I think the school that I have come to is a very good school. We have
dumplings. I’ve tied up the pills that you gave me in case of feeling
bad, in the toe of my cotton stocking that’s lost the mate of it. The
mince pies they have here are baked without any plums being put into
them. So, please, need I say, No, I thank you, ma’am, to ’em when they
come round? If they don’t agree, shall I take the pills or the drops? Or
was it the hot flannels,--and how many?
I’ve forgot about being shivery. Was it to eat roast onions? No, I guess
not. I guess it was a wet band tied round my head. Please write it down,
because you told me so many things I can’t remember. How can anybody
tell when anybody is sick enough to take things? You can’t think what a
great, tall man the schoolmaster is. He has got something very long to
flog us with, that bends easy, and hurts,--Q. S. So Dorry says. Q. S. is
in the abbreviations, and stands for a sufficient quantity. Dorry says
the master keeps a paint-pot in his room, and has his whiskers painted
black every morning, and his hair too, to make himself look scareful.
Dorry is one of the great boys. But Tom Cush is bigger. I don’t like Tom
Cush.
I have a good many to play with; but I miss you and Towser and all of
them very much. How does my sister do? Don’t let the cow eat my
peach-tree. Dorry Baker he says that peaches don’t grow here; but he
says the cherries have peach-stones in them. In a month my birthday will
be here. How funny ’t will seem to be eleven, when I’ve been ten so
long! I don’t skip over any button-holes in the morning now; so my
jacket comes out even.
Why didn’t you tell me I had a red head? But I can run faster than any
of them that are no bigger than I am, and some that are. One of the
spokes of my umbrella broke itself in two yesterday, because the wind
blew so when it rained.
We learn to sing. He says I’ve a good deal of voice; but I’ve forgot
what the matter is with it. We go up and down the scale, and beat time.
The last is the best fun. The other is hard to do. But if I could only
get up, I guess ’t would be easy to come down. He thinks something ails
my ear. I thought he said I hadn’t got any at all. What have a feller’s
ears to do with singing, or with scaling up and down?
Your affectionate grandchild,