"Elsie is very clever, and Aunt Julia admires her tremendously. She says Elsie has always been the brightest girl in her classes and that she recites Shakespeare quite wonderfully. I haven't heard her recite yet, but she plays the piano very well, and takes music lessons twice a week. She speaks French, too, and is beginning to study German. Of course I am not nearly as far advanced as she is, but Miss Lothrop says I am not backward for my age, and that makes me very happy. I was so proud when she asked me if I had a governess at home, and I told her Father and Mother had taught me everything I knew. I don't think Elsie liked my saying that; she says I mustn't talk about our being poor, but I am sure I can't see why she should object. However, I have promised to try not to say anything she doesn't like; they have all been so good to me that I do want to please them if I can. "Last Tuesday was Aunt Julia's birthday, and she gave a family dinner party. She has a good many relatives, and they all came. I should think Elsie would love having so many cousins, but she says she doesn't care very much about many of them. Aunt Julia's two sisters were here, and I thought the oldest one--Mrs. Lamont--was lovely. Her daughter, Miss Annie, came with her, and she was awfully nice and jolly. She is quite old--about twenty-five I think--and she works downtown in a settlement. I didn't know what a settlement was, but Elsie explained that it is a place where ladies go to live among very poor ignorant people, and try to help them. She and her mother send some of their old clothes to Miss Lamont, and she gives them to the poor women at the settlement. Aunt Julia's other sister is Mrs. Ward. She is quite stout, and talks a great deal about what is good for her to eat and what isn't. She was nice, but I didn't like her as much as the Lamonts. Her husband is fat, too, and is always saying funny things that make people laugh. They have two little girls, but they were not allowed to come because Tuesday was a school night, and they are never allowed to go out anywhere except on Fridays and Saturdays. Elsie can go out any night she likes, because she is so clever that Aunt Julia says it doesn't matter whether she misses her lessons one day or not. There is a Ward boy, too, but he is at Yale. Elsie likes him best of all her cousins, and she says he is very fond of her, too. Aunt Julia says all the boys admire Elsie