"Will they know that's from you?" asked Meg doubtfully, slipping into the chair at the desk and taking up the pencil to print her letter. "You never call yourself Robert."
"I guess I know how to write a letter," Bobby informed her with dignity. "You always sign your real names to letters, don't you, Aunt Polly?"
"Yes, indeed, dear," said Aunt Polly, who was doing something to a pair of overalls.
Meg printed slowly and carefully, and soon her letter was ready to be read aloud.
"'Dear Daddy and Mother,'" she began proudly. "'We hope you are well. We are. Dot most wasn't, but I took care of her. She went out to the barn to hunt for eggs, and the turkey gobbler saw her. He thought she was carrying corn in the basket. He chased her and she ran. I heard her crying and I ran down to the barn. She was backed up into a corner and he was making noises at her. He is awful big, but I am not afraid of him. I grabbed the broom Jud keeps to sweep the barn floor with and I chased that old gobbler clear into the orchard. We are going to pick berries to-morrow.'"
The twins had kept still as long as they could, and now it was their turn.
"Tell Mother 'bout the snake I saw this morning," said Twaddles. "Jud says it was a black snake after baby robins. It was on the grape arbor where there is a robin's nest. Jud killed it."
"Tell Daddy I weeded a whole onion row for Aunt Polly," begged Dot.
"Wait a minute, I have to sign my name," interrupted Meg.
And she signed it, "Margaret Alice Blossom," right in among the words of the twins' letters that Bobby was patiently writing.
The next day was very warm, and Aunt Polly thought they had better play in the orchard instead of picking berries, so they trooped out soon after breakfast, to find the orchard cool and shady.
"I wish I had my book that was drowned," mourned Meg. "I love to sit up in a tree and read."
"Well, I loved Geraldine better than Tottie-Fay," said Dot, giving the old doll a shake as she spoke.
"No use fussing," advised the sensible Bobby. "They're lost, and we mustn't let Aunt Polly hear us, 'cause she'll think she ought to go right off and buy us some more. I'm going to climb this tree. Who wants a ripe apple?"
"I do," and Meg jumped up. "Let me hold my apron and you throw 'em down, Bobby. Twaddles, stop teasing Spotty."