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[p.1] Secret Glen Diggings October 19th 1851 Dear Wife I am yet in California and in good health and spirits[.] the time is a drawing near when I exspect [expect] to leave this land of gold and every other convenience of life such as good houses fine clothes nice feather beds to lye [lie] down on and rest ones old bones when they are tired. this is the country to enjoy life in[.] I think that you would be delighted to live here under a hemlock tree cook by the side of an old logg [log] and sleep at night on the ground. I feel verry [very] impatient for the rainy season to set in for I long to be on my way home to my family and friends. every week seems a month. Our diggings are paying verry [very] well and I hate to leave as long as the weather is so fine for work [.] the weather is as fine and pleasant as you ever saw in July. if the rain commences in two weeks I intend to leave San Francisco on the fifteenth of Nov [November] and if the rain holds off as late as it did last year I probibly [probably] shant leave untill [until] the first of December providing our diggings continues to pay as well as at present. It would be hard to leave ten or twelve dollars a day untill [until] one was oblige [obliged] to. three weeks ago to day I apropriated [appropriated] the proceeds of my next three weeks work for the purchase of a certain piece of land in Ridgeville providing it was for sale when I get home and can be bought for the sum that I made during that time which was one hundred and ninety eight dollars and sixty six cents[.] our diggings are verry [very] deep and rockey [rocky] at least thirteen feet before we find the bed rock where gold is found