ysterious Letters From Etta of India

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

When the Baron celebrated his birthday he would always receive many birthday cards and letters from his many friends around the world.

However, each year, for the past seven years, a letter would come in the general form of a birthday greeting. The letter was from a place in India, from a person named Etta. The Baron never met or knew who Etta was. It was a mystery to him.

Each year the letter from Etta would have a prediction of things that could happen in Lilliland if the Baron was not on guard against certain things.

One year, Etta predicted Alpine Mountain avalanches of a greater magnitude than usual at a time of the year when normally avalanches do not occur. It turned out that Etta was correct, but the Baron dismissed it as a rare coincidence.

One letter from Etta predicted a disease in Lilliland Lake that would kill many fish. That also came true when someone dumped a hazardous chemical into the lake.

The year before the Great War, Etta predicted storm clouds of war developing in Europe that could affect the boundaries of Lilliland. That prediction also came true and the Baron was on guard about maintaining the official neutral-country status. That made the Baron begin to become a believer in the letters from Etta.

The latest letter mentioned financial problems for Lilliland. Money was leaving the treasury and not accounted for. The Baron asked Professor Hamblin, his chief advisor, to investigate. He found that the financial officer, Arthur Andrews, was going to Paris on most weekends on official business. But, the hotel bills that came in were for female entertainment at very expensive hotels in Paris.

The Baron made the financial officer return the money to the Lilliland treasury at once and sent him to jail for what he had been doing. The money was returned.

Arthur Andrews was sentenced to six months in jail but he escaped a month later and was never heard from, or seen, again.

The success or failure of Lilliland was decided by maintaining a strict budget.

Then, one year, the letters from Etta stopped. Etta explained that that it was her final letter. She had sent them because she believed that Lilliland was very kind to preserve nature in its entire splendor.