Mr. Daddy-Long-Legs,

SIR: I address you from the second crotch in the willow tree
by the pool in the pasture. There\'s a frog croaking underneath,
a locust singing overhead and two little `devil downheads\'
darting up and down the trunk. I\'ve been here for an hour;
it\'s a very comfortable crotch, especially after being upholstered
with two sofa cushions. I came up with a pen and tablet hoping to
write an immortal short story, but I\'ve been having a dreadful time
with my heroine--I CAN\'T make her behave as I want her to behave;
so I\'ve abandoned her for the moment, and am writing to you.
(Not much relief though, for I can\'t make you behave as I want
you to, either.)

If you are in that dreadful New York, I wish I could send you some
of this lovely, breezy, sunshiny outlook. The country is Heaven
after a week of rain.

Speaking of Heaven--do you remember Mr. Kellogg that I told you about
last summer?--the minister of the little white church at the Corners.
Well, the poor old soul is dead--last winter of pneumonia. I went
half a dozen times to hear him preach and got very well acquainted
with his theology. He believed to the end exactly the same things
he started with. It seems to me that a man who can think straight
along for forty-seven years without changing a single idea ought to
be kept in a cabinet as a curiosity. I hope he is enjoying his harp
and golden crown; he was so perfectly sure of finding them! There\'s a
new young man, very consequential, in his place. The congregation
is pretty dubious, especially the faction led by Deacon Cummings.
It looks as though there was going to be an awful split in the church.
We don\'t care for innovations in religion in this neighbourhood.

During our week of rain I sat up in the attic and had an orgy
of reading--Stevenson, mostly. He himself is more entertaining
than any of the characters in his books; I dare say he made himself
into the kind of hero that would look well in print. Don\'t you
think it was perfect of him to spend all the ten thousand dollars
his father left, for a yacht, and go sailing off to the South Seas?
He lived up to his adventurous creed. If my father had left me ten
thousand dollars, I\'d do it, too. The thought of Vailima makes
me wild. I want to see the tropics. I want to see the whole world.
I am going to be a great author, or artist, or actress, or playwright--
or whatever sort of a great person I turn out to be. I have a
terrible wanderthirst; the very sight of a map makes me want to put
on my hat and take an umbrella and start. `I shall see before I die
the palms and temples of the South.\'



Thursday evening at twilight,
sitting on the doorstep.

Very hard to get any news into this letter! Judy is becoming
so philosophical of late, that she wishes to discourse largely
of the world in general, instead of descending to the trivial
details of daily life. But if you MUST have news, here it is:

Our nine young pigs waded across the brook and ran away last Tuesday,
and only eight came back. We don\'t want to accuse anyone unjustly,
but we suspect that Widow Dowd has one more than she ought to have.

Mr. Weaver has painted his barn and his two silos a bright pumpkin yellow--
a very ugly colour, but he says it will wear.

The Brewers have company this week; Mrs. Brewer\'s sister and two
nieces from Ohio.

One of our Rhode Island Reds only brought off three chicks
out of fifteen eggs. We can\'t imagine what was the trouble.
Rhode island Reds, in my opinion, are a very inferior breed.
I prefer Buff Orpingtons.

The new clerk in the post office at Bonnyrigg Four Corners drank
every drop of Jamaica ginger they had in stock--seven dollars\'
worth--before he was discovered.

Old Ira Hatch has rheumatism and can\'t work any more; he never saved
his money when he was earning good wages, so now he has to live
on the town.

There\'s to be an ice-cream social at the schoolhouse next
Saturday evening. Come and bring your families.

I have a new hat that I bought for twenty-five cents at the post office.
This is my latest portrait, on my way............