sound tropical, don't they? And we have sapadilloes that look like
potatoes, and taste like--well, I think they taste horrid, but
most people seem to like them.

"It is real hot here, and I am wearing my last summer's best straw
hat and my thinnest linen dresses--you know, those I had last
vacation. The thermometer got up to 85 degrees yesterday.

"Do write, and tell me all about yourself and the girls. Has Susie
Rand got well enough to go to school yet? and who's head in the
algebra class? Mark wants to know how's the skating, and if the
boys have built a snow fort yet? Most all the people here are
black, and everybody talks Spanish: it is SO funny to hear them.

"Now I must say good-bye, because Mark is calling me to go to the
fruit auction. I will tell you about it some other time.

"With love to everybody, I am your own lovingest friend,

"RUTH ELMER.

"P.S.--Don't forget that you are coming down here to see me next
winter."

Before Ruth finished this letter Mark began calling to her to
hurry up, for the bell had stopped ringing, and the auction would
be all over before they got there. She hurriedly directed it, and
put it in her pocket to mail on the way to the auction, just as
her brother called out that he "did think girls were the very
slowest."