This is the letter a little English boy wrote to his American cousin
whom he never had seen. He wrote it on his slate in "print letters,"
and his sister Bess copied it on paper in "writing letters."
The words were spelled wrong on the slate. He worked four evenings to
write it all.
[Illustration: THE WAY TOM WROTE IT.]
"DEAR COUSIN DICK:
"You thought I would like to write letters because I am old like
you--ten years. But I am not a school-boy, like you. I am a home-boy.
I think home-boys don't study regular, and learn truly like
school-boys. Mother says she will tell your mother in her letter about
how I have been sick always.
"I think I would like to be a school-boy, but I wouldn't either.
School-boys are mean. If the new boy is lame and shy, they think that
is big fun. _I_ do not see how the tricks can be any fun then.
"If I was a school-boy I would not think it was fun to trip a lame
boy up. I would not think it fun to see him splash down backward into
a pool, and when he soused under and wet his lame back ice-cold, I
would not call, 'Cry-baby!'
"But that is what the school-boys did that day I went.
"So I can't write handsome letters. Do you trick new boys the first
day they come to your school in America? I have had twelve sore
throats since, and I wear a scarf in the house.
"I can knit, and I can mend, and I color pictures. But that is not
learning as school-boys learn. Girls are good to me, and there is a
school where they are all girls, but I think I would not like to go to
it--would you? Write again.
"Your cousin Tom."
[Illustration: {A LITTLE GIRL HELPS TOM AWAY FROM THE BULLIES.}]
[Illustration: LADY FLORENCE.--_From the painting by G. A. Storey,
A. R. A._]
[Illustration: HOW PLEASANT TO LIE ON THE LOUNGE.]