whip poor dolly very often, because
he said she was naughty, they got along pretty well; and upon the whole
they both had a very pleasant day.

FOURTH LETTER.

"A LETTER for Miss Bella Curtis," said the postman; "two cents."

Oh, what delightful words those were. Bella began quite to love the
postman; and she asked him if he wouldn't please to take _three_
cents--which astonished him so much, that I do believe nobody had ever
thought of saying so to him before.

The little girl pulled off the envelope with trembling eagerness, and
Edith read this:

"DEAR, DARLING BELLA:

"I was so delighted with your letter that I kissed every word once, and
the dear little scratch, that meant your name, about a dozen times.
Yesterday was Sunday, and I went to church. Just in front of me sat a
dear little girl so like you, that I wanted to lift her over the back of
the pew and kiss her. She was such a little thing, that she did not know
how to sit still. She had on a pair of worsted sleeves, and the very
first thing she did, was to poke all the fingers of one little hand
through the ruffle round the other, just as you do with your sleeves.
Then she smiled at me, and I smiled at her; then she spread out her
little pocket handkerchief, and found a small hole in the corner, about
as big as a three-cent piece. She stuck her finger through that, and
held it up, and danced it up and down; then she dusted the pew with it,
which made it rather dirty. She was such a little bit of a thing that
you could hardly expect her to sit quite still; but this that I am going
to tell you now, was really naughty.

"There was a boy in the pew just in front. She gave him three pretty
hard taps on the back of his head, and when he looked round, she
pretended to be asleep. What a girl!

"When we came out I shook hands with her, and said: 'I have a little
girl at home in the North, her name is Bella; what is your name?'

"'My name is Bella, too,' she said. Wasn't that wonderful?

"As I walked home, I saw such a sweet little white girl, carried in the
arms of a great black woman, whose head looked like an immense
butterfly, fastened on her shoulders; for she had a handkerchief on it,
of all the colors of the rainbow, and it was spread out on either side
like wings.

"The sweet little child seemed to love her black nurse dearly, for as I
walked behind, I saw her press her tender, lovely, pink and white cheek,
close against the dusky face of