section7mfu | The 'Correspondence' Affair #16 - December 25, 1912 (Alexander to Millicent) (Reply)

From : Edzell, Scotland

December 25, 1912

My dearest Millicent,

A very Merry Christmas to you. Your letter and packet arrived on the last day the mail ran here. I opened the packet at midnight on Christmas Eve in view of the North Star.

The folding knife that you sent me is very nice. I don't believe I have ever seen anything like this 'Officers and Sports Knife' before. Rather clever the way that the Swiss have added the different features on it. Who would have thought of putting things like can openers and corkscrews together with a knife blade? I can see where this will be a handy item to keep with me, so I thank you very much for the gift.

There is to be a bit of a party tonight and I will be escorting Euphemia Ramsay to it. She is the daughter of an old friend of the family. Very capable dancer with about as fiery a head of hair as one can find in nature.

Things here rather shut down for the holidays, so the package I am sending along with this letter may not reach you in time for your birthday. If not, my sincere apologies and my hope that the delay won't impair your enjoyment of the day. Do they have any sort of celebration at the school when the ladies there have a birthday?

I know you that said you would be writing to me today as well. I trust that you and Ermengarde have enjoyed the season even though you were both far from home. Please give her my best. I look forward to eventually meeting the young woman that has been such a comfort to you. I am afraid that you will find, as I have, that the holidays will always bring back at least a bit of that sense of loss. In my own case, the memories have become fonder ones rather than sadder ones as the years pass.

Come New Years Eve, I shall look to the star again at midnight to wish you both a happy new year and a happy thirteenth birthday. I have to admit that you are quite right that you have a very easy birthday to remember. The only drawback might be that your age is very easy for anyone to calculate, but then I doubt that will be a problem for you. I cannot imagine that you will become one of those ladies that keeps subtracting from rather than adding to your age.

Fondly yours,

Alexander