ABSTRACT
Susy missed her family. Absence had heightened the good times for her and dimmed the troubled ones. She had written Clara, “We are such a congenial family. It seems to me no one ever understands us as we understand each other. We do belong together.” In pet names whose origins were as personal and special as the sisterly bond, Susy wrote to her sister Black Spider, Blackie, or Spider. Clara wrote to her sister Pigg, Porc Pigg, Pea, or Sweet Pea. Susy had even taken to playfully calling her father the gray grenouille, French for “frog.” As the time grew closer for their reunion, all became more excited. Looking forward to the time they would be together in London, Pigg and Spider repeated to each other in their letters, “Won't it be nuts?”
