"Last Tuesday was Aunt Julia's birthday, and she
gave a family dinner party. She has a good many
relatives, and they all came. I should think Elsie
would love having so many cousins, but she says
she doesn't care very much about many of them.
Aunt Julia's two sisters were here, and I thought
the oldest one--Mrs. Lamont--was lovely. Her
daughter, Miss Annie, came with her, and she was
awfully nice and jolly. She is quite old--about
twenty-five I think--and she works downtown in a
settlement. I didn't know what a settlement was,
but Elsie explained that it is a place where
ladies go to live among very poor ignorant people,
and try to help them. She and her mother send some
of their old clothes to Miss Lamont, and she gives
them to the poor women at the settlement. Aunt
Julia's other sister is Mrs. Ward. She is quite
stout, and talks a great deal about what is good
for her to eat and what isn't. She was nice, but I
didn't like her as much as the Lamonts. Her
husband is fat, too, and is always saying funny
things that make people laugh. They have two
little girls, but they were not allowed to come
because Tuesday was a school night, and they are
never allowed to go out anywhere except on Fridays
and Saturdays. Elsie can go out any night she
likes, because she is so clever that Aunt Julia
says it doesn't matter whether she misses her
lessons one day or not. There is a Ward boy, too,
but he is at Yale. Elsie likes him best of all her
cousins, and she says he is very fond of her,
too. Aunt Julia says all the boys admire Elsie
very much, but I think she is mistaken about
Beverly Randolph. He has such an honest face that
he can't hide his feelings, and when Elsie and
Carol giggled so much that night, and talked so
very grown-up, I am sure he was trying not to
laugh.

"You can't begin to imagine how glad I was to get
your and Mother's precious letters. I read them
over and over until I almost knew them by heart,
and slept with Mother's first one under my pillow
all night. Father's letter was splendid to