_Dear Father and Mother,_ I have been to Fairyland. The enclosed clippings will tell you all about it. I saw the king of the fairies too--I mean Mr. Edison--and he said, "Good evening, little girl," to me. He talked with Uncle John quite a while, and I heard all they said. Some one asked Mr. Edison when New York would be lighted by electricity and he answered, "I'm working night and day, but you see I have to produce not only a practicable lamp, but a whole system. I haven't found the best material for filaments yet, and there's not a place in the world where I can buy the dynamos (those are machines for making the electricity, Uncle John told me) and the smaller appliances." Then Uncle John said, "Well, Edison, I'm waiting patiently till you make electric lights cheap enough for me to wire my hotel on the Maine coast. Can you make a prediction?" "None that's safe," Edison answered. "You know the opposition of the gas companies, and you know the present high cost of the experiments. I've spent already over forty thousand dollars without returns, and my lamps are costing almost two dollars apiece. The public won't take them till they can be sold for forty cents or less. Moreover, I'm not satisfied with my paper carbon lamps. No, there is much work left; but I shall work day and night till New York has a central station and every appliance we need is manufactured at small cost." "I suppose eating and sleeping don't bother you much just now," some one said. "Not very much," answered Edison. "I eat when I'm hungry, and I sleep when I have to. Four hours a night are enough, for I can go to sleep instantly, and I always wake up rested." Uncle John says that Mr. Edison is the greatest inventor the world has known. Just think of that! And I have seen him! Yours affectionately, DORA Here are two newspaper clippings that Dora enclosed in her letter: I A NIGHT WITH EDISON _Menlo Park, N. J._ _Dec. 30, 1879_