But this isn't really a net.
"We have had a big excitement. Some one set fire to the parsonage and it
burnt down." [He did not tell her who set it on fire, although he knew
very well that it was Peter Lamb.] "Lamb has run away, and I think we are
well rid of him.
"I do miss you very much. Mr. Rivers says you will be a fashionable young
lady when you come back and will never snowball any more. I don't believe
it.
"Yours truly,
"JOHN PENHALLOW."
Mrs. Penhallow enclosed the letter in one of her own, and no answer came
until she gave him a note at the end of October. Leila wrote:
"DEAR JOHN: It is against the rules to write to any one but parents, and
I am breaking the rules when I enclose this to you. I do not think I
ought to do it, and I will not again.
"You would not know me in my long skirts, and I wear my hair in two
plaits. The girls are all from the South and are very angry when they
talk about the North. I cannot answer them and am sorry I do not know
more about politics, but I do know that Uncle Jim would not agree with
them.
"I go on Saturdays and over Sundays to my cousins in Baltimore. They say
that the South will secede if Fremont should be elected. I just hold my
tongue and listen.
"Yours sincerely,
"LEILA GREY.
"P.S.
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