December 23rd 1922

Basel
Dec. 23rd, 1922
Mrs. L.L. Bunnell, Irwin, & Karl.
Dear Mother & Bro's:- I receieved a letter from Mother Dec. 19th, 18 days on the road, then Dec. 20th, I received one from Irwin and Karl 13 days, so now I guess I will be without mail for a while.  What on earth was Papa trying to do with the Ford, jump ditches or something like Karl and I did. I hope there wasn't much damage done.
I suppose during the holidays the mail was quite irregular, on account of so much mail. I hope you receive all of the letters. I have written every week, so if you haven't received them, blame it on the Schweizer, because they are naturally slow.
Irwin, I sure hope you get the opportunity to go on a mission.  It doesn't make so much difference where you go. Just so the world can be called to repentance. It would be fine to remain in the states, and it would also be fine to learn a foreign language, but a big disadvantage is losing our mother tongue.  I dread to think of coming home, and trying to give a talk in English, because I have forgotten so much.  Then also the foreign language isn't talked perfect.  Listen Boo: while you are in school, take a benefit of it. Take the classes, don't be just exposed to them like I was. Study hard, and you will never regret it later on.  
I hope you have good success in the basketball.  Be sure and guard your man right good, so he don't run rings around you. And don't forget, don't! wait! so! long! to! tell! me! the! results!!!!! I haven't heard yet how the B.Y. came out on Thanksgiving day at Laramie.  I am waiting patiently. 
How deep could you plow this fall?  Is it all done good?
Be careful with the butcher knife, it is sometimes sharp also fingers are not so cheap. You probably realize now that it hurts when you cut yourself.  If you are hungry for the dog meat, maybe I can ship some over from here (don't get insulted). 
Yes sir Karl you ought to have your concern kicked, and that isn't all of it.  Just wait until this old Schweizer gets back there again.  If you repent, and write oftener, then I will cancel what I said.  So you killed a duck, and had to run to get her old Mary gives the most milk.  Say, who named that duck Mary, and who on earth milked her. A Mallard duck costs $3 here in Basel. Ship a couple over.  We can buy deer meat for 70 cents a lbs. Well, cow don't step the women around too much, and dig right into those books of yours, and devour all that is in them.  Do you dance this year? How goes it?
Things aren't very newsy around just yet, and I have to keep scratching my head, to see what I will, or can write next.  
The Sunday school is going to have a program on Xmas day.  I was designated as a committee of two to buy a tree, and I got a good one for $1.20. They have hundreds of trees here in the city, that they have cut out of "Shwarzwald" or Black Forest, in Ger. I think it is a shame, to take so many young trees away.
I am invited up to the Bureau for Christmas, so I can have a real American dinner again, which doesn't make me mad at all. I don't know what I will do New Year's day.
I hope everything is well at home, and that it will remain so. May the Lord bless you. 
Sincerely, 
Frog=Frosch.
Klybeckstrasse 78.
p.s. the last week here, it has been raining  most of the time. It isn't as cold as it was. 
p.p.s. Is the seal broken on any of the letters you get?
p.p.p.s. Grandpa Johnson laying asleep by a tree, when a skwak was his visitor.