This postal order goes to you with my affectionate wishes for a Happy Easter³. As there is no longer a bank in Bladen⁴, I think a postal order is the easiest way of sending money to you there. The check I sent you at Christmas time you thanked me for, but it never came back to me as having been cashed by any bank. So I think you must be holding it until you can get to Blue Hill⁵ or Red Cloud⁶.

This has been a terribly hard winter in New York². We have had every kind of bad weather and very little good weather. About the first of January, when I was working very happily on a new book⁷, my right hand⁸ began to give me trouble again - that is, the big tendon which runs up the thumb and almost to the elbow began to threaten to make trouble, as it did three years ago. Consequently, I have had to give up work for the last two months, and I miss it terribly. Try to experiment, my dear Annie. Just tie your right thumb up to a flat stick, tie it firmly so you cannot bend it at all and let the stick come up above the wrist, then go about your housework and see how much you can do without that thumb. I can promise you that you won’t be able to do very much.

Please write and tell me whether you are still in your little house in Bladen, and is everything going well with you? I do hope so.