Jack has wrote you a letter which I enclose in this. Cicero would send a message, but he is dretful carried away with a new book he has borrowed, a splendid book, 'The Serpent Enchantress; or, The Doomed Fly-Away,' it is perfectly fascinating. I set up last night until four o'clock finishin' it."
I gin a deep sithe as I read this sentence. The letter closed with another urgent request for to come when she give me warnin', she would write the day Celestina come, she said, and it ended
"Yours with devoted love,
"TAMER SMITH."
I laid down her epistle and took up Jack's, it wuz printed in big letters, and the page wuz as full of love and longin' to see me as it wuz with smears and ink blots, and that is goin' to the very extent of describin' the love it contained. Bless his dear little warm heart! Well, I spozed I should have to go but thought I wouldn't talk it over with Josiah till the day drawed near, not wantin' to precipitate trouble onto him till it wuz necessary, and I knew well how wedded he wuz to my presence.
And the next day I begun quietly and prudently to prepare for the great Charity Bazar of Miss Greene Smythe's. I bound over my best woosted petticoat that wuz some frayed out round the bottom, and mended a few broken places in the tattin' that trimmed my white one. I took the lace out of the neck and sleeves of my gray woosted dress, which I laid out to wear instead of my black alpacky, thinkin' it looked more gay and cheerful and more adapted to the requirements of a fashionable party in high life, I washed the lace carefully and did it
