builds
things, or invents, or writes. I want him to do something and _be_
something, not just amuse a lot of fool people who can't amuse
themselves. When you come home we will pipe up something great for that
son of yours, and we will stick to it and _make_ him be something. There
is a chance for every one in this nice big fat world of ours, and Billy
will come out on top some way, or his aunt Nan will know the reason why.

Lots of love,
_Nan_.

XVII

_Dear Kate_:

I am having the best time of any girl in the whole world. Oh, Kate, I do
love to dance, cause dancing is just a saying the nice-thoughts inside
of you with your body instead of your lips. And I think when you get
better thoughts you do better work. I know mine is different somehow,
cause even old, fat Casey who never throws you a decent word if he can
help it, said I'd do. When I used to dance in the joints around 14th
Street and over on Eighth Avenue I danced just the things I knew then,
which was cafes filled with cigarette smoke, booze on the tables and
puffy, bad faced men staring at me. My dancing was not good, just making
my feet go, but now I think about other things and I dance the buds
coming out on the pussey willows, the dog wood blossoms and the ripples
of the lake when the moon shines on it. I hear the crickets and the
katey-dids and the little peepers from the pond, and instead of
hard-faced girls puffing cigarette smoke into men's faces, I see Billy
with his curls hanging round his laughing face as he runs up the long
road to meet me when I come from the station. My body seems to have
grown softer with my feelings and it bends more easy and I believe I
have even changed my face. I don't feel that all the world is against me
and that I have to fight my way through it, cause I know I am loved and
trusted and there is always some one waiting for me at the gate. Why,
Kate, it changes your whole life to know there is some one caring for
you who won't try to do you the first chance they get, and if it makes
such a difference in your feelings, it is bound to make a difference in
your actions, and that is the reason when I dance, I sway and bend and
turn as light as if I was a fairy one reads about in story books. It
ain't dancing, it ain't work. It is just a telling all the world I'm
happy.

Dancing in these better places is not bad for a girl cause the
management don't make you talk to no one and won't let the men get
fresh. Of co