“Speaking of Uncle Si, he hasn’t been quite as well as usual this winter; ‘kinder off the hooks,’ as he says. Mother Brown is trying to persuade him that he oughtn’t to live out there all alone any longer. Uncle Si says ‘it’s all-fired lonesome since the gals stopped comin’’ and if you ‘had a hankerin’ after missionary work, he could ’a’ showed you where you could put in your best licks, right here at hum.’ He means looking after him, of course; did you ever hear of anything so selfish? But old people are always selfish, I think.
“Grandma Brown says that a girl that’d disappint her own pa and hurt his feelin’s for the sake of a outlandish hound dog hadn’t ought to have a pa. You know she never liked me so very well, anyway. She’s always telling Doris how much better you used to do things. Doris says, if she didn’t love you dearly, she’d have been sick to death of hearing your name, long before this.
“You asked me in two or three of your letters about Miss Sophia. I don’t see why you care so much about Miss Sophia; she never did anything for you if she could possibly help it. She never liked me, either; I went to see her, entirely for your sake, dear, about a week ago. Seems to me she’s getting kind of old and feeble; and one funny thing, she didn’t scold a bit, not even when Scotty would squeeze past me and put his paw right up on her black cashmere lap. I don’t see how he ever dared. She asked me twice, when I heard from you last.
“Miss Morrison was in town the other day. She inquired after you the very first thing, of course. Miss Morrison thinks it was very fine and noble in you to go out to Cherry Creek.
“Why do you never say a word about the boys? Aren’t there any nice ones at all? Of course, you know how it is here; they’re all devoted to Doris! The next thing we’ll hear will be that she’s engaged! Jibby, darling, I’m just as sure as ever that I shall never, never want to get married. You will wait for me, won’t you? Wait till I’m twenty-one, I mean, and we can live together all the rest of our lives.
“Your own
“Cynthia.
“P. S. By the way, Ethan has grown ever so much handsomer since you saw him last. He looks years older and—and—oh, you know what I mean!
“C. P.
“N. B. Jibby, the minute you get this letter I want you to sit right down and tell me just what you are doing, and answer every single question, or I’ll never forgive you.