`` If they were old and lonesome and friendless they would n't see much in life to laugh at , I guess , '' said Miss Marshall bitterly , drawing her shawl closer about her sharp shoulders . `` They never think of anything but themselves and if a day passes that they do n't have ` some fun ' they think it 's a fearful thing to put up with . I 'm sick and tired of their giggling and whispering . '' In the midst of these amiable reflections Miss Marshall heard a knock at her door . When she opened it there stood Nora Jane , her broad red face beaming with smiles . `` Please , Miss , here 's a letter for you , '' she said . `` A letter for me ! '' Miss Marshall shut her door and stared at the fat envelope in amazement . 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 XXXXX she had supposed !
Before If So as by from in that to with