of them.

There was no time to lose if the doll was to be sent for Christmas, so
both letters were written that very evening and Freddie begged to put
them in the post box himself that there might be no mistake in that.

Then came a long time of waiting for Master Fred. At first he thought
one day would be enough for the letter to find its way to Mad River
Village; but upon a solemn consultation with the cousins and aunts who
came to the Thanksgiving party, it was decided that three days, at
least, ought to be allowed for a letter to reach a place that none of
them had ever heard of, and perhaps there was not such a village
anywhere after all but Freddie had made up his mind that there was
somewhere, and so each morning found him watching for the postman and
each night he went to bed disappointed, saying, "Oh! I hope there is a
truly Mad Village."

Beth was almost as much excited as Fred about Lucy's letter, but still
she laughed at him as older sisters sometimes seem to take pleasure
in doing, saying, "I guess it's a delicious wonderland kind of a
letter, and that the people up there are mad people to be sending
letters in turkeys!"

"Well, you just wait, Beth, and see if they are," answered Fred; and
sure enough, after ten days of waiting Freddie was rewarded by
receiving from the postman a yellow envelope with "Mad River Village"
printed in large, clear letters "right side of the stamp." He ran as
fast as he could with it to his father, shouting to Beth by the way to
"come and see if there isn't a Mad Village and a Lucy Tillage."

Mr. Page was never given so short a time before to open a letter and
adjust his glasses, but then a letter had never before been received
under such circumstances. It proved to be from the postmaster at Mad
River Village, and ran as follows:

Mad River Village, N. H.

MR. PAGE of Boston: I rec. your letter a Day or two since
and hasten to ans. it right away, as you wish, by this
morning's mail which I must put up pretty soon so this
letter must be short. Yes sir I do know a family in this
town by the name of Tillage and they're a good respectable
family too. They live a mile or two out of the village on a
farm his father left him and I guess they have pretty hard
times making both ends meet--there ain't much sale up here
for farm things, you know, and it costs a heap to send them
to Boston but they do say that of late he's raised l