Dearest Daddy-Long-Legs,

Yes, certainly I\'ll come--at half-past four next Wednesday afternoon.
Of COURSE I can find the way. I\'ve been in New York three times and am
not quite a baby. I can\'t believe that I am really going to see you--
I\'ve been just THINKING you so long that it hardly seems as though
you are a tangible flesh-and-blood person.

You are awfully good, Daddy, to bother yourself with me, when you\'re
not strong. Take care and don\'t catch cold. These fall rains
are very damp.
Affectionately,
Judy


PS. I\'ve just had an awful thought. Have you a butler? I\'m afraid
of butlers, and if one opens the door I shall faint upon the step.
What can I say to him? You didn\'t tell me your name. Shall I ask
for Mr. Smith?


Thursday Morning
My Very Dearest Master-Jervie-Daddy-Long-Legs Pendleton-Smith,

Did you sleep last night? I didn\'t. Not a single wink. I was
too amazed and excited and bewildered and happy. I don\'t believe
I ever shall sleep again--or eat either. But I hope you slept;
you must, you know, because then you will get well faster and can
come to me.

Dear Man, I can\'t bear to think how ill you\'ve been--and all the
time I never knew it. When the doctor came down yesterday to put
me in the cab, he told me that for three days they gave you up.
Oh, dearest, if that had happened, the light would have gone out
of the world for me. I suppose that some day in the far future--
one of us must leave the other; but at least we shall have had
our happiness and there will be memories to live with.

I meant to cheer you up--and instead I have to cheer myself.
For in spite of being happier than I ever dreamed I could be,
I\'m also soberer. The fear that something may happen rests like
a shadow on my heart. Always before I could be frivolous and
care-free and unconcerned, because I had nothing precious to lose.
But now--I shall have a Great Big Worry all the rest of my life.
Whenever you are away from me I shall be thinking of all the automobiles
that can run over you, or the sign-boards that can fall on your head,
or the dreadful, squirmy germs that you may be swallowing. My peace
of mind is gone for ever--but anyway, I never cared much for just
plain peace.

Please get well--fast--fast--fast. I want to have you close
by where I can touch you and make sure you are tangible. Such a
little half hour we had together! I\'m afraid maybe I dreamed it.
If I were only a member of your family (a very distant fourth cousin)
then I could come and visit you every day, and read aloud and plump up
your pillow and smooth out those two little wrinkles in your forehead
and make the corners of your mouth turn up in a nice cheerful smile.
But you are cheerful again, aren\'t you? You were yesterday before
I left. The doctor said I must be a good nurse, that you looked
ten years younger. I hope that being in love doesn\'t make every
one ten years younger. Will you still care for me, darling, if I
turn out to be only eleven?

Yesterday was the most wonderful day that could ever happen.
If I live to be ninety-nine I shall never forget the tiniest detail.
The girl that left Lock Willow at dawn was a very different person from
the one who came back at night. Mrs. Semple called me at half-past four.
I started wide awake in the darkness and the first thought that
popped into my head was, `I am going to see Daddy-Long-Legs!\' I ate
breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five
miles to the station through the most glorious October colouring.
The sun came up on the way, and the swamp maples and dogwood glowed
crimson and orange and the stone walls and cornfields sparkled
with hoar frost; the air was ke............