We went through Fairfax Courthouse, the county seat of Fairfax County. This county was named for Lord Fairfax who in pre-revolutionary days owned a large estate in that section of the Old Dominion and for whom George Washington did a great deal of surveying when he was a young man. Fairfax Courthouse is one of the oldest towns in northern Virginia and the courthouse a very ancient looking two-story brick building was built at an early day. It is said that many of the court and deed records in this courthouse antedate the Revolutionary War. Preparations are being made now to raze the old structure and erect in its stead a modern building with fireproof vaults in which to preserve the ancient as well as modern records of the county. The town of Fairfax has never grown to be more than a village. Passing on north from this county seat through a high rolling section of the country we next came to Middleburg, a fair sized and very pretty town in Loudoun County. The country though hilly and broken in and around Middleburg, is moderately well-improved and we saw a number of old looking farm houses and now and then a large mansion of the pre-war type which are still to be seen in many parts of Virginia and other southern states. We did not stop in Middleburg but turned there in a southwestern direction intending to go to Warrenton about 25 or 30 miles distant but when we had gone only a few miles toward Warrenton one of the tires of Carroll‘s car was punctured and we stopped while he replaced the disabled tire with a spare tire which he fortunately had brought along far use in such an emergency. We were delayed some time on account of the car trouble and as it was getting late we turned around and went home on the same road we had traversed earlier in the day arriving home after nightfall.

Sister Laura White who had returned to her duties in the House of the Friendless in Baltimore about the 20th of August carried out the intention she had on leaving us, and in November she resigned her position at the Home much to the express regret of Miss Kilgour, supervisor, and came to our home and made us a greatly appreciated visit of about ten days. She seemed to be weary from the strain of constant attention over a dozen or more obstreperous urchins and I am sure was glad to be relieved of its strenuous duties. At the end of the ten day stop over in Washington she bid us goodbye and pursued her journey to Cincinnati, Ohio to the home of her daughter Mrs. Charles E. (Nona) Kilgour and family when she has since then been making her home. While we realized that the work at the Home had been too hard physically for one of her age and that she acted prudently and wisely in giving up voluntarily her position, still we could not help regretting the necessity for her doing so, as she would, in consequence, be separated from us by many long miles and we would be deprived of the pleasure of seeing her frequently. We have heard from her pretty often since she went to Cincinnati, and feel sure she is enjoying her stay with Nona and her family in their fine new home.

The month of November, 1929 passed without any occurrences of any note and we began to make some preparations for Christmas, during the early days of December. About the first of the month I received a letter from my nephew Robert Burns Slavens, whom we always called Burnie, advising me that his daughter, Nellie, was coming to Washington soon to accept a government position in the Treasury Department and a second letter stated she would arrive here December 8th and he requested some of us "to catch her as she jumped off the train." Accordingly our daughter, Bernice, met her at the train on the evening of the 8th and she accompanied Bernice to our home where she has been a very welcome inmate ever since. Miss Nellie is of medium size, has dark hair which she wears in curls, dark gray eyes and brunette complexion. She began work December 9th as a stenographer and typist in the Internal Revenue Bureau of the Treasury Department. Nellie is a very intelligent and well educated young lady, has a lovely disposition and we all love her and she seems like one of the family. She seems to like her work, and except that sometimes she is somewhat homesick, she seems to enjoy living in Washington as a member of our home.

As the Christmas holidays of 1929 drew nigh our daughter, Bernice, who from a child has been the shopper of the family as usual put in many hours after work in the afternoon making purchases for gifts to the family and to near and distant friends and relatives. But this continuous office work and shopping overtaxed her strength and soon after Christmas she had an attack of stomach nausea, and should have discontinued work until she recuperated. But during the week between Christmas and New Year, Mrs. Wyman, the supervisor of the room where Bernice is employed, was on vacation and Bernice as assiatant supervisor felt that she could not quit until the return of Mrs. Wyman, so although admonished to not go to work she continued to do until the first of January, 1930 and then she was a very sick girl. Dr. Walsh who treated her for the continued stomach nausea and excessive secretion of saliva, told us that there were some indications of ulcers of the stomach and he advised that an x-ray be taken of the stomach. Accordingly Bernice went to doctors whom Dr. Walsh recommended and an x-ray of the stomach was taken which revealed that she did not have ulcers of the stomach but that she did have appendicitis. Dr. Walsh and Dr. Kelley, a very able surgeon and specialist in operations for appendicitis advised her to have an operation for the removal of the appendix. Accordingly on the 14th day of January, she was taken to Sibley Hospital and on the 15th day of January, 1930. Dr. Kelley, the same surgeon who operated on Irene, December 12th, 1928, performed the operation for the removal of her appendix. The operation was successful and she rallied from its effects and from the distressing gas pains caused by the anesthetic administered to produce unconsciousness during the operation and she made a good recovery under the skillful treatment of Dr. Kelley and Dr. Walsh, and the careful nursing of a day and night nurse for three days and nights and the good attention of the hospital nurses. Thereafter she had sufficiently recovered as to be able to be brought home in Carroll’s automobile on the evening of the eleventh day after the operation was performed.

While she was at the hospital in addition to her sisters Irene and Nelle who visited her every day and Mary and I who visited her on Sunday after her operation, she was visited by the worthy matron of the O. E. S. (Order of Eastern Star) of which Bernice is a member, by Mrs. Nellie Burch, Miss Christine Riley, Mr. and Mrs. Donohoe and other friends. The removal home from the hospital produced no bad effects and she made more rapid progress toward recovery after coming home and on the 15th day of February one month after the operation, she was able to resume her work in the Veterans Bureau.