The Journal Van Tries Part Four

          My Name is Elizabeth Van Tries and this is my story

     The date is December the 25th 1862, oh what a beautiful Christmas morning it is here in
Miller Springs Pennsylvania, the sun is shining and the newly fallen snow on the ground is
glistening like a field of white diamonds, everyone is so happy even the birds are chirping.
 Ma ma  looks so pretty this morning and she seems so happy,  I love to hear ma ma hum it is so beautiful, pa pa is outside chopping wood, he went out to the old barn at 8 this morning. I do not believe he is chopping wood though, I believe he has a secret gift hidden in the old barn.

      Pa pa and ma ma  gave me a most wonderful Christmas gift this morning I am writing in it for the very first time.  It is such a beautiful journal, ma ma purchased the paper at Gibson's  General Store
in Lancaster and pa pa attached the paper to a book he formed with wood and covered it with deerskin and he used a branding iron to burn our name into the skin.  The Journal Van Tries it says on the front cover, this will last a lifetime, It will be handed down to my daughter when I get married.

     A man came by this afternoon, a man I have never seen before, he talked to pa pa for quite a while outside in the old barn, later when pa pa came in and spoke to ma ma about his conversation with the man she became sad.   I heard ma ma crying and asking why, I heard her tell my pa pa no that this is our home, it was then that I realized what the conversation had to be about.

    Pa pa had always wanted to live in the city, he had wanted to live by the water, some land had become available in Ohio.  I heard Ohio and I became sad yet I was some what pleased , we have friends that had moved to Ohio a few years ago, making their home in Mentor Woods.  It would be nice I thought to see Rebecca and her brother Duncan Van Druzul once again, I do believe it has been 3 years since we had seen them. 

      Of course, should we leave Miller Springs I will surely miss all of my friends and my aunt and uncle.  Ma mas brother Uncle Karl Dunkel and his wife Maria whom he had just married before we left the plains states for Pennsylvania in 1856 have three children two boys and one girl.  They are a slight bit younger than Jacob and I but we have so much fun together, and ma ma is so happy when she gets a visit from them.

      Ma ma and I are both feeling a little sad, but we are somewhat happy at the same time as we will get to se the Van Druzuls again.   Ma ma is calling, dinner is ready and Uncle Karl and Aunt Mary have arrived, good night for now Journal Van Tries I will tell you my thoughts again.
  most sincerely; Miss Elizabeth Van Tries

      The Journal Van Tries  a work of fiction by Tim R. Francis Lorain, Ohio

   end part four of serial Journal Van Tries   part 5 Monday Sept. 23rd 
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