



Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
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[Illustration: “I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE SOME CHOCOLATES”]




LETTY AND THE TWINS

BY

Helen Sherman Griffith

AUTHOR OF
  “LETTY OF THE CIRCUS” “LETTY’S NEW HOME”
  “LETTY’S SISTER” “LETTY’S TREASURE”
  “LETTY AT THE CONSERVATORY” “LETTY’S SPRINGTIME”
  “LETTY AND MISS GREY”

ILLUSTRATED BY FRANCES D. JONES

THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY

PHILADELPHIA MCMXVII




COPYRIGHT 1910 BY THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY




CONTENTS
    I—ARRIVING AT THE FARM
    II—SUNNYCREST
    III—A SPRAINED ANKLE
    IV—GREEN APPLES
    V—THE CIRCUS
    VI—LETTY
    VII—MRS. HARTWELL-JONES SEES PART OF THE CIRCUS
    VIII—JANE’S IDEA
    IX—HAPPY DAYS
    X—THISTLEDOWN
    XI—CHRISTOPHER GOES FOR THE MAIL
    XII—LETTY SINGS A LULLABY
    XIII—THE TULIP’S DREAM
    XIV—WHERE IS CHRISTOPHER?
    XV—LETTY’S FUTURE
    XVI—UNTYING THE APRON-STRINGS
    XVII—GOOD NEWS
    XVIII—A CABLEGRAM
    XIX—SYMPTOMS OF MEASLES
    XX—OLD SCENES AGAIN
    XXI—CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATIONS

    “I thought you might like some chocolates”
    They giggled at everything the clown said
    Under a large tree in the garden
    “Don’t you worry, little girl”
    “Now look up at me”




INTRODUCTION

Those who have read “Letty of the Circus” will remember that Letty Grey
was a little city girl whose brother was a member of a troupe of
acrobats. When it became necessary to help her mother who was ill Letty
herself became a member of the troupe and joined them in their
performances at a summer resort. One day she bravely saved the lives of
two little children, Jane and Christopher, who were threatened by an
angry bear. This was the beginning of a warm friendship which is seen
ripening in the present book. Letty leaves the circus and finds a new
mother, and her sunny nature wins for her many friends. Something more
about her will be found in “Letty’s New Home,” “Letty’s Sister,”
“Letty’s Treasure,” “Letty’s Good Luck,” “Letty at the Conservatory,”
“Letty’s Springtime” and “Letty and Miss Grey.”




LETTY AND THE TWINS




CHAPTER I

ARRIVING AT THE FARM


“Oh, Kit, isn’t it just fun!” cried Jane, her rosy, chubby face beaming.
“How fast we are going!”

“Ho,” exclaimed Christopher, “it’s not so fast. Not so awfully fast, is
it, grandfather? I’d like to go about sixty miles an hour. That would be
going for you.”

“Oh, Kit!” breathed Jane in mingled awe and admiration.

Jane and Christopher—or Kit as he was generally called to distinguish
him from his father, whose name also was Christopher—were twins, and so
far along the course of their short lives had shared everything, from
peppermint drops to ideas. The stern fact that Christopher was a boy and
Jane a girl was just beginning faintly to dawn upon them—a state
demonstrated by Jane’s unqualified admiration of everything her brother
said and did, and by his occasional condescension of manner toward her.

Jane leaned back in her parlor car seat hugging her doll—a wonderful new
one with flaxen hair turned up with a comb and dressed “like a
lady”—quite content with the rate at which the train was speeding
through the green fields and villages; while Christopher bobbed about
from seat to seat, trying the view from each side of the train in turn
and wishing he could look out on both sides at once.

There were very few passengers in the parlor car, for it was early in
the season for summer visitors to go to the country. Besides the twins
and their grandparents there were only three other passengers: two
gentlemen who were very busy talking and paid no attention to any one
else, and a sweet-faced lady with gray hair who sat at the other end of
the car and who watched the children with great interest. She looked as
if she would like to make friends with them.

After a while she took a candy box out of her satchel and catching the
twins’ eyes, beckoned to them, holding out the open box. Christopher was
for bolting down the car aisle at once, but Jane caught him back and
whispered something to her grandmother, who looked up from her book,
exchanged smiles with the sweet-faced stranger, bowed and said “yes” to
Jane.

“I thought you might like some chocolates,” said the lady as the
children approached. “Won’t you sit down there opposite me?”

“Thank you,” said Jane politely, and the twins tucked themselves side by
side into the big chair. The lady’s sweet, interested manner and the
chocolates quickly put matters upon a friendly