The next morning, as I was reading the paper, in came the servant and gave me the funniest little note! It was addressed on the outside, "To my neighbor Oldbird," and ran thus:
"My dear Neighbor:
"Mamma says I may take a walk with you this morning, because you are a good old bachelor. Jimmy wants to go, and Gipsey. Gipsey is my dog. He is black and tan, and his tail curls round so, that papa says you might use it for a cork-screw. Jimmy and I mean to try some time. Gipsey likes to be on the seashore, and so does baby. We are going there next week—to Long Branch. I hope you will write me a letter when I am gone, and I am Your affectionate
"Neighbor Nelly.
"Saturday Morning."
You may believe how pleased I was with this dear little note, and I thought I would answer it. So I sat down at my writing desk, found a cunning little sheet of paper, with a flag on it, and commenced.
Now I happened to think, at that moment, of some very comical letters written by the great poet, Tom Hood, to his little friends on the seashore; and as they were ever so much funnier than anything I could have written, I copied one of them out, and sent it to my little new friend.
"My dear Neighbor Nelly:
"I am very glad you are to walk with me, and very sorry you are going away so soon. Do you like to be on the seashore? I did, when I was a boy. I and my brother chucked hundreds of stones into the sea, when we were there, but we came away before we could fill it up. Then there is the fun of finding shiny pebbles and jelly fish on the beach. I used to think jelly fish were made of sea-calves' feet, and no flavoring. I suppose the mermaids eat them at their parties.