Explore "Mary Ware's Promised Land" by Annie Fellows Johnston on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
What happened in the Christmas holidays which followed is best told in the letter which Mary wrote to Phil Tremont on the last day of the old year.
"DEAR BEST MAN:" it began. "Mamma has asked me / to write to you this time in her place, as she / has succumbed to an attack of 'reunionitis.' / She doesn't call it that, but we know well / enough that it is nothing but the excitement / and unexpectedness of having a whole family / reunion which has frazzled her out so / completely. She wrote you that Joyce was coming / home, but none of us knew that Holland would be / with her. _He_ was the surprise -- Cousin Kate's / Christmas gift to the family. His furlough is / not due till next summer, but she said by that / time Joyce would be in Paris, and the chances / are that if we didn't get together now we might / never again be able to; at least for years and / years.