Mr.Smith has white hair.
And you can deduct the twenty-five cents out of my allowance.
Good-bye till January-and a merry Christmas！
Toward the end of the Christmas vacation.
Exact date unknown.
Dear Daddy-Long-Legs，
Is it snowing where you are？All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as popcorn.It's late afternoon-the sun is just setting（a cold yellow color）behind some colder violet hills，and I am up in my window seat using the last light to write to you.
Your five gold pieces were a surprise！I'm not used to receiving Christmas presents.You have already given me such lots of things-everything I have，you know-that I don't quite feel that I deserve extras.But I like them just the same.Do you want to know what I bought with my money？
Ⅰ.A silver watch in a leather case to wear on my wrist and get me to recitations on time.
Ⅱ.Matthew Arnold's poems.
Ⅲ.A hot water bottle.
Ⅳ.A steamer rug.（My tower is cold.）
Ⅴ.Five hundred sheets of yellow manu paper.（I'm going to commence being an author pretty soon.）
Ⅵ.A dictionary of synonyms.（To enlarge the author's vocabulary.）
Ⅶ，（I don't much like to confess this last item，but I will.）A pair of silk stockings.
And now，Daddy，never say I don't tell all！
It was a very low motive，if you must know it，that prompted the silk stockings.Julia Pendleton comes into my room to do geometry，and she sits cross-legged on the couch and wears silk stockings every night.But just wait-as soon as she gets back from vacation I shall go in and sit on her couch in my silk stockings.You see，Daddy，the miserable creature that I am-but at least I'm honest；and you knew already，from my asylum record，that I wasn't perfect，didn't you？
To recapitulate（that's the way the English instructor begins every other sentence），I am very much obliged for my seven presents.I'm pretending to myself that they came in a box from my family in California.The watch is from father，the lap rug from mother，the hot water bottle from grandmother-who is always worrying for fear I shall catch cold in this climate-and the yellow paper from my little brother Harry.My sister Isobel gave me the silk stockings，and Aunt Susan the Matthew Arnold poems；Uncle Harry（little Harry is named for him）gave me the dictionary.He wanted to send chocolates，but I insisted on synonyms.