dear daddy-long-legs,
did you ever hear of michael angelo?
he was a famous artist who lived in italy in the middle ages.
everybody in english literature seemed to know about him, and the
whole class laughed because i thought he was an archangel. he sounds
like an archangel, doesn't he? the trouble with college is that you
are expected to know such a lot of things you've never learned.
it's very embarrassing at times. but now, when the girls talk about
things that i never heard of, i just keep still and look them up
in the encyclopedia.
i made an awful mistake the first day. somebody mentioned
maurice maeterlinck, and i asked if she was a freshman.
that joke has gone all over college. but anyway, i'm just
as bright in class as any of the others--and brighter than some of them!
do you care to know how i've furnished my room? it's a symphony
in brown and yellow. the wall was tinted buff, and i've bought
yellow denim curtains and cushions and a mahogany desk (second hand
for three dollars) and a rattan chair and a brown rug with an ink
spot in the middle. i stand the chair over the spot.
the windows are up high; you can't look out from an ordinary seat.
but i unscrewed the looking-glass from the back of the bureau,
upholstered the top and moved it up against the window. it's just
the right height for a window seat. you pull out the drawers like
steps and walk up. very comfortable!
sallie mcbride helped me choose the things at the senior auction.
she has lived in a house all her life and knows about furnishing.
you can't imagine what fun it is to shop and pay with a real
five-dollar bill and get some change--when you've never had more than
a few cents in your life. i assure you, daddy dear, i do appreciate
that allowance.
sallie is the most entertaining person in the world--and julia
rutledge pendleton the least so. it's queer what a mixture
the registrar can make in the matter of room-mates. sallie thinks
everything is funny--even flunking--and julia is bored at everything.
she never makes the slightest effort to be amiable. she believes
that if you are a pendleton, that fact alone admits you to heaven
without any further examination. julia and i were born to be enemies.
and now i suppose you've been waiting very impatiently to hear
what i am learning?
i. latin: second punic war. hannibal and his forces pitched camp
at lake trasimenus last night. they prepared an ambuscade for
the romans, and a battle took place at the fourth watch this morning.
romans in retreat.
ii. french: 24 pages of the three musketeers and third conjugation,
irregular verbs.
iii. geometry: finished cylinders; now doing cones.
iv. english: studying exposition. my style improves daily
in clearness and brevity.
v. physiology: reached the digestive system. bile and the pancreas
next time. yours, on the way to being educated,
jerusha abbott
ps. i hope you never touch alcohol, daddy? it does dreadful
things to your liver.
