me. Beryl is going to be a great
violinist, you know, and she is saving money to buy a real violin
that will be all her own and take lessons. She will not let me do a
thing to help her, which is splendid--I mean, for her to be so
proud and brave, though I wish she would let me do just a little.

We have some very good times together, mostly taking lovely rides
back in the hills to places Harkness tells us about and once we
took our lunch and Mr. Tubbs and Harkness went, though Mr. Tubbs
had dreadful neuralgia afterwards. Beryl and I read every evening.
I love the books. I think I've been hungry for them all my life and
didn't know it. We're playing a game to see which of us can read
the most. We can play forever because one day we counted the books
in the library and there are one thousand and seventy four and
Harkness says there are more in Christopher the Third's room.
Harkness has been telling us all about him and he showed us his
picture--you know, the one in the Dragon's sitting-room (I
apologize, in Aunt Mathilde's room) and he looked like a young
prince, didn't he? How will Aunt Mathilde ever reconcile herself to
a little insignificant, lame thing like me when she sees me?

Oh, I wish I could really _truly_ meet my good Fairy somewhere--the
one who forgot to attend my birth--and she'd give me one wish, I'd
just ask for one. And that wish would be to G-R-O-W. I never cared
before but now I want to be BIG. Oh, and wise! Mr. Tubbs will tell
you how stupid I am. A Forsyth ought to be big and wise. You see,
before this I have never thought of myself as a real true
Forsyth--I've always just been Jimmie's daughter. But lately I've
been thinking a lot about what a Forsyth ought to be and there are
about a million questions I'd like to ask:

1. Ought Mr. Norris to let the Mills sink into a boneyard of
antiquity?

2. What is the very most money I could spend all in one lump and
can I spend it without telling anyone about it beforehand?

3. There's an empty cottage just below where the Manor road crosses
the river and Williams says the Forsyths own it. Can Beryl and I
use it for a club?

Thinking of the questions makes me forget the other nine hundred
ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety seven, (I did that on
paper) but please