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From Miss Frances Dennam to Mrs. A. G. Dennam, Lake Ridge.

New York, December 26, 1901.

Dear Mother:

I was disappointed yesterday in not getting that ideal place to send you for a Christmas present. It would have been so nice, that I thought surely I should get it; but you must not lose faith in me, for I confidently expect it this week, and you shall have it on New Year's at the latest. I may have to telegraph it; but you will not mind that. The truth is the day has been so exciting that I did not grieve much for the ideal place, and my disappointment was mostly for you, because I had promised you. I was almost entirely taken up with my chum. Miss Hally, who told me, when we were both in the melting mood of clawing the candies out of each other's stockings, where we had put them the night before, all about herself, and now I will tell you: I forgot to before. She is Miss Custis Hally, and she says her father was always opposed to slavery, and would not go with the rest when Virginia seceded, but just stayed on his plantation and toot no part in the war. Miss Hally came to New York, after he died, and has worked on a newspaper here, ever since. She has got one of the best places now, but I guess it has been a fight. She is only forty, but her hair is as white as snow. She is tall and straight, and beautiful, with a kind of fierceness in her looks, that all breaks up when she speaks of anything she pities, and she has been kinder to me than I could ever tell you, though some day I will try. She has taken my case in hand, and you can count upon getting that place from me on New Year's without fail, for I have begun to have answers to my advertisement already. None of them are just what I wanted, but it is a good deal for some of them to be what I can get. I needn't tell you about them till I have gone over them with Miss Hally. She is going to help me boil them down tonight, and I will start out with the residuum tomorrow, and see which I will take. This sounds rather majestic, but it is not as majestic as it sounds. I have only got two answers that seem honest; the rest are fakes of one kind or another, to get money out of me; I can see that for myself; but I depend upon Miss Hally to advise me about these two. You will soon hear from me, if I have luck, and if I haven't you won't hear so soon.

Your gift and Lizzie's came this morning, a day after the fair, which reopened on account of them. I was afraid you were going to forget me, and when you hadn't, I wished you had. When I think of your using up your poor old eyes on that collar for me, I feel like giving you a good scolding for making me cry. Lizzie's book-mark is beautiful, and when I get to reading aloud to the Unknown Lady that I am going to be companion to, I won't use any other. I shall have the collar on, and she will try to beg them both of me, but of course I will be quite up and down with her. Good-by, you dear ones!

Your loving daughter and sister,

Frances.