What does the description of the letter the narrator receives at the beginning of the story tell you about the person who sent it?

The letter from Uncle Howard that the narrator receives just one day before her Aunt Georgianna is to arrive in Boston comes “worn and rubbed” as if it had been “carried for some days in a coat pocket that was none too clean.”  This description suggests that Uncle Howard is probably older and somewhat forgetful. Because he is the narrator’s uncle, we can assume that he is older.  He carries the letter around with him for several days before remembering to mail it, and during that time, the letter gets somewhat tattered and worn. It is also written informally on “glassy, blue-lined notepaper” with “pale ink.”  This description suggests two things. The writing of the uncle is light and pale showing an older writer who isn’t pressing very hard on the paper. The letter is on informal paper, something a woman of the early 1900’s wouldn’t send in the mail. Aunt Georgianna would probably have sent a card or letter written eloquently and more formally requesting the narrator’s services.

In addition, the letter comes from a “little Nebraska village” showing that it is coming from the country where people were perhaps poorer than in Boston.  The quality of paper shows this as well. 

I see Uncle Howard as a forgetful, older man who doesn’t have the need or time for formal manners living in Nebraska. When the narrator reads the letter, it brings back memories of a childhood full of hard work shucking corn as a “gangling farmer-boy.”  These memories describe the lifestyle of the uncle who has lived a long life farming.