Mrs. Heath came in smiling, with a letter in her hand, which, after cordially greeting Mr. Clyde, she read to him,--an amazed and outwitted father.
MOUNT HUNGER, MILL SETTLEMENT, BARTON'S
RIVER, VERMONT, May 19, 1896.
MY DEAR MRS. HEATH,--Please thank my dear Doctor Heath for the note he sent me two weeks ago. I ought to write to him instead of to you, for I don't owe you a letter (your last one was so sweet I answered it right off), but he never allows his patients strawberry preserve and jam, so it would be no use to ask his help just now, as this is pure business, March says.
We are trying to help others, and the strawberries--wild ones--are as thick as spatter--going to be--all over the pastures, and we 're going to pick quarts and quarts, and Rose is going to preserve them, and then we 're going to sell them.
Do you think of anybody who would like some of this preserve? If you do, will you kindly let me know by return mail?
I can't tell just the price, and March says that is a great drawback in real business, and this is real--but it will not be more than $1 and twenty-five cents a quart. They will be fine for luncheon. I never tasted any half so good at home.
My dear love to the Doctor and a large share for yourself from
Your loving friend,
HAZEL CLYDE.