perfectly
sure_ he wouldn't mind, because you know how I
_love_ Uncle John, even if I am just the least
bit afraid of him, and I'm sure that is natural
when you think what a goose I am.)"

Margaret paused, laughing, to throw her arms around her uncle, and tell
him that this was "Peggy's hug;" then she went on:

"I was so glad to get your last letter, and to
hear all about dear, darling Fernley, and Uncle
John, and Elizabeth and Frances, and all the
funny things those funny children have been
doing. Margaret, they are almost exactly like
us children when we were their age. I never
began to think about growing up till I read
about how they carry on, and then saw that we
didn't act so any more, Jean, and Flora, and I.
Jean is younger than me, of course, but she's
more grown up, I really think. I think you must
have a lovely time, now that--well, you said I
mustn't call names, and so I won't, but I know
just exactly what kind of a person she was,
Margaret, and _so do you_, and you can't deny
it, so now!

"Margaret, of course I do feel rather scared
about school, for I am still very ignorant, and
I suppose all the girls will know about forty
thousand times as much as I do, and they will
call me stupid, and I know I am; but I mean to
be brave, and remember all the things you have
said, and mother has helped me, too, oh, a lot,
and she says she just wishes she had had the
chance when she was a girl, and I know now just
how she feels. And then when I come home, you
see, I can teach the little girls, and that
will be great. But I never shall try to teach
them spelling, or history, for you know I
cannot; and I cannot remember to this day who
Thomas a Bucket was, and why they called him
that.

"Hugh came in just now, and I asked him that,
and he laughed, and said Thomas a Bucket was
certainly pale before they got through with
him. I don't know what he means, but he says
you will, so I write it down. Good-bye,
dearest, darling Margaret. Give heaps and
oceans and lots of love to Uncle John, and most
of all to your own darling self, from