Your father is going to write you a letter. Quite wonderful for him. O
William Henry, you don’t know how much I think of your father, and what
a good man he is! I guess you’d better write to your grandmother before
you do me; she’s so pleased to have you write to her.
Father wants to know when that ball hit you if you _bawled_.
* * * * *
Lucy Maria’s “picture-taker” made a great deal of fun for them, and
possibly did some good. She constructed a queer long-handled affair,
and, at the most unexpected moments, this would be thrust before the
faces of different members of the family, more especially Tommy,
Matilda, or Georgiana, and their “pictures” would be sure to appear to
them soon after, “glad, or mad, or sad, or any way.”
And the plan of “summer boarders” also furnished entertainment. The talk
on this subject was quite amusing, particularly when it touched the
subject of “advertising.” Lucy Maria suggested this ending:--
“None but the silly, or the really well-informed need apply.” But Mr.
Carver thought such a notice would fail of bringing a single boarder.
For silly people did not know they were silly, and the really
well-informed were the very last ones to think themselves so.
* * * * *
_William Henry to Aunt Phebe._