Dear Mother：

I do hope you’re feeling a lot better now.School’s started again for us and I’m mainly tryingto finish Crime and Punishment before the end ofthe term.It was a great pleasure for us getting totalk to you Christmas.I got a pretty stripedEnglish shirt from Brooks Brothers with my half ofthe Christmas check you sent us；Mary got a beautiful pink blouse at Bergdorf Goodman.Thankyou so much.

There was a nice mention in Time of A SadHeart we cut it out to send you，so as to be sureyou’d see it.

Did I tell you that I’ve just finished anotherchildren’s book？It’s named The Bat-Poet and hasseveral poems inside the story.I really enjoyedwriting it a lot，and felt almost as if I’d written agrown-up story.

Little Mariecertainly has grown；she looks more like a small girl than a big baby.I gave Mary a little Georgian child’s chair for aChristmas present，and little Marie liked sitting init.

Bea has fixed her apartment awfully prettily；she and Gerhard are happy as can be.

Your Christmas sounded awfully nice，both forall the visits and all the presents.We didn’t havemuch snow compared with yours；so far this hasbeen rather a warm mild winter here——sunny，too.

Write and tell us how you’re feeling now；Ihope very much you’re beginning to feel like yourold self.

With lots of love

Randall