The people are Mr. and Mrs. Semple and a hired girl and two hired men.  The hired people eat in the kitchen, and the Semples and Judy in the dining-room.  We had ham and eggs and biscuits and honey and jelly-cake and pie and pickles and cheese and tea for supper—­ and a great deal of conversation.  I have never been so entertaining in my life; everything I say appears to be funny.  I suppose it is, because I’ve never been in the country before, and my questions are backed by an all-inclusive ignorance.

The room marked with a cross is not where the murder was committed, but the one that I occupy.  It’s big and square and empty, with adorable old-fashioned furniture and windows that have to be propped up on sticks and green shades trimmed with gold that fall down if you touch them.  And a big square mahogany table—­ I’m going to spend the summer with my elbows spread out on it, writing a novel.

Oh, Daddy, I’m so excited!  I can’t wait till daylight to explore. 
It’s 8.30 now, and I am about to blow out my candle and try to go
to sleep.  We rise at five.  Did you ever know such fun?  I can’t
believe this is really Judy.  You and the Good Lord give me more
than I deserve.  I must be a very, very, very good person to pay. 
I’m going to be.  You’ll see. 
                               Good night,
                                               Judy

PS.  You should hear the frogs sing and the little pigs squeal and you should see the new moon!  I saw it over my right shoulder.

Lockwillow,
12th July
Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

How did your secretary come to know about Lock Willow?  (That isn’t a rhetorical question.  I am awfully curious to know.) For listen to this:  Mr. Jervis Pendleton used to own this farm, but now he has given it to Mrs. Semple who was his old nurse.  Did you ever hear of such a funny coincidence?  She still calls him `Master Jervie’ and talks about what a sweet little boy he used to be.  She has one of his baby curls put away in a box, and it is red—­ or at least reddish!

Since she discovered that I know him, I have risen very much in her opinion.  Knowing a member of the Pendleton family is the best introduction one can have at Lock Willow.  And the cream of the whole family is Master Jervis—­ I am pleased to say that Julia belongs to an inferior branch.

The farm gets more and more entertaining.  I rode on a hay wagon yesterday.  We have three big pigs and nine little piglets, and you should see them eat.  They are pigs!  We’ve oceans of little baby chickens and ducks and turkeys and guinea fowls.  You must be mad to live in a city when you might live on a farm.

It is my daily business to hunt the eggs.  I fell off a beam in the barn loft yesterday, while I was trying to crawl over to a nest that the black hen has stolen.  And when I came in with a scratched knee, Mrs. Semple bound it up with witch-hazel, murmuring all the time, `Dear!  Dear!  It seems only yesterday that Master Jervie fell off that very same beam and scratched this very same knee.’