Don't you think that Mrs. Peterkin--_May Jane_--had like aspirations
with mamma, and wanted to join the class; but the teacher found that
she had as many pupils as she could attend to, and so May Jane is
left out in the cold. But Mr. Peterkin says, 'By George, my wife
shall have 'complishments if money can buy em!' And so, I suppose,
she will. What strides those Peterkins have taken, to be sure, and
what a big house he has built with such a funny name.--"_Le
Batteau_", which, as he pronounces it, sounds like _Lubber-too_! It
is just finished, and they have moved into it. I have not been
there, but Tom has, and he says it fairly glitters, it is so
gorgeous, and looks inside like those chariots which come with
circuses.

'You ought to hear Peterkin talk about his '_Ann Lizy_, who, he
says, "is to Vassar, gettin schoolin' with the big bugs, and when
she comes _hum_ he is goin' to get her a hoss and cart for her own,
and a maid, and a vally, too, if she wants one." Well, there are
some bigger fools in the world than I am, and that's a comfort. As
for Billy, he stammers worse, if possible, than he used to when he
told us we were "pl-p-plaguey mean to pl-pl-plague Ann Lizy so;" but
I guess I will let him burst upon you in all the magnificence of his
summer attire--his almost white clothes, short coat, tight pants,
pointed shoes, and stove-pipe hat to make him look taller. He comes
here occasionally to see Tom, and always talks of you. I do believe
you might be Mrs. Billy Peterkin and live at _Lubber-too_, if you
wanted; but, really, Billy is very kind to Harold, who gets twice as
much wages in the office, when he writes there, as he would if it
were not for Billy.

'Tom is home, doing nothing, but taking his ease and aping an
English swell. You know he was with mamma and me in England, and
since his return has effected everything English, and looks quite
like the _dude_ of the period. He, too, seems interested in your
return; and I don't know but you might be mistress of Tracy Park, if
you could fancy the incumbrance. Dick St. Claire is going to Vassar
to see you and Nina graduate; and Harold, too, if he possibly can.
He is very busy just now with something he must finish, and perhaps
he cannot be there. Tom is going, and Fred Raymond, and Billy
Peterkin--quite a turn-out from Shan