s,
who was going home for Christmas to Memphis, was induced to wait for
Mr. Parker and to see him safe to Little Rock. His money was banked for
him, and Mr. Stewart saw that he was properly clothed and made
comfortable for the trip. Then he sent a telegram to Judge Carter, who
met Zebulon Pike at Little Rock, and they had a family reunion in Yell
County. I have had some charming letters from there, but that only
proves what I have always said, that I am the luckiest woman in finding
really lovely people and having really happy experiences. Good things
are constantly happening to me. I wish I could tell you about my happy
Christmas, but one of my New Year's resolutions was to stop loading you
down with two-thousand-word letters.

From something you wrote I think I must have written boastingly to you
at some time. I have certainly not intended to, and you must please
forgive me and remember how ignorant I am and how hard it is for me to
express myself properly. I felt after I had written to Mr. Parker's
people that I had taken a liberty, but luckily it was not thought of in
that way by them. If you only knew how far short I fall of my own hopes
you would know I could _never_ boast. Why, it keeps me busy making over
mistakes just like some one using old clothes. I get myself all ready
to enjoy a success and find that I have to fit a failure. But one
consolation is that I generally have plenty of material to cut
generously, and many of my failures have proved to be real blessings.

I do hope this New Year may bring to you the desire of your heart and
all that those who love you best most wish for you.

With lots and lots of love from baby and myself.

Your ex-washlady,
ELINORE RUPERT.

VIII

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS

DEAR MRS. CONEY,--

My happy Christmas resulted from the ex-sheriff of this county being
snowbound here. It seems that persons who come from a lower altitude to
this country frequently become bewildered, especially if in poor
health, leave the train at any stop and wander off into the hills,
sometimes dying before they are found. The ex-sheriff cited a case,
that of a young German who was returning from the Philippines, where he
had been discharged after the war. He was the only child of his widowed
mother, who has a ranch a few miles from here. No one knew he was
coming home. One day the cook belonging to the camp of a construction
gang went hunting and came back running, wild with horror. He