Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/323

Rh from his mind. As he undressed, his big wallet fell to the floor, and out of it fell Tilly's little pink letter. He picked it up carelessly, not seeing, at first, what it was. As he recognized it, he felt a thrill of pleasure. There seemed one link at least between himself and some human being.

"I declare I 'll write to that child to-morrow," he thought. "I wonder if she would n't like to come up here and stay a spell this fall,—she and her mother,—and get away from those rocks. It would be a real change for them," thought kind-hearted Joe. "I guess I 'll ask them. I reckon they 're plain people that would n't be put out by the way things go here."

And somewhat cheered by this thought, Joe fell asleep. In the morning he wrote his letter and sent it off. It was not quite so stiffly phrased as Tilly's, but it was by no means a fair exponent of Joe's off-hand, merry, and affectionate nature. It answered the main point, however. It continued the correspondence, and it carried Joe's good will.

"Well, really!" exclaimed Mrs. Bennet, after Tilly had read it aloud to her; "well, really, I call that the handsomest kind of a letter; don't you, 'Lisha? Of course we should n't think of going, but I think it was uncommon good of him to ask us; don't you, 'Lisha?"

Tilly said nothing.

"Ye-es," replied Captain 'Lisha, slowly, as if he were not sure whether he intended to say yes or