There are mild social possibilities in two of
the new families who moved here last fall, and
Pink Upham does everything he can think of to
make it pleasant. We are going skating
to-night, and have a big bonfire on the bank.
To-morrow, being New Year's Day, consequently a
holiday for him, we are to have a long
sleigh-ride over to Hemlock Ridge. The ladies
of some lodge in the settlement over there are
to serve a turkey dinner in the school-house.

"I have begun this letter backwards. What I set
out to do, first and foremost, was to thank you
for the lovely book which you sent with your
Yuletide greeting. I read over half of it aloud
last night after our Christmas guests departed,
and was glad that we had such an interesting
story. It kept us from getting doleful.

"By the way, the heroine is called Bonnie,
after the song, _Bonnie Eloise_. And Joyce said
that Eugenia told her that there is an
American girl visiting the doctor's family near
your construction camp, whom you refer to in
your letters as Bonnie Eloise. Eugenia says
that she plays the guitar and sings duets with
you, and is altogether charming. Is Eloise her
real name, or do you call her that because she
is bonny like the girl in the book? And does
she sing as well as Lloyd Sherman? Do tell us
about her the next time you write! Your sayings
and doings would interest us even if we were
looping the loop socially in gay Gotham and
dwelt continually 'in the midst of alarms.' But
in the Selkirkian stillness of these solitudes
our interest in our friends deepens into
something amazing.

"Mamma says to tell you that we all spoke of
you and quoted you many times this week, and
wished daily that you were with us. She sends
her love and will write as soon as she is able.
With all good wishes for your New Year from
each of us, Yours, downcast but still inflexible,

"MARY."

Phil answered this letter the day it was received, replying to her
question about Eloise in a joking postscript, as if wishing to convey
the impression that his interest in her was less than Mary's.

"I forgot to say t