It was a dainty bit of gray Japanese tissue with the crimson-inked text glowing gaily across it. Something in the whole color scheme and the riotously quirky typography suggested at once the audaciously original work of some young art student who was fairly splashing her way along the road to financial independence, if not to fame. And this is what the little circular said, flushing redder and redder and redder with each ingenuous statement: THE SERIAL-LETTER COMPANY. Comfort and entertainment Furnished for Invalids, Travelers, and all Lonely People. Real Letters from Imaginary Persons. Reliable as your Daily Paper. Fanciful as your Favorite Story Magazine. Personal as a Message from your Best Friend. Offering all the Satisfaction of _receiving_ Letters with no Possible Obligation or even Opportunity of Answering Them. SAMPLE LIST. Letters from a Japanese Fairy. (Especially acceptable Bi-weekly. to a Sick Child. Fragrant with Incense and Sandal Wood. Vivid with purple and orange and scarlet. Lavishly interspersed with the most adorable Japanese toys that you ever saw in your life.) Letters from a little Son. (Very sturdy. Very Weekly. spunky. Slightly profane.) Letters from a Little Daughter. (Quaint. Old-Fashioned. Weekly. Daintily Dreamy. Mostly about Dolls.) Letters from a Banda-Sea Pirate. (Luxuriantly tropical. Monthly. Salter than the Sea. Sharper than Coral. Unmitigatedly murderous. Altogether blood-curdling.) Letters from a Gray-Plush Squirrel. (Sure to please Nature Irregular. Lovers of Either Sex. Pungent with wood-lore. Prowly. Scampery. Deliciously wild. Apt to be just a little bit messy perhaps with roots and leaves and nuts.) Letters from Your Favorite (Biographically consistent. Historical Character. Historically reasonable. Fortnightly. Most vivaciously human. Really unique.) Love Letters. (Three grades: Shy. Daily. Medium. Very Intense.)