Page:Little Men - Alcott (1871).djvu/314

 her of one of her own, written at the age of ten, and beginning gloomily—

I wish I had a quiet tomb, Beside a little rill; Where birds, and bees, and butterflies, Would sing upon the hill."

"Come on, Tommy. If there is as much ink inside your paper as there is outside, it will be a long composition," said Mr. Bhaer, when Demi had been induced to tear himself from his poem and sit down.

"It isn't a composition, it's a letter. You see, I forgot all about its being my turn till after school, and then I didn't know what to have, and there wasn't time to read up; so I thought you wouldn't mind my taking a letter that I wrote to my Grandma. It's got something about birds in it, so I thought it would do."

With this long excuse, Tommy plunged into a sea of ink and floundered through, pausing now and then to decipher one of his own flourishes.

",—I hope you are well. Uncle James sent me a pocket rifle. It is a beautiful little instrument of killing, shaped like this—[Here Tommy displayed a remarkable sketch of what looked like an intricate pump, or the inside of a small steam-engine]—44 are the sights; 6 is a false stock that fits in at A; 3 is the trigger, and 2 is the cock. It loads at the breech, and fires with great force and straightness. I am going out shooting squirrels soon. I shot several fine birds for the museum. They had speckled breasts, and Dan liked them very much. He stuffed them tiptop, and they sit on the tree quite natural, only one