I think Jerrine must be born for the law.  She always threshes out questions that arise, to her own satisfaction, if to no one else’s.  She prayed for a long time for her brother; also she prayed for some puppies.  The puppies came, but we didn’t let her know they were here until they were able to walk.  One morning she saw them following their mother, so she danced for joy.  When her little brother came she was plainly disappointed.  “Mamma,” she said, “did God really make the baby?” “Yes, dear.”  “Then He hasn’t treated us fairly, and I should like to know why.  The puppies could walk when He finished them; the calves can, too.  The pigs can, and the colt, and even the chickens.  What is the use of giving us a half-finished baby?  He has no hair, and no teeth; he can’t walk or talk, nor do anything else but squall and sleep.”

After many days she got the question settled.  She began right where she left off.  “I know, Mamma, why God gave us such a half-finished baby; so he could learn our ways, and no one else’s, since he must live with us, and so we could learn to love him.  Every time I stand beside his buggy he laughs and then I love him, but I don’t love Stella nor Marvin because they laugh.  So that is why.”  Perhaps that is the reason.

Zebbie’s kinsfolk have come and taken him back to Yell County.  I should not be surprised if he never returned.  The Lanes and the Pattersons leave shortly for Idaho, where “our Bobbie” has made some large investments.

I hope to hear from you soon and that you are enjoying every minute.  With much love,

  Your friend,
    ELINORE STEWART.

XIV

THE NEW HOUSE

     December 1, 1911.

DEAR MRS. CONEY,—­

I feel just like visiting to-night, so I am going to “play like” you have come.  It is so good to have you to chat with.  Please be seated in this low rocker; it is a present to me from the Pattersons and I am very proud of it.  I am just back from the Patterson ranch, and they have a dear little boy who came the 20th of November and they call him Robert Lane.

I am sure this room must look familiar to you, for there is so much in it that was once yours.  I have two rooms, each fifteen by fifteen, but this one on the south is my “really” room and in it are my treasures.  My house faces east and is built up against a side-hill, or should I say hillside?  Anyway, they had to excavate quite a lot.  I had them dump the dirt right before the house and terrace it smoothly.  I have sown my terrace to California poppies, and around my porch, which is six feet wide and thirty long, I have planted wild cucumbers.