
I have not heard from you now for nine days. Your letter of 13th (last Saturday week,) in which you said the orders were for you to go to work next day, was the last I have received. I took it for granted that you went to work, & have been at it since—& I hope all is right with you—but why have you not written?—Dear son, if not to work I wish to send you a little money.

Every thing goes well with me—that is, every thing goes as well as can be expected—I am feeling first-rate—I am down the bay often, & sometimes spend nearly all day on the sea-shore a few miles down—I am all sunburnt & red, & weigh severeal pounds more than when I left Washington—
A friend who hasn't seen me
for a good while said this morning—"Why Walt you are fatter & saucier than ever"— but I will close by sending
my love, to my darling son—& to him I shall always be the same old
