第22章 What is a country village without its mysterious p

We are dying to get a look at him,of course--though there is a horrid story about him--that he has the evil eye did you ever hear about the evil eye?If a person who is born with it looks at you,you die,or something happens--awful--is n't it?

"The rector says he never goes to church,but then you know a good many of the people that pass the summer at the village never do--they think their religion must have vacations--that's what I've heard they say--vacations,just like other hard work--it ought not to be hard work,I'm sure,but I suppose they feel so about it.Should you feel afraid to have him look at you?Some of the girls say they would n't have him for the whole world,but I shouldn't mind it--especially if I had on my eyeglasses.Do you suppose if there is anything in the evil eye it would go through glass?I don't believe it.Do you think blue eye-glasses would be better than common ones?Don't laugh at me--they tell such weird stories!The Terror--Lurida Vincent,you know-makes fun of all they say about it,but then she 'knows everything and doesn't believe anything,'the girls say--Well,Ishould be awfully scared,I know,if anybody that had the evil eye should look at me--but--oh,I don't know--but if it was a young man--and if he was very--very good-looking--I think--perhaps I would run the risk--but don't tell anybody I said any such horrid thing--and burn this letter right up--there 's a dear good girl."It is to be hoped that no reader will doubt the genuineness of this letter.There are not quite so many "awfuls"and "awfullys"as one expects to find in young ladies'letters,but there are two "weirds,"which may be considered a fair allowance.How it happened that "jolly"did not show itself can hardly be accounted for;no doubt it turns up two or three times at least in the postscript.

Here is an extract from another letter.This was from one of the students of Stoughton University to a friend whose name as it was written on the envelope was Mr.Frank Mayfield.The old postmaster who found fault with Miss "Lulu's"designation would probably have quarrelled with this address,if it had come under his eye."Frank"is a very pretty,pleasant-sounding name,and it is not strange that many persons use it in common conversation all their days when speaking of a friend.Were they really christened by that name,any of these numerous Franks?Perhaps they were,and if so there is nothing to be said.But if not,was the baptismal name Francis or Franklin?The mind is apt to fasten in a very perverse and unpleasant way upon this question,which too often there is no possible way of settling.One might hope,if he outlived the bearer of the appellation,to get at the fact;but since even gravestones have learned to use the names belonging to childhood and infancy in their solemn record,the generation which docks its Christian names in such an un-Christian way will bequeath whole churchyards full of riddles to posterity.How it will puzzle and distress the historians and antiquarians of a coming generation to settle what was the real name of Dan and Bert and Billy,which last is legible on a white marble slab,raised in memory of a grown person,in a certain burial-ground in a town in Essex County,Massachusetts!

But in the mean time we are forgetting the letter directed to Mr.

Frank Mayfield.

"DEAR FRANK,--Hooray!Hurrah!Rah!