ul glad of it. I was afraid you were
sick, you looked in such pain." He looked at me a minute, then grinned
and said he thought I was a book-agent. Fancy me, a fat, comfortable
widow, trying to sell books!

Well, I filed and came home. If you will believe me, the Scot was glad
to see me and didn't herald the Campbells for two hours after I got
home. I'll tell you, it is mighty seldom any one's so much appreciated.

No, we have no rural delivery. It is two miles to the office, but I go
whenever I like. It is really the jolliest kind of fun to gallop down.
We are sixty miles from the railroad, but when we want anything we send
by the mail-carrier for it, only there is nothing to get.

I know this is an inexcusably long letter, but it is snowing so hard
and you know how I like to talk. I am sure Jerrine will enjoy the cards
and we will be glad to get them. Many things that are a comfort to us
out here came from dear Mrs. ----. Baby has the rabbit you gave her last
Easter a year ago. In Denver I was afraid my baby would grow up devoid
of imagination. Like all the kindergartners, she depended upon others
to amuse her. I was very sorry about it, for my castles in Spain have
been real homes to me. But there is no fear. She has a block of wood
she found in the blacksmith shop which she calls her "dear baby." A
spoke out of a wagon wheel is "little Margaret," and a barrel-stave is
"bad little Johnny."

Well, I must quit writing before you vote me a nuisance. With lots of
love to you,

Your sincere friend,
ELINORE RUPERT.

III

A BUSY, HAPPY SUMMER

_September 11, 1909._

DEAR MRS. CONEY,--

This has been for me the busiest, happiest summer I can remember. I
have worked very hard, but it has been work that I really enjoy. Help
of any kind is very hard to get here, and Mr. Stewart had been too
confident of getting men, so that haying caught him with too few men to
put up the hay. He had no man to run the mower and he couldn't run both
the mower and the stacker, so you can fancy what a place he was in.

I don't know that I ever told you, but my parents died within a year of
each other and left six of us to shift for ourselves. Our people
offered to take one here and there among them until we should all have
a place, but we refused to be raised on the halves and so arranged to
stay at Grandmother's and keep together. Well, we had no money to hire
men to do our work, so had to learn to do it ourselve