What strides those Peterkins have taken, to be sure, and what a big house he has built with such a funny name.--"_Le Batteau_", which, as he pronounces it, sounds like _Lubber-too_! It is just finished, and they have moved into it.

I have not been there, but Tom has, and he says it fairly glitters, it is so gorgeous, and looks inside like those chariots which come with circuses.
'You ought to hear Peterkin talk about his '_Ann Lizy_, who, he says, "is to Vassar, gettin schoolin' with the big bugs, and when she comes _hum_ he is goin' to get her a hoss and cart for her own, and a maid, and a vally, too, if she wants one." Well, there are some bigger fools in the world than I am, and that's a comfort.

As for Billy, he stammers worse, if possible, than he used to when he told us we were "pl-p-plaguey mean to pl-pl-plague Ann Lizy so;" but I guess I will let him burst upon you in all the magnificence of his summer attire--his almost white clothes, short coat, tight pants, pointed shoes, and stove-pipe hat to make him look taller.

He comes here occasionally to see Tom, and always talks of you.

I do believe you might be Mrs.Billy Peterkin and live at _Lubber-too_, if you wanted; but, really, Billy is very kind to Harold, who gets twice as much wages in the office, when he writes there, as he would if it were not for Billy.
'Tom is home, doing nothing, but taking his ease and aping an English swell.