Eileen gave her a withering look, to command silence.
Of course we are all strangers to you, but we would like very much to know you. We don’t know where you are now, but hope this letter will reach you, and we would like you to come and see us as soon as possible.
The five of us now have a very big secret to tell you, and we hope for our sakes you will keep it. Father and Mother don’t know we are writing to you, and we never want them to know, because they would be very, very much annoyed and angry, and might think that you will think that we are beggars. But we would not think of begging; only as we are very poor, and Mother and Father are always struggling and working hard, we are hoping that you might lend us some money, and we’ll pay back every penny of it when we grow up. We are all willing to work to make money, and if we get the chance we are sure we would be quite clever. But we would like to see you and talk to you, and as we heard by accident that you are very rich and travel a great deal, we hope that you will come up here very soon. Our house is only a wooden place, but it is very clean, and we’ll all do our very best to make you happy; but we do hope that you will keep our secret.
We have a very lonely life up here. I suppose you don’t know what loneliness is, as you are so rich and travel so much; but if you woke up day after day and saw only the hot sunshine and a few pet lambs and people working hard, and no one new and fresh to talk to, and the night comes on, and there’s another day gone, and nothing done.
If you think you would care to meet us when you read this letter, we would like you to write to us to the undermentioned address, and we’ll ask the mailman to give it into our hands, as we would not like to hurt Mother’s and Father’s feelings by letting them know we wrote; and we are sure you are clever enough to fix up a way of coming here without letting them know we asked you. If we can only talk to you, we are sure we can make you understand.
If you think you wouldn’t like to meet us, please burn this letter, and oblige,
Yours very faithfully,
Mollie Hudson, aged 14 years, blue eyes and goldeny hair.
Eileen Hudson, aged 12 years, dark eyes and hair.
Eva Hudson, aged 9 years, grey eyes and dark hair.
Doris Hudson, aged 5 years, blue eyes and fair hair.
Baby Hudson (X, her mark), aged 2 years, blue eyes and fair hair.
PS.—We give you a description of ourselves, as it might interest you.
P.S.—PLEASE KEEP OUR SECRET. M.H. E.H. E.H. D.H. B.H. (X)
Address: Misses Hudson,
“Gillong,”