"My dear Alice:
"It pleases me greatly to know that my young daughter is having such a glorious time abroad with her friends, even though I do miss her sorely at home. The letter written by me a day or two ago, which will probably reach you along with this, informs you that we are all well at home, and it contains as much neighborhood gossip as Wifey was able to think of at the hour of my writing, along with considerable instruction about certain points in sightseeing. Your letter this morning, telling the amusing little story of the Italian baby, made me wonder if you wouldn't like a 'baby letter' in return. So here is the answer:
"Last Sunday morning your little namesake was dressed up in her prettiest white dress, with an abundance of blue ribbon adornment, and seated on the front porch, with careful instruction not to soil her clothes but to wait for mother to get ready to escort her to Sunday-school. It developed later that the first part of the injunction seemed to make an impression to the exclusion of the last order. At any rate, Alsie's mamma was somewhat delayed in her preparations, and when, twenty minutes or half an hour later, she appeared on the porch, no baby was in sight. A number of calls brought forth no response; a messenger was dispatched to the back lot, where the dandelions grow, another to the north side of the house, where the little maiden has been so occupied recently picking violets, while still other couriers were hastily despatched to all the neighbors. The report came back from all—no baby girl had been seen by anybody. The situation began to be a little alarming. The messengers were again started out, with instructions to go farther and report at once if any trace was found.
"Ten or fifteen minutes passed, and by this time Alsie's mamma was in a most excited state of mind, as you may well imagine, and felt perfectly sure that the little curly-headed damsel had been kidnaped. She was reproaching herself roundly for putting such a tempting morsel of humanity right into the hands of the cruel villians, when a sharp ring of the telephone brought the remnant of the family, who were not on searching duty, flying to the table in the hall, which as you know holds the receiver.
"Being the least agitated member of the group, I boldly called 'hello,' and was asked by a masculine voice if Mrs. Stratton's little daughter didn't have blue eyes and brown hair and if she wore a white dress with blue——
"It was not necessary to finish the description. My informant then stated that the little lady in question was at that moment occupying a high seat on top of the counter at the drug store, which you know is some five blocks away, and was surrounded by an admiring group of men and boys, to whom she was affably chatting. He said that she refused to be led away, but was quite happy to eat the candy, chew the gum, and play with the various other offerings that were handed out by the amused group of auditors.
"Of course I started at once, and a few moments later I walked in on the baby, who was sitting, according to description, on the counter, explaining, 'Must keep dress kean—mamma take me Sunny Sool.' When I entered she held out her little hands to me with such an innocent, happy smile that I had not the heart to scold; but it was some time before I could persuade her to return to poor mamma, to whom the scant hour's parting seemed almost a year.
"You can imagine the rest of the story, but to relieve your misgivings I'll assure you that the cunning little tot escaped the well-merited punishment.
"This is quite a letter, so I'll wait a few days to write again. As you're probably in France by this time, I'll close my letter with an au revoir.