Sunny Boy was always expecting letters, though he seldom wrote any. He
wrote to Grandpa Horton now and then, to be sure, and at Christmas time
he wrote one or two "thank you" letters to the relatives and friends
who sent him Christmas presents. But, as a rule, he did not write
letters, and that is probably the reason he did not receive many.
Still, it is fun to expect letters, and Sunny Boy liked to say: "Any
for me?" to the postman.
"Hello, you didn't get snowed in after all, did you?" said kind Mr.
Harris, smiling at Sunny Boy when he opened the door. "You had this
house in a turmoil yesterday, young man."
"What's a turmoil?" asked Sunny Boy.
"It's an upset," replied the postman. "What happened to you, anyway?"
Sunny Boy explained, while Mr. Harris went through his package of
letters which he carried in his hand.
"And we came home in Mr. Parkney's sleigh," finished Sunny Boy. "Have
you any letters for me, Mr. Harris?"
"Two for your mother, and a paper for your daddy," said Mr. Harris
slowly. "And--let--me--see--" He began to go over his letters again,
very slowly. "Let--me--see--" he said again. "Oh, here it is! I
thought I'd lost it. Are you Arthur Bradford Horton? You are? Well,
Sunny Boy, here's a nice, big, square white letter for you. And I'm
glad the blizzard didn't blow you away."
Sunny Boy took his letter eagerly, mumbled "thank you," and ran
upstairs as fast as he could go.
"Oh, Mother, look!" he shouted. "I have a letter! It's addressed to
me from somebody. Did Aunt Bessie write to me?"
"Open your letter and read it," said Mrs. Horton laughingly.
Sunny Boy took the paper knife she gave him and cut the envelope as he
had seen his daddy do.
"It isn't a letter; it's a Christmas card," he said in disappointment.
"Oh, no, precious, no one would sent you a Christmas card in January,"
declared Mrs. Horton. "See, dear, it is an invitation to a party.
Oliver Dunlap is eight years old next week and he is going to have a
birthday party. Won't that be fun!"
Sunny Boy was glad Oliver had sent him an invitation to his party and
not a Christmas card. He spent the greater part of the afternoon
writing an answer to the letter. First he wrote it in pencil, and when
he had shown the pencil copy to Mother and Harriet and Aunt Bessie (who
came to lunch and to see if Sunny Boy was quite well after his snow
storm experience) and they had all said it was a very nice answer
indeed, he copied it in ink. He had to do this five times before it
satisfied him. Sunny Boy would not send a letter to Oliver with the
tiniest spot of ink on it, and he was willing to do a thing over and
over and over to get it right. Before he had finished putting the
stamp on the envelope--Harriet said Sunny Boy shook the house when he
put a stamp on a letter, and indeed he thumped it as though he were
pounding with a brick--Nelson and Ruth Baker came over to see him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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