_Dear Kate_:
Billy is back! I don't know hardly how I can tell you all about it, it
don't seem real to me yet. Two days out from New York the ship that they
was on run into another ship in a fog and everybody was saved except
eighteen people, and the Smiths was lost. An officer saw Billy and threw
him in a boat and the Smiths was put in another boat that was swamped. I
read it in the papers first, and it said the Smiths was drowned and of
course I thought Billy was with them, and I was near crazy because I
thought it was all my fault. If I had not of given him to the Smiths, he
would be alive still. I went down to the dock where the people who was
brought in by the other boat landed, and one of the first persons I see
was Billy, standing with a man and woman, looking just as natural as
ever, with his curls around his face and his eyes a laughing just as if
nothing had happened. I near went nutty, and made an awful fool of
myself, but I was so tickled, I didn't care.
I suppose it is wrong to be so glad as I am to have him back, and I feel
so bad about the Smiths, that one minit I am crying about them and the
next minit I am hugging the life out of Billy to have him again. I got
him up in the room and I will never let him out of my sight a minit if I
can help it. I leave him with Myrtle Williams when I am at work and I
hurry right home as soon as I am through. He just makes the sun shine in
the old room again. He is such a big strong boy, it is all I can do to
lift him over to his own side of the bed at night. I take him out in the
morning and we have a long walk. We went up to the park the other day
and saw the animals. I think I was as tickled with them as much as Billy
was, but I guess I made a mistake taking him up there because if he had
his way he would board with Miss Murphy and her baby. He seems to take
to hippopotamuses and elephants and things big. I bought him all new
clothes, and he looks awful cunning. Oh, Kate, he sure is one kid. And
talk, why, he has got Bryan beat to a finish. I have to watch him kinda
close cause girls have no sense with babies. Myrtle took him out the
other afternoon when I was at work and filled him up with ice cream and
candy and all kinds of stuff till he nearly died. I gave her a call-down
and she said, "Well, he wanted it." I said, "Of course, he wanted it,
kids want everything they see, but that is no sign they should have it.
Ain't you got nothing in your head but your rat?" She got sore and then
I was sorry cause she has been awful good, and I gave her my best
slipper buckles to make up. But I tell you it threw a scare into me.
Billy got all blue and kinda swelled up and I chased her out for a
doctor and he said it was all right, and gave him some stuff and the
next day Billy was nearly all right. I gave Billy a talking to and told
him that if he coaxed aunt Myrtle for everything he saw that I would
spank him. It was hot air, and I think he knows it, cause I couldn't
bear to spank him. I only did it once and then I was so mad that I did
it before I thought. He and Paul had a fight, and he pulled a big
handful of Paul's hair out and made Mrs. Smith mad, and I just up and
gave him a good fat spanking where it did the most good and it helped a
lot. I just can't whip him, but sometimes I set him down with a thud
that jars his teeth. I don't know what I will do with him, as it ain't
good for him to live in one room, but I am so glad to have him that I
ain't worrying much.
Write me a long letter Kate. I have been scared to see a post man come
my way since I sent you the letter about Billy going away, but now, you
sure can't be sore, and I will give the old man a good fat hug when I
see him ambling up my stairway.
Yours,
_Nan_.