August 24th, 1868

I got a letter from Corin today! It’s a very short letter however. I was expecting at least a page about what he's been doing this past year. With it there was a little rough sketch on a scrap piece of paper of a cat with bright eyes and long gorgeous dark fur; and on the back there was a “happy birthday!” note from John (In his very neat handwriting, might I add). There's also a caption on the front underneath the drawing that merely said: “Long haired cat.” Ever the artist, John is. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an entire letter from him, just little artworks. For one of my birthdays, he sent me a very small painting of a lovely crow with intelligent eyes. Corin’s accompanying letter said that the bird had sat perfectly still on the window sill for a full thirty minutes while John drew and painted it. I’m not sure whether it was truly posing or not, but the painting was beautiful.

To keep from losing Corin’s letter (again), I suppose I'll paste it here in my journal.

Dear Lily,   

I hope you’re doing well. I’m sorry that this is a very brief letter, and it grieves me to say that this most important date nearly slipped my mind. Perhaps you can forgive me. I've been a bit busy these past few months. Wishing you a happy birthday from “the land of the free,”   

Your brother,

Corin

It’s very informative isn’t it? I’d been hoping he’d talk about what exactly he’s doing in America. In her letter, Ophelia talked about how her tailor shop in New York was trying to catch it's bearings after the American Civil War. Fabric prices jumped when it was being used to outfit the men fighting. But then again, it's only been three years since the war ended. I'm sure Fee will find a way to help her little corner store in New York recover.

Corin, however, has barely said anything about his life. The most I can assume is that he's still alive and has found ways to fill his time. I have a feeling he’s been writing more in depth letters to Mari and Mother. The few glimpses I've gotten of their letters from him reveal several paragraphs of information. I’m also fairly certain that Wilhelm and Johnathan have been writing to each other as well. Their fast friendship holds even now; they bonded over things they had in common, on account of the fact that they were both royalty during the same time period (Well Johnathan was royalty- Wil was just a noble’s son).

I’ll interrogate Mari tomorrow. Right now, I want to finish Little Women, and sleep.