WCP242

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Oct[obe]^r. 31^st. 1893

My dear Violet¹

Why did you not ask Miss Coombe to change the cheque for you. She would have done it directly, as she has of course a bank account. So would Mr. Lund. Now the note may get lost in the post.

You have twice mentioned the Club — but have never told us what it is, where it is, what it is for, &c. &c. &c. so we are quite in the dark. Is it a reading club, or a ^tea drinking club, or a goose-club², or a benefit club [2] or a school-club, or working club, or a hockey-club, or a bicycle-club, or a magazine club, or any other of the nine hundred & ninety nine other clubs it is possible to imagine have existed or may exist?

As to moss & peacock’s feathers, what moss, what for? alive or dead, wet or dry &c &c. Would you like the smaller peacock’s tail? from which you can get all the feathers you want or stick it up whole?

Last week I enlarged the pond with the assistance of a gentlemanly old bricklayer who is the son of [3] a builder, was a Soldier in the Crimea, rose to be serjeant got wounded & was sent home. He then became a master-builder himself, lost all his money by being surety for a friend & ^is now a poor journeyman for Mr Alner. But he says he is quite content ! He doesn’t complain !

Now, I am going to build the island ! and stock it. One of the newts, being ignorant of cement, crawled out of the pond on to it, & was found dead or dying in the morning. New cement is poison[?]! [4] Before filling the pond with water again I must take out the two fish and keep them in a pan, or the new cement will kill them. It is turning frosty & I am going to begin fires in the Greenhouse.

That wretched Editor has not got my Sunday art[icle] in again, in November!

No more news.

Your affectionate Pa | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]