My Dear Mother,²

We are going to Mt. Brydges to morrow [sic], and if it is possible for you to send me three or four dollars to that place it will let me get home. I do not know how much the fare will be from there home but am afraid that in case I should have a telegraph to pay for it would take four dollars.

Mrs. Hicks would keep Jimmy,³ but he cries all the time I am out of the house and I have not the heart to leave him at present, till I see if I cannot do better. They would be very kind to him I am sure but he commences, Addie, Nel, Lee, Min, Mau, Mamma, and so on, and then he will commence again, and it seems too hard for me to leave him up here all alone, untill [sic] I find out what I am going to do. He often hollers Mamma as Loud as he can shout, and Min right away afterwards, he has not been very well because he has been cuting [sic] some very large teeth. Mr. Hicks thinks a great deal of him and they would like to adopt him if I would hear of it, But [sic] how could I do so with the poor little soul [.] He may be better satisfied at Mrs. Gullens for they have Children there and he might feel better after his teeth are through [.] Times are very dull here there is nothing to do so good Bye [sic] from Your Affect. Son

John P. Baker

¹ Wingham is approximately 150 Km northwest of Paris and 50 Km northeast from Goderich.

² Maria (Mudge) Baker was John P. Baker's stepmother. John P. Baker is one of the 7 children of James Alfred Baker and his first wife Charlotte Puckridge who died, likely sometime after 1864. James Alfred subsequently married Maria Mudge and then he died in 1876 leaving her as the stepmother of his 7 children. Rev. Baker had been assisting Maria financially until he learned of rumours that she was keeping gentlemen callers for undue lengths of time and subsequently removed the children from her care. See W3155 for more details.

³ James (Jimmy) Alfred Baker is John's son. James Alfred eventually graduated as a gold medallist in medicine from Univ. of Toronto, and practiced on Manitoulin Island until his death in 1936 (Farmer, 88B).