Dear Mr. Jones,
I expect you may be slightly surprised to receive a letter from someone living as near as your next-door neighbor; but I have to raise a1that it will be easier for me to discuss in writing.
You may have 2 that I have a line of apple trees running alongside the fence that 3our two gardens. You may also have taken pleasure in the frequent sight of your two children sitting on your lawn directly by the fence. And you may 4have noticed that my apple trees, so to speak, 5 the fence and seem to look down at your children with interest.
It is only natural that your children should sometimes seem to 6that interest. And it is not only natural, but, I acknowledge, quite legal, for them 7 to show that interest by picking all the apples that8 on your side of the fence.
But to be plain with you, Mr. Jones, I am tired of seeing your children, day after day, tear the 9 off the side of every one of my apple trees, and leave my trees looking as though a10had been fought on one side of them. I am, if anything, even more tired of11 these fine autumn mornings, to find even the apples on 12 side of the fence much less in 13. I know this is the work of your children, 14 last night I was woken at midnight by the noise they were making climbing one of my trees, and (as they may have told you) chased them home.
While I am on the subject, I am at least 15 to you for keeping your bonfires on the far side of your garden this year. Last year neither I nor your children had any apples, because the smoke from your bonfires 16 all the flowers before the apples had time to form. I very much hope that17 —-for the first time since I came to this village—-I shall have my apples, and your children will have theirs and that the sight of the line of apple trees will be a 18 to us both.
19, I shall not express my displeasure in writing to you, but shall have to refer the matter to those capable of taking stronger 20 .
Yours sincerely,
J. Smith
