about that your uncle Bryan has gone to some place to make the pills and mixture in secret, so that no one shall find out what is in them. _I_ say nothing, except "Oh," and "Ah," and "Indeed," very mysteriously, and as if I didn't know anything about it (as how should I?), and the effect of these "Ohs" and "Ahs" and "Indeeds" is so extraordinary, that if I stood in a wagon, and talked by the hour together, with music playing all about me, and all the young ones dancing and posing, the thing couldn't work better. People are beginning to do what they never did before--they are buying the medicine in the middle of the week; and two strangers have already come in from a long distance for two boxes of the wonderful pills, one to cure palpitation and the other for the jaundice. 'Turk is getting along famously. He is a real good fellow, and everybody likes him. He is making heaps of new friends, and is doing a fine business. He sends his love to you, and says he will have plenty to tell you when you come home. 'Gus is going to India and Australia with a company; he plays leading business, and has a three years' engagement at twelve pounds a week, and all his travelling expenses paid. Not so bad for Gus; but then he's a genius, my dear. 'I hope Florry is behaving herself; but I am only joking when I say that. Don't you let her fall in love with you, and then break her heart; I'm joking again. When you come to think or us altogether, master Christopher, don't you think we're a _re-_markable family? If you don't, I do. You'd find it hard to beat us. You should read the letters Florry writes to us; they are perfect gems. Where we all got our cleverness from is a perfect puzzle; but it runs in some families. I'm glad Florry is with your mother; it will do her good. Ah, my dear, do you know I pray every night that you may bring your dear good mother home to us strong and well? I do, my dear, and it does me good. 'The letters that are in the enclosed packet came to the shop this morning. One of them is very heavy. I know your uncle's writing from the account-books he left behind him, and I see that it is his writing on the envelope. If there's any address inside, let me know, and I'll go and drag him home, although it will be the ruin of a fine business I see looming in the future in bread pills and the famous mixture made of coloured water. 'And now, my dear, I must leave off. This is the longest letter I ever wrote in my life, and if anybody had told me that I could have written it, I shouldn't have believed him. All the children send their love and kisses, and I send mine, and six kisses for your mother. When you give them to her, whisper that they're from a queer little woman in Paradise-row who loves both of you very much. Now don't you run away with the idea that _I'm_ going to break my heart over you.