“That’s better.  It may not sound like the fashionable people write, but it will please them.  Now thank them for taking care of you.”

    “’I thank you a whole heap for being so good to me, and speaking
    kindly to me in the railroad train, when I wasn’t so very polite to
    you.’”

“Weren’t you, Mops?”

“No; I squeezed away from him, ’cause I thought he was rough and rude.”

“Well, you can’t tell him that.”

“No; I’ll say this: 

    “’I wasn’t very sociable, Sir, because I have been taught not to
    talk to strangers, but, of course, those rules, when made, did not
    know I would be obliged to run away.’”

“You weren’t obliged to, Midget.”

“Yes I was, King!  I just simply couldn’t stay here if I didn’t belong, could I?  Could you?”

“No, I s’pose not.  I’d go off and go to work.”

“Well, isn’t that what I did?

“’But you were kind and good to me, Mr. Geary and Mrs. Geary Both, and I am very much obliged.  I guess I didn’t work very well for you, but I am out of practice, and I haven’t much talent for houseworking, anyway. You seem to have, dear Mrs. Geary.’

“That’s a sort of a compliment, King.  Really, she isn’t a very good housekeeper.”

“Oh, that’s all right.  It’s like when people say you have musical talent, and you know you play like the dickens.”

“Yes, I do.  Well, now I’ll finish this, then we can go down to the beach.”

    “’And so, dear Mr. and Mrs. Geary Both, I write to say I am much
    obliged——­’

“Oh, my gracious, King, I ought to tell them how it happened.  About my mistake, you know, thinking Mother was talking in earnest.”

“Oh, don’t tell ’em all that, you’ll never get it done.  But I suppose they are curious to know.  Well, cut it short.”

    “’You see, dear Mr. and Mrs. Geary Both, I am not a findling, as I
    supposed.’”

“That’s not findling, Midget,—­you mean foundling.”

“I don’t think so.  And, anyway, they mean just the same,—­I’m going to leave it.

“’I find I have quite a large family, with a nice father and mother, some sisters and a brother.  You saw my father.  Also, I have lovely cousins and four grand-parents and an uncle.  So you see I am well supplied with this world’s goods.  So now, good-by, dear Mr. and Mrs. Geary Both, and with further thanks and obliges, I am,

“’Your friend,
“’MARJORIE MAYNARD.

“‘P.S.  The Jessica Brown was a made-up name.’

“Do you think that’s all right, King?”

“Yep, it’s fine!  Seal her up, and write the address and leave it on the hall table, and come on.”

And so the “bread-and-butter” letter went to Mr. and Mrs. Geary both, and was kept and treasured by them as one of their choicest possessions.