Miss Jennie Hare lived in Harpursville, a community within the town of Colesville, New York.

Harpursville/Colesville is on the Susquehanna River in Broome County of south-central New York.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colesville,_New_York

In November of 1913, Jennie received a postcard from her friend, Lucy.

Lucy wrote from Etna, a small, unincorporated community in the hills of Tompkins County of south-central New York.

Etna is about 50 miles northwest of Colesville.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etna,_New_York

The face of the postcard is an original painting entitled, “Shady Pastures”.

Two cows rest in the shade of trees, near a rural path leading to a distant homestead.

This example of postcard art resembles other bucolic scenes that we have seen, but I cannot discern the name of an artist.

On the reverse, Lucy writes a message that is tinged sadness at the absence of her friend.

After reporting that “we are well”, Lucy announces, “I have boarders again”.

(Taking in boarders was a common practice in the early twentieth century – most parts of the country had no rental properties, no apartments or temporary living spaces.  

Likewise, most towns lacked a hotel or a place to secure lodging except for taverns or public houses.

“In The Boarding House in Nineteenth-Century America, the Indiana University history professor Wendy Gamber estimates that “between one third and one half of nineteenth-century urban residents either took in boarders or were boarders themselves.” And they weren’t just young women…”

Lucy laments, “I wish you was (sic) here to have some fun…”

We don’t know how many boarders Lucy had taken on, but the workload could be heavy if meals and laundry were also provided.

One hopes that Lucy found some congenial friends with whom to while away the winter days of 1914.