skirt.
The next morning when I got up I hit the pitcher against the basin
and cracked them both and I upset a cup of tea on the tablecloth at
breakfast. When I was helping Aunt Mary with the dinner dishes I
dropped a china plate and it smashed. That evening I fell downstairs and
sprained my ankle and had to stay in bed for a week. I heard Aunt Mary
tell Uncle Joseph it was a mercy or I'd have broken everything in the
house. When I got better it was time to go home. I don't like visiting
very much. I like going to school better, especially since I came to
Avonlea.

"'Yours respectfully,

""Barbara Shaw.'"

"Willie White's began,

""Respected Miss,

""I want to tell you about my Very Brave Aunt. She lives in Ontario and
one day she went out to the barn and saw a dog in the yard. The dog had
no business there so she got a stick and whacked him hard and drove him
into the barn and shut him up. Pretty soon a man came looking for an
inaginary lion' (Query;--Did Willie mean a menagerie lion?) 'that had
run away from a circus. And it turned out that the dog was a lion and my
Very Brave Aunt had druv him into the barn with a stick. It was a wonder
she was not et up but she was very brave. Emerson Gillis says if she
thought it was a dog she wasn't any braver than if it really was a
dog. But Emerson is jealous because he hasn't got a Brave Aunt himself,
nothing but uncles.'

"'I have kept the best for the last. You laugh at me because I think Paul
is a genius but I am sure his letter will convince you that he is a very
uncommon child. Paul lives away down near the shore with his grandmother
and he has no playmates . . . no real playmates. You remember our School
Management professor told us that we must not have 'favorites' among
our pupils, but I can't help loving Paul Irving the best of all mine.
I don't think it does any harm, though, for everybody loves Paul, even
Mrs. Lynde, who says she could never have believed she'd get so fond of
a Yankee. The other boys in school like him too. There is nothing weak
or girlish about him in spite of his dreams and fancies. He is very
manly and can hold his own in all games. He fought St. Clair Donnell
recently because St. Clair said the Union Jack was away ahead of the
Stars and Stripes as a flag. The result was a drawn battle and a mutual
agreement to respect each other's patriotism henceforth. St. Clair says
he can hit the HARDEST but Paul can hit the OFTENEST.'"

"Paul's L