dear daddy,

do you observe the postmark? sallie and i are embellishing

lock willow with our presence during the easter vacation.

we decided that the best thing we could do with our ten days

was to come where it is quiet. our nerves had got to the point

where they wouldn't stand another meal in fergussen. dining in

a room with four hundred girls is an ordeal when you are tired.

there is so much noise that you can't hear the girls across the table

speak unless they make their hands into a megaphone and shout.

that is the truth.

we are tramping over the hills and reading and writing, and having

a nice, restful time. we climbed to the top of `sky hill'

this morning where master jervie and i once cooked supper--

it doesn't seem possible that it was nearly two years ago. i could

still see the place where the smoke of our fire blackened the rock.

it is funny how certain places get connected with certain people,

and you never go back without thinking of them. i was quite lonely

without him--for two minutes.

what do you think is my latest activity, daddy? you will begin

to believe that i am incorrigible--i am writing a book. i started it

three weeks ago and am eating it up in chunks. i've caught the secret.

master jervie and that editor man were right; you are most convincing

when you write about the things you know. and this time it is about

something that i do know--exhaustively. guess where it's laid?

in the john grier home! and it's good, daddy, i actually believe

it is--just about the tiny little things that happened every day.

i'm a realist now. i've abandoned romanticism; i shall go back to it

later though, when my own adventurous future begins.

this new book is going to get itself finished--and published!

you see if it doesn't. if you just want a thing hard enough and keep

on trying, you do get it in the end. i've been trying for four years

to get a letter from you--and i haven't given up hope yet.

goodbye, daddy dear,

(i like to call you daddy dear; it's so alliterative.)

affectionately,

judy

ps. i forgot to tell you the farm news, but it's very distressing.

skip this postscript if you don't want your sensibilities all

wrought up.

poor old grove is dead. he got so that he couldn't chew and they

had to shoot him.

nine chickens were killed by a weasel or a skunk or a rat last week.

one of the cows is sick, and we had to have the veterinary surgeon

out from bonnyrigg four corners. amasai stayed up all night to

give her linseed oil and whisky. but we have an awful suspicion

that the poor sick cow got nothing but linseed oil.

sentimental tommy (the tortoise-shell cat) has disappeared;

we are afraid he has been caught in a trap.

there are lots of troubles in the world!