ry strong, and can preach
no longer. The boys are all scattered. Jack married pretty Miss Bessie
Drury, and lives on a large farm near here. Miss Bessie says that
she hates to be a farmer's wife, but she always looks very happy and
contented, so I think that she must be mistaken. Carl is a merchant in
New York, Ned is a clerk in a bank, and Willie is studying at a place
called Harvard. He says that after he finishes his studies, he is going
to live with his father and mother.

The Morrises' old friends often come to see them. Mrs. Drury comes every
summer on her way to Newport, and Mr. Montague and Charlie come every
other summer. Charlie always brings with him his old dog Brisk, who is
getting feeble, like myself. We lie on the veranda in the sunshine, and
listen to the Morrises talking about old days, and sometimes it makes us
feel quite young again. In addition to Brisk we have a Scotch collie.
He is very handsome, and is a constant attendant of Miss Laura's. We are
great friends, he and I, but he can get about much better than I can.
One day a friend of Miss Laura's came with a little boy and girl, and
"Collie" sat between the two children, and their father took their
picture with a "kodak." I like him so much that I told him I would get
them to put his picture in my book.

When the Morris boys are all here in the summer we have gay times. All
through the winter we look forward to their coming, for they make the
old farmhouse so lively. Mr. Maxwell never misses a summer in coming to
Riverdale. He has such a following of dumb animals now, that he says he
can't move them any farther away from Boston than this, and he doesn't
know what he will do with them, unless he sets up a menagerie. He asked
Miss Laura the other day, if she thought that the old Italian would take
him into partnership. He did not know what had happened to poor Bellini,
so Miss Laura told him.

A few years ago the Italian came to Riverdale, to exhibit his new stock
of performing animals. They were almost as good as the old ones, but he
had not quite so many as he had before. The Morrises and a great many
of their friends went to his performance, and Miss Laura said afterward,
that when cunning little Billy came on the stage, and made his bow, and
went through his antics of jumping through hoops, and catching balls,
that she almost had hysterics. The Italian had made a special pet of him
for the Morrises' sake, and treated him more like a human bei