dith Ball.]

Ch. Ch., Oxford, _October_ 24, 1879.

My dear Kathleen,--I was really pleased to get your letter,
as I had quite supposed I should never see or hear of you
again. You see I knew only your Christian name--not the
ghost of a surname, or the shadow of an address--and I was
not prepared to spend my little all in advertisements--"If
the young lady, who was travelling on the G.W. Railway, &c."
--or to devote the remainder of my life to going about
repeating "Kathleen," like that young woman who came from
some foreign land to look for her lover, but only knew that
he was called "Edward" (or "Richard" was it? I dare say you
know History better than I do) and that he lived in England;
so that naturally it took her some time to find him. All I
knew was that _you_ could, if you chose, write to me
through Macmillan: but it is three months since we met, so I
was _not_ expecting it, and it was a pleasant surprise.

Well, so I hope I may now count you as one of my
child-friends. I am fond of children (except boys), and have
more child-friends than I could possibly count on my
fingers, even if I were a centipede (by the way, _have_
they fingers? I'm afraid they're only feet, but, of course,
they use them for the same purpose, and that is why no other
insects, _except centipedes_, ever succeed in doing
_Long Multiplication_), and I have several not so very
far from you--one at Beckenham, two at Balham, two at Herne
Hill, one at Peckham--so there is every chance of my being
somewhere near you _before the year_ 1979. If so, may I
call? I am _very_ sorry your neck is no better, and I
wish they would take you to Margate: Margate air will make
_any_ body well of _any_ thing.

It seems you have already got my two books about "Alice."
Have you also got "The Hunting of the Snark"? If not, I
should be very glad to send you one. The pictures (by Mr.
Holiday) are pretty: and you needn't read the verses unless
you like.

How do you pronounce your surname? "esk-weej"? or how? Is it
a German name?

If you can do "Doublets," with how many links do you turn
KATH into LEEN?

With kind remembrances to your mother, I am

Your affectionate friend,

Charles L. Dodgson

(_alias_ "Lewis Carroll").

Ch. Ch., Oxford, _January_ 20, 1892.

My dear Kath