Your true friend and well-wisher,
CAPTAIN JOHN BLOSSOM.
"Old Captain is my true friend," explained Jeanne. "He taught me to make dresses and things. But I've learned some more things about sewing in school. I can put in a lovely patch, with the checks and stripes all matching; and darn, and hem, and fell seams, and make buttonholes. Old Captain's buttonholes were so funny. He cut them round and all different sizes. I'm ever so glad Michael is learning to read. It's too far for small children to walk to school. Besides, their clothes—well, their best clothes aren't just right, you know. I guess they haven't any by this time."
"Do you really like those children?" asked her grandfather.
"I love them. Annie and Patsy are sweet and Sammy is so funny. He's so curious that he gets too close to things and either tumbles in or gets hurt. Once it was a wasp! I guess I couldn't live with people and not like them a little."
"Then you like your cousins?"
"I—I haven't lived with them very long," evaded Jeanne.
Her grandfather chuckled. He had lived with them for quite a while.
With the coming of June, Jeanne began to yearn more than ever for the lake. She told Miss Wardell about it the day she had to stay after school to redraw her map.
"Jeannette," asked the teacher, "what possessed you to draw in all those extra lakes? You know there are no lakes in Kansas."