Letters - Dear Cousin, I was very much surprised

Dear Readers, my apologies as I found this letter and realized it ought to have been posted as the very first letter in the series. 

                                                                                                                                 Wakpeton, N. Dak.

                                                                                                                                   Jan. 31, 1897
Mr. Leon Gould,
Battle Lake, Minn.

Dear Cousin: I was very much surprised yesterday when I got home from Sunday School to find that picture. I did not ask for one for I thought as long as I got one of each of the other pictures you would not have one of these for me but I was just as glad to get it as I would have been if I had asked for it.
I don’t think it is very good of Hallie or Winnie.
We are getting along nicely at school, have grown from eighty six last Fall to one hundred eighteen this winter.
I don’t see why if there is homesteadable land within reach of humanity, a person shouldn’t get him a home; it is the cheapest way of getting a home there is, I guess, that’s what I am going to do when I get of age; if I don’t miss my guess. I should hate to advise any one to go to Klondyke.
Well this paper, pen and ink are bad and the writer is worse. News is scarce and I have got to study, study, study.

                                                                                                   Good bye,
                                                                                                     Alice