in which no reference to any possible personal Creator
of the universe is to be found, and we hope such are in use at the
Genevan kindergarten, and Mr. Malise means, in some of his leisure
time, to write a series of stories for children in which there shall be
no hint of the supernatural; stories that shall deal only with this
living, breathing world we know; with no pretty fiction concerning a
life and personages generations of men have invented details for"--and
I--

I seemed to move among a world of ghosts,
And feel myself the shadow of a dream.

But Geneva and these dreary story-books are two or three years off, let
us hope. Meanwhile baby and I are grown very fond of the patient,
lonely little man, and I have him here as often as Johanna is pleased
to bring him. Great comfort, I see and hear, he has in Mabel's large,
sunny day nursery, gay with birds and pictures, well stocked with
playthings, and possessing an extraordinary wooden construction which
our little guest beholds with the eye of faith, naming it rapturously
gee-gee, and worshipping it as the king of beasts. When we are alone at
dinner I have the mites down for a few minutes at dessert, and it is
really pathetic to watch little Malaise's shy delight at getting a
little fruit and an innocent sweet or two.

THE LABURNUMS, }
HENLEY-ON-THAMES, }
July 16, 1876. }

Changed quarters, you see, my Susie. It was so cold all June I thought
we should be able to hold out until the end of the session at No. 18;
but July came in flaming; so more for Mabel's sake than our own we've
taken a pretty villa here at pretty Henley, for six weeks, and then
we're off for Biarritz, where we mean to settle ourselves comfortably,
and thence explore, at our leisure, all the lovely yet almost unknown
near-by country. The grandpapa paternal has written begging that we'll
leave Mabel, whom he calls "Tramp No. 3, and too small for the work,"
at Castle Starched-stiff-O; but Tramps 1 and 2 think they couldn't
possibly fare on comfortably without that small golden head bobbing
along beside them, up the hills and down the dales. Nurse is even more
gypsyish than her master and mistress, and Mabel has spent the greater
part of all her waking hours since she was two months old out of doors;
so I think we shall always have in her the hardiest of small comrades.

Miss Hedges goes with us, and we mean, she and I, to bring back between
us the entire Basque country in our por