Humor Summers, Florence E.: Dere Bill (illustrated). v1. 09 August 2012

[GrannyGrump]

First published 1919.

From the publishers of Edward Streeter’s best-selling book “Dere Mable” comes this collection of Mable’s letters to Bill. Written in the same style as “Dere Mable”, with the correspondent being another creative speller, these give us a view of the relationship and of the war years from the feminine perspective. The book is episodic by its very nature. A fast, fun read, with 43 full-page cartoon illustrations.

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An excerpt:

Can you believe it—Nellie’s gone an married Guffy, an they moved into the house next to ours. You cant tell me she loves him though. If she wasnt still jealous over you shed make up. Id meet her half way altho I aint goin to speak first. Shes spiteful as ever. She had to ask Maggie Sams to be her maid of honor because we aint speakin, an if she hadnt been awful mad shed a gone on an asked me anyhow cause anybody knows Im better lookin than Maggie. That aint conceit, Bill, I dont like conceit but you know its the truth. Anybody thats looked in the glass much as I have would. I may not be so pretty but—Im darned stylish.

The day after Nellie an Guffy moved in over there Pa had had sum beer sent up and they put it on their poarch by mistaik an she called up an says “Please send and get this barrell. Im afraid somebody will think its mine.” That evenin Guffy was settin on their poarch readin and after while he moved over on our side in the shade. I called up Nellie an says “Please come and get this man offen my poarch—Im afraid somebody will think hes mine.” I reckon you aint the only one what thinks of things to say, eh Bill? Your good at it though.

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I could not find the author’s biographical information, so I had to assume this might be public domain only in the USA. If anyone has information, please let me know.
Sourced from OCR scan from archive.org, and again very likely that the deliberate mis-spellings have caused me to miss errors while proofreading.

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