Towards the end of the Christmas vacation. Exact date unknown
Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
Is it snowing where you are? All the world that I see from my tower isdraped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns.It's late afternoon--the sun is just setting (a cold yellow colour)behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window seat usingthe last light to write to you.
Your five gold pieces were a surprise! I'm not used to receivingChristmas presents. You have already given me such lots ofthings--everything I have, you know--that I don't quite feel that Ideserve extras. But I like them just the same. Do you want to knowwhat I bought with my money?
I. A silver watch in a leather case to wear on my wrist and get me torecitations in time.
II. Matthew Arnold's poems.
III. A hot water bottle.
IV. A steamer rug. (My tower is cold.)
V. Five hundred sheets of yellow manuscript paper. (I'm going tocommence being an author pretty soon.)
VI. A dictionary of synonyms. (To enlarge the author's vocabulary.)
VII. (I don't much like to confess this last item, but I will.) A pairof silk stockings.
And now, Daddy, never say I don't tell all!
It was a very low motive, if you must know it, that prompted the silkstockings. Julia Pendleton comes into my room to do geometry, and shesits cross-legged on the couch and wears silk stockings every night.But just wait--as soon as she gets back from vacation I shall go in andsit on her couch in my silk stockings. You see, Daddy, the miserablecreature that I am but at least I'm honest; and you knew already, frommy asylum record, that I wasn't perfect, didn't you?
To recapitulate (that's the way the English instructor begins everyother sentence), I am very much obliged for my seven presents. I'mpretending to myself that they came in a box from my family inCalifornia. The watch is from father, the rug from mother, the hotwater bottle from grandmother who is always worrying for fear I shallcatch cold in this climate--and the yellow paper from my little brotherHarry. My sister Isabel gave me the silk stockings, and Aunt Susan theMatthew Arnold poems; Uncle Harry (little Harry is named after him)gave me the dictionary. He wanted to send chocolates, but I insistedon synonyms.
You don't object, do you, to playing the part of a composite family?
And now, shall I tell you about my vacation, or are you only interestedin my education as such? I hope you appreciate the delicate shade ofmeaning in 'as such'. It is the latest addition to my vocabulary.
The girl from Texas is named Leonora Fenton. (Almost as funny asJerusha, isn't it?) I like her, but not so much as Sallie McBride; Ishall never like any one so much as Sallie--except you. I must alwayslike you the best of all, because you're my whole family rolled intoone. Leonora and I and two Sophomores have walked 'cross country everypleasant day and explored the whole neighbourhood, dressed in shortskirts and knit jackets and caps, and carrying shiny sticks to whackthings with. Once we walked into town--four miles--and stopped at arestaurant where the college girls go for dinner. Broiled lobster (35cents), and for dessert, buckwheat cakes and maple syrup (15 cents).Nourishing and cheap.
It was such a lark! Especially for me, because it was so awfullydifferent from the asylum--I feel like an escaped convict every time Ileave the campus. Before I thought, I started to tell the others whatan experience I was having. The cat was almost out of the bag when Igrabbed it by its tail and pulled it back. It's awfully hard for menot to tell everything I know. I'm a very confiding soul by nature; ifI didn't have you to tell things to, I'd burst.
We had a molasses candy pull last Friday evening, given by the housematron of Fergussen to the left-behinds in the other halls. There weretwenty-two of us altogether, Freshmen and Sophomores and juniors andSeniors all united in amicable accord. The kitchen is huge, withcopper pots and kettles hanging in rows on the stone wall--the littlestcasserole among them about the size of a wash boiler. Four hundredgirls live in Fergussen. The chef, in a white cap and apron, fetchedout twenty-two other white caps and aprons--I can't imagine where hegot so many--and we all turned ourselves into cooks.
It was great fun, though I have seen better candy. When it was finallyfinished, and ourselves and the kitchen and the door-knobs allthoroughly sticky, we organized a procession and still in our caps andaprons, each carrying a big fork or spoon or frying pan, we marchedthrough the empty corridors to the officers' parlour, wherehalf-a-dozen professors and instructors were passing a tranquilevening. We serenaded them with college songs and offeredrefreshments. They accepted politely but dubiously. We left themsucking chunks of molasses candy, sticky and speechless.
So you see, Daddy, my education progresses!
Don't you really think that I ought to be an artist instead of anauthor?
Vacation will be over in two days and I shall be glad to see the girlsagain. My tower is just a trifle lonely; when nine people occupy ahouse that was built for four hundred, they do rattle around a bit.
Eleven pages--poor Daddy, you must be tired! I meant this to be just ashort little thank-you note--but when I get started I seem to have aready pen.
Goodbye, and thank you for thinking of me--I should be perfectly happyexcept for one little threatening cloud on the horizon. Examinationscome in February.
Yours with love, Judy
PS. Maybe it isn't proper to send love? If it isn't, please excuse.But I must love somebody and there's only you and Mrs. Lippett tochoose between, so you see--you'll HAVE to put up with it, Daddy dear,because I can't love her.