some time.