Letters from Barrie to One of His Goddaughters Sara Strickland

[Dani1923]

From “Letters of J.M. Barrie” Edited by Viola Meynell.

27 December 1933

My Dere Sara
it was LOvely 2 C U again and i thot u was nicerer than effer i lov u trulie. When the uther KOMONER ones waS DANsing U and I SHAred a SWEET secret i Hop u will not bother lerning lessons and pianos but will come and B my Houskeeper that will Be ripers raping (last two words crossed out) ripping
FROM ure Loving Godfavver

[Dani1923]

From “Letters of J.M. Barrie”. In this letter, Barrie talks again about his boyhood dream of becoming an artist, but always losing his paint-box, like he did with his godson Peter Scott.

26 July 1935

Your letter to me was quite the nicest one I have had for a long time and I keep it for safety in my pocket. Also I love the beautiful scroll round the paper, and if I could do anything as pretty I would do it round this sheet. When I was a boy I meant to become an artist but I always lost my paint-box so I had to give that game up and take to pen-nibs. If you lose your nib you can always get another one, and I hope you will get another one and write to me again, and put a scroll on it and pictures. I think the picture on your letter I liked best of all is the one of the ‘very queer fish’. You have the art of making it look very queer indeed. It made me wonder whether baby scorpions have god-fathers, and I think I should have felt a shudder if I had had to hold it up at the baptismal font. How proud you must have been to catch the 22 shrimps in your net. Of course it is rather sad to think you ate them at tea-time, but I expect they know that this is what they are for and took it as a compliment as they went romping down. I am often rather lonely here in my flat and I wish I could catch you in a net. Then I would bring you to my flat, and when I looked up from my work, behold I should have the happiness of seeing Sara sitting near me. From this you will see that I do love having you for my god-daughter.