AN INVITATION
The envelope was postmarked Everdoze which, with its one thousand two
hundred and fifty-seven inhabitants, was the cosmopolitan center of Long
Valley which ran (if anything in that neighborhood could be said to run)
from Baxter City down below the vicinity of the bridge on the highway.
That is, Long Valley bordered the highway on its western side for a
distance of about ten miles. The valley was, roughly speaking, a couple
of miles wide, very deep in places, and thickly wooded. It was
altogether a very sequestered and romantic region. Through it,
paralleling the highway, was a road, consisting mostly of two wagon ruts
with a strip of grass and weeds between them. To traverse Long Valley
one turned into this road where it left the highway at Baxters, and in
the course of time the wayfarer would emerge out of this dim tract into
the light of day where the unfrequented road came into the highway again
below the bridge.
About midway of this lonely road was Everdoze, and in a pleasant
old-fashioned white house in Everdoze lived Ebenezer Quig who once upon
a time had married Pee-wee’s Aunt Jamsiah. Pee-wee remembered his Aunt
Jamsiah when she had come to make a visit in Bridgeboro and, though he
had never seen her since, he had always borne her tenderly in mind
because as a little (a _very_ little) boy her name had always reminded
him of jam. The letter, as has been said, bore the postmark of Everdoze
and had been stamped by the very hand of Simeon Drowser, the local
postmaster.
This is what the letter said:
Dear Walter:
Your uncle has been pestering me to write to you but Pepsy has
been using the pen for her school exercise and I couldn’t get hold
of it till to-day when she went away with Wiggle, perch fishing.
Licorice Stick says they’re running in the brook most wonderful
but you can’t believe half what he says. Seems as if the perch
know when school closes, leastways that’s what your uncle says.
Pee-wee reread these enchanting words. Pepsy! Wiggle! Perch
fishing! Licorice Stick! And school closing! And perch that knew
about it. That was the sort of perch for Pee-wee. He read on:
I told your uncle I reckoned you wouldn’t care to come here being
you live in such a lively place but he said this summer you would
like to come for there will be plenty for you to do because there
is going to be a spelling match in the town hall and an Uncle
Tom’s Cabin show in August.
You can have plenty of milk and fresh eggs and Miss Arabella
Bellison who has the school is staying this summer and she will
let you in the school-house where there is a library of more than
forty books but some of the pages are gone Pepsy says. She says to
tell you she will show you where she cut her initials but I tell
her not to put such ideas in your head and she knows how to climb
in even if the door is locked, such goings on as she and Wiggle
have, they will be the death of me.
Well, Walter, you will be welcome if you can come and spend the
summer with us. I suppose you’re a great big boy by now; your
mother was always tall for her age. There are boys here who would
like to be scout boys and your uncle says you can teach them. We
will do all we can so that you have a pleasant summer if you come
and tell your mother we will be real glad to see you and will take
good care of you.
I can’t write more now because I am putting up preserves, one
hundred jars already. The apples will be rotting on the trees,
it’s a shame. You will think we are very old-fashioned, I’m
afraid.
Pee-wee paused and smacked his lips and nearly fell backward off the
limb. One hundred jars of preserves and more coming! Apples rotting on
the trees! All that remained to complete his happiness was a bush laden
with ice cream cones growing wild. He read the concluding sentences:
Your uncle would be glad to go and bring you in the buckboard but
it would take very long and he is busy haying so if you don’t mind
the bad road it would be better for your father to send you in the
automobile. Be sure to turn off the highway to the right just
above Baxters. The road goes through the woods.
Your loving
Aunt Jamsiah.
Steadying himself with one hand, Pee-wee took the letter between his
teeth as if he were about to eat it. Then he cautiously let himself down
so that he hung by his knees, then clutched the limb with his hands,
hung for a moment with his legs dangling, and let go. In one sense he
was upon earth but in another sense he was walking on air....