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304 himself used when he wrote to an officer of the Light-house Board.

"Respected sir," therefore, the letter began, and continued as follows:—

"I am much obliged to you for your message. Please thank the lady that wrote it. I hope you are better now. We had the red worsted in the house; that was the reason the stockings were that color. I knit them on the rocks. We live in the light-house. My father keeps it. We hope you are well"

"You said that once before, Tilly," interrupted her mother, as Tilly read the letter aloud.

Tilly looked distressed.

"Oh, so I did," she said, turning back, "No, not exactly. I said I hoped he was better. Won't it do?"

"Yes, yes," said Mrs. Bennet, impatiently. She was quite vexed that Tilly's letter did not sound more like the elegant and flowing epistles which people always wrote to each other in the novels and magazine stories with which she was familiar. "I suppose it will do. It don't seem to me much of a letter, though."

"I can't think of anything to say," reiterated Tilly, hopelessly; but thus adjured and coerced she added one more sentence.