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 neverdrank before.
Don't be nervous, Daddy--I haven't lost my mind; I'm merely quotingSam'l Pepys. We're reading him in connection with English History,original sources. Sallie and Julia and I converse now in the languageof 1660. Listen to this:
'I went to Charing Cross to see Major Harrison hanged, drawn andquartered: he looking as cheerful as any man could do in thatcondition.' And this: 'Dined with my lady who is in handsome mourningfor her brother who died yesterday of spotted fever.'
Seems a little early to commence entertaining, doesn't it? A friend ofPepys devised a very cunning manner whereby the king might pay hisdebts out of the sale to poor people of old decayed provisions. Whatdo you, a reformer, think of that? I don't believe we're so bad todayas the newspapers make out.
Samuel was as excited about his clothes as any girl; he spent fivetimes as much on dress as his wife--that appears to have been theGolden Age of husbands. Isn't this a touching entry? You see hereally was honest. 'Today came home my fine Camlett cloak with goldbuttons, which cost me much money, and I pray God to make me able topay for it.'
Excuse me for being so full of Pepys; I'm writing a special topic onhim.
What do you think, Daddy? The Self-Government Association hasabolished the ten o'clock rule. We can keep our lights all night if wechoose, the only requirement being that we do not disturb others--weare not supposed to entertain on a large scale. The result is abeautiful commentary on human nature. Now that we may stay up as longas we choose, we no longer choose. Our heads begin to nod at nineo'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, hesays, not to develop our intellects at the expense of our emotionalnatures--but methought it was a poor, dry sermon (Pepys again). Itdoesn'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 onearth don't they go to men's colleges and urge the students not toallow their manly natures to be crushed out by too much mentalapplication?
It's a beautiful day--frozen and icy and clear. As soon as dinner isover, Sallie and Julia and Marty Keene and Eleanor Pratt (friends ofmine, but you don't know them) and I are going to put on short skirtsand walk 'cross country to Crystal Spring Farm and have a fried chickenand waffle supper, and then have Mr. Crystal Spring drive us home inhis buckboard. We are supposed to be inside the campus at seven, butwe 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