Letters in the Mail
In general , almost everybody likes to receive mail and probably
nobody in the whole town of Stillwater likes to get letters more than Ray
Buffin. However , the fact was that Ray received fewer letters in his box
at the post – office than anybody else.
It had been like that almost all his life. Nobody wrote letters to him
except that once a month he did get a bill from the gas and electric
company and occasionally he found advertising matter in the box like
everybody else in town.
Of course, since he did not correspond with anybody , he never wrote a
letter himself. But once, many years before , he had written a letter to a
young girl in town. He had written to tell her how beautiful and lovely he
thought she was and how much he loved her. He added the letter by asking
her to marry him, but he had received no answer.
In Stillwater , mail was delivered once a day. Every afternoon, expect
Sundays, the bus from New Orleans stopped in the town before the post-
office and delivered two or three mail bags full of letters, magazines and
newspapers. Soon after they were put into the letter boxes , Ray always
closed his shop, where he made very disappointed if there was no mail for
him , but he always had a feeling that once of these days he would get
some.
Two of the younger men in town, Guy Hodge and Ralph Barnhill, decided
to play a joke on Ray. They would send him a letter signed by girl. When he
received it, someone would ask him if it was a love letter , and someone
else would take it from him and read it to everyone who wanted to listen.
They asked Grace Brooks, the switch operator at the telephone company to
write the letter . Grace was a pretty girl although not very young any
more.
At first Grace said she would have nothing to do with their plan.
‘I would never do such a thing,” she said.
The men did not know that it was Grace who had received the love letter
from Ray a long time ago. At that time she was very young and had no
thoughts about marrying any man. That was why she had not answered the
letter. In recent years there were times when she was sorry she hadn’t .
She thought it was because of her that they were both lonely all these
years.
“Please, Grace”, said Ralph. “ Be a good girl and write the letter for
us or we will ask someone else to do it.”
“No , do not do that. I don’t want anybody else to do it. I’ll write
the letter tonight. I think I know what to say.”
After the men left, Grace cried for a long time. Then she wrote a
letter and in the morning mailed it in the letter-box at the post-office.
What was the surprise of Ralph, Guy and other people who came to see
Ray get the letter, when they saw that after reading it he ran to the
telephone exchange. When Guy and Ralph followed him they found Ray and
Grace together .
“Why did the joke work out like that? Do you suppose Grace signed her
name by mistake?” asked Ralph.
“I think it was not a mistake,” said Guy. “Just think of it. He had
been waiting for this letter most of his life and got it only because of
us!”
“A joke can go wrong sometimes; that’s all right”, said Ralph. “But the
next time we play a joke, let us be sure it is doing to work.”
( After
E. Caldwell)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
