LETTERS FROM THE BACK BLOCKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2323, 8 September 1898, Page 57

LETTERS FROM THE BACK BLOCKS.

Mv Dear Dot, — I began a letter to you two weeks ago, but it was never finished. I j Wos interrupted, and before I could settle [ down again "the German measles walked into | the house, and I was one of the first to cave in. I never had such a run of bad luck in my life. I had had the common measles years ago, but these " made in Germany " things ; coming into the district are a little too bad. [ I shall forgot how to shoot or ride if I don't g2t out soon. One comfort is that it has ' be°n most awful weather nil the time — eight ! inches of snow fell, and it has cmiy jus, I ' gone. ] You want to hear all about my love loiler. an 1 the sad fate that bei'ell it. I don't suppose I shall ever get another. I have never tod the story to anyone but my cousin, al- ' lh< ugh it happened some years age — two or three, at least. It was a hot Friday afternoon in the middle of summer, and the last hair-hour in the school. (I do think that the hottest time oi the day in a schoolroom is bjrween 5 and half -past.) Things had been gcing wrong with me all day long, and I jiiit "about &ick and tired of living, wher we wore called up for grammar. We got our tops on the chalk circle, and I opened my bool: and found a letter addressed to me between the pages. Most people read their letters as soon as they get them, but a poor sd.colboy isn't allowed to do that, so I h.id to get through that half hour as best I could, parsing ridiculous sentences that no sensible boy in real life would think of iihing. As so i i as we were dismissed I opened my lettev and found it was from a girl. She begvi by telling me she admired me very much for not crying when I was getting caned (as if I would before girls). She thought the master was a brute (so did I) to punish such a nice boy just because I happened to make a boy jump by shanghaiing across; the room. >Sh3 hoped my hands were not swollen (which thsy were). She hoped I wouldn't think the wirier was the girl who told on me, because she wouldn't do such a mean thing for anything under the sun. Then she ended tip with a lot of blarney, and said she naedn't sign her name, becau.se I would know hei writing I didn't know the writing a bit, and I hadn't the least idea who the girl could be, so after a good deal of worry I decided to ■puh cfx the matter until Monday and then I would manage to get kept in, and have a look through the girls' copybooks h- the dinner hour. You pee I felt xery glad that somebody sympathised \vii.h me in my troubles, and I wanted to answer the letter. I forgot all about it on Sdturday. but op Sundas^, in the middle of the sermon, 1 suddenly remembered it, though what there was in the ser111)1 to make me do that I can't imagine. When I got home I hunted for that letter in every place I could think of, but I could not find it. Of course I didn't want it to fall into anybody's hands. Fancy. Dot, how would you feel if you had lost a love letter and didn't know where to find it? It bothered me a great deal, and I hoped 1 would never get any more. Monday morning I had anothei hunt, but it wasn't any use, and so I went off to school and forgot all about it. I never trouble over what can't b3 helped. The very first thing I saw when I got home that afternoon was my blue golatea jacket hanging on the line. I made a darL for the pocket (i was only allowed one pocket in those days — I have nine now) , and thei-j in the corner was my precious letter, a W' c lump of pulp. 1 must have left it in the packet and it had gone through the washing machine ; so 1 knelt down on the grass ana dug a grave with mi knife, and buried it After that I got a b ; t of wood and made a cross. I never found out who the girl was wtio wrote tJiat letter, but I believe she meant to be kind. But Ido hope if ever I <iet another it won't co.st me so much worry and anjiely as that one did. I think I' shall have to have another funeral soon : my Englissn knife that co&t me so much in \nonisy aail lickings when I was at school is coming to pieces, and so I think 1 will bury it beside the letter. We saw by the paper that the vessel mv girl cousin went home in arrived at Monte Video with her meat -in good condition. If would have been a good deal more satisfactory if they had said the passengers were in good coi.dition, but it seems that they have to take second place when there's prime Can-ter)-my on board. I see one of your correspondents wants to know what book I read last. I wish to goodness people wouldn't ask such unpleasant questions. Of course Harry and all the rest of your little folks that are old enough will come out with* some learned oi good book th.it everybody ought to read, while I have to ow i up and say the book I finished last night wis one called " Bicycle Bob." It's a very good book indeed, and I laughed like anything over it ; but of course if 1 had known thao I was going to be asked in public what I had read last I should have got down the dictionary or something. But really and tnily, by the time I've read the papors and ha.l a game of chess. I'm sent off to'btd. I learnt chess while I was in Dunedir, and I an very fond of ifc; so that I c!->n'L get, much time for reading. We get an awful lot of papers. Dad gels two or three Englirsli ones that he thinks a lot of; I don't. There isn't one of them has as much interesting reading as the Witness oi the Press. It always seems to me there is so much more time for reading in the summer than in tin* winter. You can get up a tree with a book, ol'o 1 ' lie on the soft grass in the warn 1 summer evenings and read. I have read some of the be cks Shafeta spoke of last week, and enjoyed them very much : but I must admit I don't go in for Keats, or Shelley, or Cowpcr, j as your girl correspondent does. I just received a • few minutes ago a letter from my cousin Steve in the North | Island saying that the Dunedin High School lias had a tremendous licking by Christchurch. I can hardly believe it is true, but he says it's a fact. They must have played while I was ill, and I sup- [ BOS 3 I missed seeing the paper. Ifc has given

me an awful and I'm just going to hunt up some late papers to see what the editor says about it. I hope to goodness he has j given some" good reasons for the defeat. 1 [ mean to spend 6d in a telegram to-momnv, | to get a school magazine from Dunedin, raid i pee what excuse they make for themselves. [ Timaru ooys beat the Chri&tchurch ones last \ week, and now to think that Dunedin has j gone down ! My cousin wants to know, I "What about Dunedin now?'' So I think ' I'll spend another 6d and send him a tele- j grain saying: ''The boys had influenza, ; measles, heart disease, and couldn't run." | Sixpence each for telegrams, that will be all i my pocket money for this week ; but it i will bs in a good came, &o I will try and not j regret it. I had such a lot more to teU you, : Dot. but this news has saddened me so that i I must stop. — Yours truly, 8.0.8. {Toor olrj 15.0.?. ." Between influenza, German measles, a; id s'l-is-ks to the nerves, you are having a rouii'.i time of it. Never mind, gU chum, wait fill T ou read the bushels of sympathies that wiil flow out to you during the next few weeks, and you will feel fully ixm am. — Dot.]