nea fowls. You must be mad to
live in a city when you might live on a farm.

It is my daily business to hunt the eggs. I fell off a beam in the
barn loft yesterday, while I was trying to crawl over to a nest that
the black hen has stolen. And when I came in with a scratched knee,
Mrs. Semple bound it up with witch-hazel, murmuring all the time,
'Dear! Dear! It seems only yesterday that Master Jervie fell off that
very same beam and scratched this very same knee.'

The scenery around here is perfectly beautiful. There's a valley and a
river and a lot of wooded hills, and way in the distance a tall blue
mountain that simply melts in your mouth.

We churn twice a week; and we keep the cream in the spring house which
is made of stone with the brook running underneath. Some of the
farmers around here have a separator, but we don't care for these
new-fashioned ideas. It may be a little harder to separate the cream
in pans, but it's sufficiently better to pay. We have six calves; and
I've chosen the names for all of them.

1. Sylvia, because she was born in the woods.

2. Lesbia, after the Lesbia in Catullus.

3. Sallie.

4. Julia--a spotted, nondescript animal.

5. Judy, after me.

6. Daddy-Long-Legs. You don't mind, do you, Daddy? He's pure Jersey
and has a sweet disposition. He looks like this--you can see how
appropriate the name is.

I haven't had time yet to begin my immortal novel; the farm keeps me
too busy.

Yours always,
Judy

PS. I've learned to make doughnuts.

PS. (2) If you are thinking of raising chickens, let me recommend Buff
Orpingtons. They haven't any pin feathers.

PS. (3) I wish I could send you a pat of the nice, fresh butter I
churned yesterday. I'm a fine dairy-maid!

PS. (4) This is a picture of Miss Jerusha Abbott, the future great
author, driving home the cows.

Sunday

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

Isn't it funny? I started to write to you yesterday afternoon, but as
far as I got was the heading, 'Dear Daddy-Long-Legs', and then I
remembered I'd promised to pick some blackberries for supper, so I went
off and left the sheet lying on the table, and when I came back today,
what do you think I found sitting in the middle of the page? A real
true Daddy-Long-Legs!

I picked him up very gently by one leg, and dropped him out of the
wind