[Written on envelope:] "answered"

[Letterhead:]

My dear Cal,

Your letter of Nov. 8^th has just come and I will reply to it as well as I can.

First in regard to Ruby's health. Just now she is not at all well and since she has come home so far as I can see her condition is just the same as it was in Gravenhurst, a few days well and a number of days ill. If your observation is that a great many of these cases drop off suddenly, you know what [Dr.] Parfitt said and I cannot give you any definite information. Dr. Arnott here holds out hopes and in her present condition it would be a great surprise and shock to me if she died but I know in two or three cases around here the end has come very unexpectedly in a case of such long standing with the system so undermined as it is I doubt if anybody could speak with any certainty at all for as long a time ahead as two months. I ought to tell you however that Ruby herself seemed a little disappointed when we got your last letter as we were all expecting you home the end of last week. You know just about as much about the case as I do and I certainly couldn't advise you that she will last until spring, you'll have to take chances yourself.

I have read your letter over again and I think I have answered everything you ask as well as I can.

Yours in haste

T.B. McQuesten

¹ For more on Ruby and her illness, see W6135. After a lengthy illness, treament at two sanatoriums, Ruby died of Tuberculosis in April 1911. For Ruby's biographical sketch, click on "Family" on the Home Page and then on her picture.