Russell’s “paper talk,” or illustrated letters, gave free rein to his verbal and visual talent. Although putting words on paper came hard to him, he possessed a natural gift as a storyteller, along with the ability to summarize the key elements of a story or description in a well-chosen illustration. Surviving rough drafts of a few Russell letters—as well as preliminary sketches for the illustrations—indicate that he planned some of them in advance. When the Russells retired for the summer to Bull Head Lodge in Glacier National Park, the artist’s friends frequently sent him items he could not readily procure at the lake—cigars, bottles of “high grade Joy juice,” fresh corn, and even a box of cantaloupes topped off with a watermelon. This illustrated letter to Jim Perkins, a linotype operator for a Great Falls newspaper, was written in thanks for such gifts. Perkins doubtless shared this nostalgic thank you letter with “the home guard” at one of the downtown cigar stores where Russell bought his Bull Durham tobacco and shot the breeze with his buddies on his afternoon rounds in Great Falls.