XXX
"My Dear Mamma,
"Nearly all the boys are going home for Christmas. Erich Froben will stay here because he has no mamma, and Fritz Lawsky because he has only a guardian, and If., who comes from India, and is as yellow as a Gruyére cheese. All the other boys are going home. Why mayn't I come home? Some of them have a longer journey to their homes than I have. Oh, I do want to come home so badly. I cry every morning and every night because I may not come home. There are six days to Christmas now. There is going to be a party, and the boys who stay here for Christmas will get their parcels of presents when the tree is lit up. And a bell is rung, the school bell. If. will get something too; for the Head wrote to his papa, who said he would send his presents over in a ship. Have you got my list of the things I want? Perhaps it has got lost; that would be awful. But I'll write another list to make sure.
"List of Presents.
"1. A big box of lead soldiers--real thick ones, with proper bodies, not the smooth kind; they are no good.
"2. A fortress, a proper fortress, with a bridge that draws up and trenches that hold water, and the men who are shot fall into it.
"3. A cannon.
"4. Another cannon, which makes two cannons, and two cannons for the enemy too, because without, you couldn't have a battle.
"5. Lots of little cannons. An army must have artillery, and the side that has the best artillery beats.
"6. A menagerie. If. has got a menagerie.