dear mr. philanthropist,
your cheque for my family came yesterday. thank you so much!
i cut gymnasium and took it down to them right after luncheon,
and you should have seen the girl's face! she was so surprised
and happy and relieved that she looked almost young; and she's only
twenty-four. isn't it pitiful?
anyway, she feels now as though all the good things were coming together.
she has steady work ahead for two months--someone's getting married,
and there's a trousseau to make.
`thank the good lord!' cried the mother, when she grasped the fact
that that small piece of paper was one hundred dollars.
`it wasn't the good lord at all,' said i, `it was daddy-long-legs.'
(mr. smith, i called you.)
`but it was the good lord who put it in his mind,' said she.
`not at all! i put it in his mind myself,' said i.
but anyway, daddy, i trust the good lord will reward you suitably.
you deserve ten thousand years out of purgatory.
yours most gratefully,
judy abbott
15th feb.
may it please your most excellent majesty:
this morning i did eat my breakfast upon a cold turkey pie
and a goose, and i did send for a cup of tee (a china drink)
of which i had never drank before.
don't be nervous, daddy--i haven't lost my mind; i'm merely quoting
sam'l pepys. we're reading him in connection with english history,
original sources. sallie and julia and i converse now in the language
of 1660. listen to this:
`i went to charing cross to see major harrison hanged,
drawn and quartered: he looking as cheerful as any man could
do in that condition.' and this: `dined with my lady who is
in handsome mourning for her brother who died yesterday of spotted fever.'
seems a little early to commence entertaining, doesn't it? a friend
of pepys devised a very cunning manner whereby the king might pay
his debts out of the sale to poor people of old decayed provisions.
what do you, a reformer, think of that? i don't believe we're so bad
today as the newspapers make out.
samuel was as excited about his clothes as any girl; he spent
five times as much on dress as his wife--that appears to have
been the golden age of husbands. isn't this a touching entry?
you see he really was honest. `today came home my fine camlett
cloak with gold buttons, which cost me much money, and i pray god
to make me able to pay for it.'
excuse me for being so full of pepys; i'm writing a special topic
on him.
what do you think, daddy? the self-government association has
abolished the ten o'clock rule. we can keep our lights all night
if we choose, the only requirement being that we do not disturb others--
we are not supposed to entertain on a large scale. the result is a
beautiful commentary on human nature. now that we may stay up as long
as we choose, we no longer choose. our heads begin to nod at nine
o'clock, and by nine-thirty the pen drops from our nerveless grasp.
it's nine-thirty now. good night.
sunday
just back from church--preacher from georgia. we must take care, he says,
not to develop our intellects at the expense of our emotional natures--
but methought it was a poor, dry sermon (pepys again). it doesn't
matter what part of the united states or canada they come from,
or what denomination they are, we always get the same sermon.
why on earth don't they go to men's colleges and urge the students
not to allow their manly natures to be crushed out by too much
mental application?
it's a beautiful day--frozen and icy and clear. as soon as dinner
is over, sallie and julia and marty keene and eleanor pratt (friends
of mine, but you don't know them) and i are going to put on short
skirts and walk 'cross country to crystal spring farm and have a fried
chicken and waffle supper, and then have mr. crystal spring drive
us home in his buckboard. we are supposed to be inside the campus
at seven, but we are going to stretch a point tonight and make it eight.
farewell, kind sir.
i have the honour of subscribing myself,
your most loyall, dutifull, faithfull and obedient
servant,
j. abbott
