Lives of Girls and Women Read Free Page B

want me to write?”
    â€œI don’t care. I just want to see how you do it.”
    I wrote his name and address in full: Mr. Benjamin Thomas Poole, The Flats Road, Jubilee, Wawanash County, Ontario, Canada, North America, The Western Hemisphere, The World, The Solar System, The Universe . He read over my shoulder and said sharply, “Where is that in relation to Heaven? You haven’t got far enough. Isn’t Heaven outside of the Universe?”
    â€œThe Universe means everything. It’s all there is.”
    â€œAll right, you think you know so much, what is there when you get to the end of that? There has to be something there, else therewouldn’t be an end, there has to be something else to make an end, doesn’t there?”
    â€œThere isn’t,” I said doubtfully.
    â€œOh yes there is. There’s Heaven.”
    â€œWell what is there when you get to the end of Heaven?”
    â€œYou don’t ever get to the end of Heaven, because the Lord is there!” said Uncle Benny triumphantly, and took a close look at my writing, which was round, trembly, and uncertain. “Well anybody can read that without no trouble. I want you to sit here and write a letter for me.”
    He could read very well but he could not write. He said the teacher at school had beat him and beat him, trying to beat writing into him, and he respected her for it, but it never did any good. When he needed a letter written he usually got my father or mother to do it.
    He hung over me seeing what I wrote at the top: Flats Road, Jubilee, August 22, 1942 . “That’s right, that’s the way! Now start it off. Dear Lady .”
    â€œYou start with Dear and then the person’s name,” I said, “unless it’s a business letter and then you start with Dear Sir, or Dear Madam if it’s a lady. Is it a business letter?”
    â€œIt is and it isn’t. Put down Dear Lady .”
    â€œWhat is her name?” I said troublesomely. “I could just as easy put her name.”
    â€œI don’t know her name.” Impatiently, Uncle Benny brought me the newspaper, his newspaper, opened it at the back, in the classified ads, a section I never got to, and held it under my nose.
    Â 
    Lady with one child desires housekeeping position for man in quiet country home. Fond of farm life. Matrimony if suited.
    Â 
    â€œThere is the lady I am writing to so what can I do but call her lady?”
    I gave in and wrote it down, executed a large careful comma and waited to start the letter under the a in Dear as we had been taught.
    â€œDear Lady,” said Uncle Benny recklessly, “I am writing this letter—”
    Â 
    I am writing this letter in reply to what you put in the paper which I get through the mail. I am a man thirty-seven years old living alone on my own place which is fifteen acres out at the end of the Flats Road. There is a good house on it with stone foundation. It is right by the bush so we never run out of firewood in winter. There is a good well on it drilled sixty feet down and a cistern. In the bush is more berries than you can eat and good fish in the river and could have a good vegetable garden if you could keep off the rabbits. I have got a pet fox in a pen by the house, also a ferret and two minks and there is coons and squirrels and chipmunks around all the time. Your child will be welcome. You don’t say if it is a girl or a boy. If a boy I could teach it to be a good trapper and hunter. I have a job working for a man that raises silver foxes on the next place to this. His wife is an educated woman if you like to go visiting. I hope I will have a letter from you soon. Yours truly, Benjamin Thomas Poole.
    Â 
    Within a week Uncle Benny had a letter back.
    Â 
    Dear Mr. Benjamin Poole, I am writing for my sister Miss Madeleine Howey to tell you she will be glad to take up your offer and will be ready to come any time after the 1st Sept. What are