The object of this letter is as follows:  I (your godchild) wish to make amends.  I wrote you yesterday, and didn’t answer your letter.  Not a word did I say about it, except that I had received it, then I prattled away all about another would-be godfather for whom you, naturally, have no earthly use.  And to-day my heart is filled with remorse and my head is filled with fears lest you should think your dear godchild is ungrateful, fickle, and flighty.  I want to tell you how every detail of your life—­from knob-polishing and bug-swallowing to poetry-writing is dear and precious to me.  How I wish I could do the same!  How I live in eager expectation of your letters; how I gloat and ponder over them when they come; and how deep is the gloom into which I am plunged when they do not come!  Mr. Teddy knows all that, because I have somehow expressed it, and if I had striven to hide my thought he would have guessed it, for he knows full well what goes on in the hearts of little maids and gallant lads.

Therefore have I asked him to voice my deepest feelings in a poem that will answer yours: 

  “IDEALIZATION”

  By Andree Leblanc and
  Yankee Teddy.

“Though our eyes may never meet, To me you’re more than bread or meat, You are the proud and noble knight That I pray for every night.  You could stand up on burning decks, While others ran to save their necks, You would not fear the dreadful Hun, In Freedom’s cause you’d fire a gun.  A lad who never gets cold feet Was not destined to know defeat, But oh! thou child of many pray’rs Beware of Jealousy’s deep snares!"

From your affectionate godchild,
Andree Leblanc.

Greenville Falls
Oct. 10, 1917.

My dear Mr. Teddy,

Jimmy has just brought me your letter, in great excitement, and I am taking the liberty of answering it myself, as I don’t think he could do himself justice under the present circumstances.  Mr. Teddy, did you ever have a soft spot for a little girl, when you were about eleven or twelve?  I had one for a little boy; he was older than I, about fourteen; his name was Robert, and he had freckles; I think he squinted, too, and he teased all the girls a great deal.  I am sure he was a very horrid little boy, as I look back, but at that time I thought he was wonderful, and it almost broke my heart when he said he had no use for little yellow-haired girls and took a girl with two brown pigtails to a big children’s party, instead of me.

Jimmy has a very soft spot for his godchild, and it is more than a passing fancy with him.  You see, his family, while not actually poverty-stricken, are not as well off as they used to be, and Jimmy has practically supported Andree himself all the year, through countless little odd jobs.  I have seen him on the coldest winter days, chopping wood or going from door to door asking to shovel snow, and his fingers were so red and frozen he could scarcely hold the shovel;