Janet | Page 4

-- " She broke off
suddenly, "I wish I had a sister," she whispered softly. Her arm
tightened around Boru's neck, and she buried her head in his shaggy
coat. Then quite suddenly she sat upright, and her eyes flashed. "I'm
mad. too; mad all the way through at everything and everybody except
you," -- Boru acknowledged the exception with an affectionate lick --
"and I think the person I'm the very maddest at is my big brother
Thomas. He's not a bit the kid of brother to have." She jumped up
suddenly, and the breeze coming in from the water took the skirt of her
gingham dress and flapped it as it would a sail.
"Boru, do you know what I am going to do?" she demanded very
seriously.
Boru was a little surprised and disturbed at being so unceremoniously
upset but he cocked one ear expectantly.
"I'm going to write and tell him so," she announced defiantly.
Her determination did not leave her even when she was seated at her
big desk, where everything was arranged in perfect order for letter
writing. Janet had written her brother at stated intervals during her
thirteen years, but each and every letter had always been carefully read
and corrected by her grandmother. Stiff and formal noted were the
result. As for answers, she had never received any, as far back as she
could remember, but a brief typewritten note reached her grandmother
twice a year and stated, rather than said, that Thomas was well and that
the ranch in far-away Arizona was as successful as could be expected
under the conditions of the present year. True, he never forgot to send
his love to Janet, but Janet, from early childhood, had had a very
decided idea about that sort of love. To-day she meant to make that

idea known.
With a great deal of care and precision she selected an especially clean
sheet of paper and a square and very businesslike envelope, put a new
gold pen in her penholder and set to work. The first words she wrote
were "Dear Thomas," then she stopped. There were so many things she
wanted to say. She looked to Boru for inspiration. He was gazing
thoughtfully at a fly that was crawling across the floor; the instant it
started to fly he pounced on it. Janet laughed. "Thanks, Boru; that is
just what I'll do myself; I'll gobble Thomas up all at once." She turned
back to her desk and wrote under the "Dear Thomas:"
"I have been meaning to write to you for ever so long and to say just
what I wanted to, and so I might as well tell you right away that
grandmother is not going to see this letter at all. It's just from me to you,
and I'm not going to be particular about grammar or blots. The most
'special things I have to say are all questions, and then some other
things that are not very nice. Perhaps I'd better start with those. The
first on is that I think you would be a lot nicer if you called yourself
Tom or Tommy, instead of Thomas. Of course, I don't know what you
look like, for the only picture I have of you is a baby one that I know
you would perfectly hate, but I think you are short and frown a lot, and
I hope you haven't a beard but I'm afraid you have. I just told Boru,
that's my dog, but you probably wouldn't like him, that you are not a bit
what a big brother ought to be, and I really don't think you are, and I
might as well say that you would have been much more of a comfort to
me if you'd been a sister.
"The questions I want to ask you are: What do you do in Arizona, and
are you ever coming home, and do you ride horseback, and don't you
like to be with lots of people instead of just a few that someone else
chooses for you, and what would you think of a boy who was afraid of
snakes? If you say that he's a sensible boy -- that's what grandmother
would say -- I'll never like you, never.
"If I only knew you and you were nice like the boys in the books I read,
how many things we could talk over! I could ask you about all the
things that really matter -- the things that grandmother won't even let

me mention. Thomas, I'm really not too young to be told things. I'd
grow up all in a minute if I could be with girls my own age. But I don't
expect you'll understand, so I won't write any more. I've said some of