By the old-fashioned girl is not here meant the girl of a type extinct, but the girl of a type still existing, if in less numbers than of old. I have a sheaf of letters by this girl beside me. None of these letters bears date earlier than 1893. One of them, written on Christmas morning of that year, begins—
“To-day is just like a beautiful Spring morning, the crocuses and buds showing above ground, and all the buds forward.”
A week later, the writer announces—
“The weather is so open that Eva was able to pick some rosebuds on Christmas Day.”
Under date February 12th, 1894, there is the following—
“The kitten Sixpenny is getting plump on bullfinches which the gardener shoots. They do a lot of damage to the fruit-buds.”
The same letter contains this communication—
“The violets and camellias are backward this year, but all the crocuses and snowdrops are now at their best, and we daily examine daffodil buds.”
“Jacob, a jackdaw,” is mentioned in a subsequent letter, where the reference to him runs—
“Jacob, a jackdaw, has been lately acquired. He resides in a big aviary, and sometimes has a rabbit put in with him to get change of air.”