Who could have written it ? The postman came only in the morning . Was it some joke , perhaps ? Those giggling girls ? Miss Marshall 's face grew harder as she lighted her lamp and opened the letter suspiciously . `` Dear Miss Marshall , '' it ran in Cyrilla 's pretty girlish writing , `` we girls are so lonesome and dull that we have decided to write rainy-day letters to everybody in the house just to cheer ourselves up . So I 'm going to write to you just a letter of friendly nonsense . '' Pages of `` nonsense '' followed , and very delightful nonsense it was , for Cyrilla possessed the happy gift of bright and easy letter-writing . She commented wittily on all the amusing episodes of the boarding-house life for the past month ; she described a cat-fight she had witnessed from her window that morning and illustrated it by a pen-and-ink sketch of the belligerent felines ; she described a lovely new dress her mother had sent her from home and told all about the class party to which she had worn it ; she gave an account of her vacation camping trip to the mountains and pasted on one page a number of small snapshots taken during the outing ; she copied a joke she had read in the paper that morning and discussed the serial story in the boarding-house magazine which all the boarders were reading ; she wrote out the directions for a new crocheted tidy her sister had made -- Miss Marshall had a mania for crocheting ; and she finally wound up with `` all the good will and good wishes that Nora Jane will consent to carry from your friend , Cyrilla Blair . '' Before Miss Marshall had finished reading that letter she had cried three times and laughed times past counting . More tears came at the end -- happy , tender tears such as Miss Marshall had not shed for years . Something warm and sweet and gentle seemed to thrill to life within her heart . So those girls were not such selfish , heedless young creatures as she had supposed ! How kind it had been in Cyrilla Blair to think of her and write so to her . She no longer felt lonely and neglected . Her whole sombre world had been brightened to sunshine by that merry friendly letter . Mrs. Plunkett 's table was surrounded by a ring of smiling faces that night . Everybody seemed in good spirits in spite of the weather . The pale little dressmaker , who had hardly uttered a word since her arrival a week before , talked and laughed quite merrily and girlishly , thanking Cyrilla unreservedly for her `` jolly letter . '' Old Mr. Grant did not grumble once about the rain or the food or his rheumatism and he told Carol that she might be a good letter writer in time if she looked after her grammar more carefully -- which , from Mr. Grant , was high praise .
All the others declared XXXXX they were delighted with their letters -- all except Miss Marshall .
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