more than a head taller than we are, I mean than
Liesel and me; I think he is fifteen. He says Fraulein
Grete and carried my cloak which Mother sent me because
of the rain and he saw me home after supper.

To-morrow is my birthday and everyone has been
invited and Mother has made strawberry cream and
waffles. How spiffing.

July 30th. To-day is my birthday. Father gave
me a splendid parasol with a flowered border and
painting materials and Mother gave me a huge postcard
album for 800 cards and stories for school girls,
and Dora gave me a beautiful box of notepaper and
Mother had made a chocolate-cream cake for dinner
to-day as well as the strawberry cream. The first
thing in the morning the Warths sent me three birthday
cards. And Robert had written on his: With
deepest _respect your faithful R_. It is glorious to have
a birthday, everyone is so kind, even Dora. Oswald
sent me a wooden paper-knife, the handle is a dragon
and the blade shoots out of its mouth instead of flame;
or perhaps the blade is its tongue, one can't be quite
sure. It has not rained yet on my birthday. Father
says I was born under a lucky star. That suits me
all right, tip top.

July 31st. Yesterday was heavenly. We laughed
till our sides ached over Consequences. I was always
being coupled with Robert and oh the things we did
together, not really of course but only in writing:
kissed, hugged, lost in the forest, bathed together;
but I say, I wouldn't do _that!_ quarrelled. That
won't happen, it's quite impossible! Then we drank
my health clinking glasses five times and Robert
wanted to drink it in wine but Dora said that would
never do! The real trouble was this. She always
gets furious if she has to play second fiddle to me
and yesterday I was certainly first fiddle.

Now I must write a word about to-day. We've
had a splendid time. We were in Tiefengraben with
the Warths where there are such a lot of wild strawberries.
Robert picked all the best of them for me,
to the great annoyance of Dora who had to pick
them for herself. Really I would rather pick them for
myself, but when some one else picks them for one
for _love_ (that's what Robert said) then one is quite
glad to have them picked for one. Besides, I did
pick some myself and gave most of them to Father
and some to Mother. At afternoon tea which we
had in Flischberg I had to sit beside Erna instead
of Robert. Erna is rather dull. Mother says she is
_anemic_; that sounds frightfully interesting, but I
don't quite know what it means. Dora is always
saying that she is anemic, but of course that is not
true. And Father always says "Don't talk such stuff,
you're as fit as a fiddle." That puts her in such a
wax. Last year Lizzi was really anemic, so the doctor
said, she was always having palpitation and had to
take iron and drink Burgundy. I think that's where
Dora got the idea.

August 1st. Hella is rather cross with me because
I wrote and told her that I had spent the whole day
with the W's. Still, she is really my only friend or
I should not have written and told her. Every year
in the country she has another friend too, but that
doesn't put me out. I can't understand why she
doesn't like Robert; she doesn't know anything about
him except what I have written and certainly that
was nothing but good. Of course she does know him
for he is a cousin of the Sernigs and she met him once
there. But one does not get to know a person from
seeing them once. Anyhow she does not know him
the way I do. Yesterday I was with the Warths
all day. We played Place for the King and Robert
caught me and I had to give him a kiss. And Erna
said, that doesn't count, for I had let myself be caught.
But Robert got savage and said: Erna is a perfect
nuisance, she spoils everyone's pleasure. He's quite
right, but there's some one else just as bad. But I
do hope Erna has not told Dora about the kiss. If
she has everyone will know and I shouldn't like that.
I lay in wait for Erna with the sweets which Aunt
Dora sent us. Robert and Liesel and I ate the rest.
They were so good and nearly all large ones. At
first Robert wanted to take quite a little one, but
I said he must only have a big one. After that he
always picked out the big ones. When I came home
in the evening with the empty box Father laughed
and said: There's nothing mean about our Gretel.
Besides, Mother still has a great box full; I have no
idea whether Dora still has a lot, but I expect so.

August 2nd. Oswald arrived this afternoon at
5. He's a great swell now; he's begun to grow a
moustache. In the evening Father took him to the
hotel to introduce him to some friends. He said it
would be an awful bore, but he will certainly make