Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-09-21
lQlortester Daily Spp.


NN'"oS Vi 'iieh SOiu
Hoods Letters to Children.
In Hoods Memorials" are several letters to
children, full of the most sprightly and genial
humor. They were written when he was spf
terlng severely from disease
II ELM Tree ROAD, ST. JoHNs WooD.
Monday, april, 1874.
MY DEAR MARY u promised you letter,
and here it is. l was sure to remember il !:
1or you are as hard to forget, as you are soft
to roll down hill with. + What fun it was
only SO prickly, L thought l had porcupine
IN one pocket and a hedgehog in the other.
The next time, before we kiss the earth we will
have Its face well shaved. Did you ever 90 to
Greenwich fair! | should like to 20 there
with you, for get no rolling at St Johns
Wood. Tom and Fanny only like roll and
butter, and as for Mrs. Hood, she is for rolling
in money.
Fell Dunnie that Tom has set his trap in the
balcony and has caught cold, and tell Jennie
that Fanny has set her foot in the garden, but
1t has MT come up yet. Oh, how wish il
was the season when March winds and April
showers bring forth May flowers |" for then of
course you would give me another pretty little
nosegay. Besides it is frosty and foggy wealth
er, which ] do not like The other night,
when came from Stratford, the cold shriveled
me up so, that when | got home, thought |
was my own child?
However, | hope we shall all have merry
Christmas l mean to come in my most tic.
klesome waistcoat, and to laugh till | grow
fat, or at least streaky. Fanny is to have
hole holiday, and Mrs. Hood is to sit up TO sun
per There will be doings And then such
good things to eat but, pray, pray, pray
mind they don't boil the baby by mistake for
plump pudding, instead OF plum one
Give my love to everybody, from yourself
down to Willy, with which and a kiss, | re.
main, up hill and down dale,
Your atfectionate lover,
THOMAS Hoop.
trhe auson at the Of this letter is to
accidental tumble which beie my father and little
May while at picnic in the Forest They rolled down
bank and landed in flrz bush at the bottom.-T IL.
O. DEy0 o, LODGE, new FINcHLEY RoAD,l
ST JOHNS WOOD, July !, DIST of Hebrew fasity)
My DEAR DUNNIE-I have heard of your
doings at SYNDICATE, and that you were SO hap
Ply at getting to the sea, that you were obliged
to be logged a little to moderate it, and keep
some for next day. am very fond of the sea,
too, though have been twice nearly drowned
by it ; once in a storm in a ship, and once un
der a boats bottom when ! was bathing. Of
course you have bathed, but have you learned
to swim yet 1t is rather easy in salt water
and diving is still easier, even, than at the
sink. only swim in fancy, and strike out
new ideas
Is not the tide curious Though l cannot
say much for its tidiness it makes such a
slop and litter on the beach. 1t comes and |
goes as regularly as the boys of proprietary |
school, but has no holidays. And what a rat |
tie the waves make with the stones when they |
are rough you will find some rolled in de- |
cent marbles and bounces and sometimes |
you may hear the sound of heavy sea, at |
distance, like a giant snoring. Some people |
say that every ninth wave is bigger than the |
rest. have often counted, but never found |
1t come true, except with taors of whom |
every ninth is man. But in rough weather
there are giant waves, bigger than the rest,
that come in trios, from which, l suppose, Bri- |
tanna rules the waves by the rule of three.
When was a boy, l loved to play with the
sea, in spite Of its sometimes getting rather
rough. ~ and my brother chucked hundreds of !
stones into it, as you do but we came away |
before we could Till it up. In those days we
were at war with France. Unluckiy, it's |
peace now, or with so many stones you might
have good fun for days in pelting the enemy's
coast Once | almost thought | nearly hit
Boney Then there was looking for an island
like Robinson Crusoe! Have you ever found
one yet, surrounded by water2 remember
once staying on the beach, when the tide was
flowing, till l was a peninsula, and only by
Then there's fishing at the seaside | used
to catch flat fish with a very long string line.
1t was like swimming kite But perhaps
there are no flat fish at dgate-except your
shoe soles. The best plan, if you want fiat
fish where there are none, is to bring codlings
and hammer them into dabs. Once | caught
aplace, and seeing it all over red spots, thought
/ had caught the measles.
Do you ever long, when you are looking at
fOr I
gate, with my yacht (only she is not yet
built, would give you cruise in her. In
the meantime you can practice sailing any lit
tie boat you can get. But mind that it does
not founder or get squamped, as some people
say, instead Of founder" and Swamp"
have been swamped myself by malaria, and
almost foundered, which reminds me that Tom
Junior, being very ingenius, has made cork
model OF diving bell that won't sink
by this time, | suppose, you are become,
instead OF land boy a regular sea urchin
and so amphibious, that you can walk on the
land as well as on the water-or better. And
don't you mean, when you grow up, to go to
sea! Should you not like to be a little mid
shipman or half quarter master, with
cooked hat, and dirk, that will be a sword by
the time you are man E! If you do resolve
to be post captain, let me know, and | will
endeavor, through my interest with the COM
missioner Of pavements, to get you post to
jump over of the proper height Tom is just
rigging boat, so | suppose that he inclines to
be an admiral of the marines. But before you
decide remember the port holes, and that there
are great guns in those battledoors that will
blow you into shuttlecocks, which is a worse
game than whoop and hide-as to good hid
ing!
And so farewell, young cold Fellow" and
take care of yourself 50 near the sea, for in
some places, they say, it has not even bottom
to go to if you fall in And remember when
you are bathing, if you meet with shark, the
best way is to bite off his legs, if you can, be.
fore he walks off with yours. And so, hoping
you will be better soon, for somebody told me
you had the shingles,
l am, my dear Dunnie,
Your atlectionate friend,
Thomas Hoop.
p. ST. have heard that at Sandgate there
used to be holsters but some ignorant fairy