m, the
"child-friend" to whom both were addressed, perhaps did not hit upon
at once. Mr. Dodgson wrote these two letters in 1868:--

Dear Maggie,--I found that _the friend, _that the
little girl asked me to write to, lived at Ripon, and not at
Land's End--a nice sort of place to invite to! It looked
rather suspicious to me--and soon after, by dint of
incessant inquiries, I found out that _she_ was called
Maggie, and lived in a Crescent! Of course I declared,
"After that" (the language I used doesn't matter), "I will
_not_ address her, that's flat! So do not expect me to
flatter."

Well, I hope you will soon see your beloved Pa come
back--for consider, should you be quite content with only
Jack? Just suppose they made a blunder! (Such things happen
now and then.) Really, now, I shouldn't wonder if your
"John" came home again, and your father stayed at school! A
most awkward thing, no doubt. How would you receive him?
You'll say, perhaps, "you'd turn him out." That would answer
well, so far as concerns the boy, you know--but consider
your Papa, learning lessons in a row of great inky
schoolboys! This (though unlikely) might occur: "Haly" would
be grieved to miss him (don't mention it to _her_).

No _carte_ has yet been done of me, that does real
justice to my _smile_; and so I hardly like, you see,
to send you one. However, I'll consider if I will or
not--meanwhile, I send a little thing to give you an idea of
what I look like when I'm lecturing. The merest sketch, you
will allow--yet still I think there's something grand in the
expression of the brow and in the action of the hand.

Have you read my fairy tale in _Aunt Judy's Magazine?_
If you have you will not fail to discover what I mean when I
say "Bruno yesterday came to remind me that _he_ was my
god-son!"--on the ground that I "gave him a name"!

Your affectionate friend,

C.L. Dodgson.

P.S.--I would send, if I were not too shy, the same message
to "Haly" that she (though I do not deserve it, not I!) has
sent through her sister to me. My best love to yourself--to
your Mother my kindest regards--to your small, fat,
impertinent, ignorant brother my hatred. I think that is
all.

[Illustration: What I look like when I'm Lecturing. _From a
drawing, by Lewis Carroll._]

My dear Maggie,--I am a ver