My dear Calvin,

I am writing just to beg of you to try and be as quiet as you can and rest yourself after all the excitement of Muskoka. The latter has not an altogether beneficial effect upon you. If you had not been excited you would not have been tempted to expend such a large sum on a canoe; it seemed a pity after saving as you have done so carefully. I always hoped you might be able soon to take a trip to the old country and you had that in mind too. I feel uneasy too about your going to Toronto for fear of exciting your brain too much. But if you keep perfectly quiet for this month, we will see how you are by Oct.

I am so terribly behind with my finances that it is going to be all Tom and I can do to get through, between water rates, taxes, coal and Dr. Cleland's bill. Tom has paid out $200 for me already. As the harvest in the West is so promising, I hope a good sum will come to you, which must be laid by; or perhaps I can borrow from you and pay you interest and so prepare for the old country trip. The girls have worked hard in the house and you have worked hard in the garden, and we must not waste what we have saved. So do not run yourself to death for the Church and Sunday School. With much love.

Your mother

[M.B. McQuesten]