dear daddy-long-legs,
i hope you aren't the trustee who sat on the toad? it went off--
i was told--with quite a pop, so probably he was a fatter trustee.
do you remember the little dugout places with gratings over them
by the laundry windows in the john grier home? every spring when the
hoptoad season opened we used to form a collection of toads and keep
them in those window holes; and occasionally they would spill over
into the laundry, causing a very pleasurable commotion on wash days.
we were severely punished for our activities in this direction,
but in spite of all discouragement the toads would collect.
and one day--well, i won't bore you with particulars--but somehow,
one of the fattest, biggest, juciest toads got into one of those
big leather arm chairs in the trustees' room, and that afternoon
at the trustees' meeting--but i dare say you were there and recall
the rest?
looking back dispassionately after a period of time, i will say
that punishment was merited, and--if i remember rightly--adequate.
i don't know why i am in such a reminiscent mood except that
spring and the reappearance of toads always awakens the old
acquisitive instinct. the only thing that keeps me from starting
a collection is the fact that no rule exists against it.
after chapel, thursday
what do you think is my favourite book? just now, i mean; i change
every three days. wuthering heights. emily bronte was quite young
when she wrote it, and had never been outside of haworth churchyard.
she had never known any men in her life; how could she imagine a man
like heathcliffe?
i couldn't do it, and i'm quite young and never outside the john
grier asylum--i've had every chance in the world. sometimes a
dreadful fear comes over me that i'm not a genius. will you be
awfully disappointed, daddy, if i don't turn out to be a great author?
in the spring when everything is so beautiful and green and budding,
i feel like turning my back on lessons, and running away to play with
the weather. there are such lots of adventures out in the fields!
it's much more entertaining to live books than to write them.
ow ! ! ! ! ! !
that was a shriek which brought sallie and julia and (for a
disgusted moment) the senior from across the hall. it was caused
by a centipede like this: only worse. just as i had finished the
last sentence and was thinking what to say next--plump!--it fell off
the ceiling and landed at my side. i tipped two cups off the tea
table in trying to get away. sallie whacked it with the back of my
hair brush--which i shall never be able to use again--and killed
the front end, but the rear fifty feet ran under the bureau and escaped.
this dormitory, owing to its age and ivy-covered walls, is full
of centipedes. they are dreadful creatures. i'd rather find
a tiger under the bed.
friday, 9.30 p.m.
such a lot of troubles! i didn't hear the rising bell this morning,
then i broke my shoestring while i was hurrying to dress and
dropped my collar button down my neck. i was late for breakfast
and also for first-hour recitation. i forgot to take any blotting
paper and my fountain pen leaked. in trigonometry the professor
and i had a disagreement touching a little matter of logarithms.
on looking it up, i find that she was right. we had mutton stew
and pie-plant for lunch--hate 'em both; they taste like the asylum.
the post brought me nothing but bills (though i must say that i
never do get anything else; my family are not the kind that write).
in english class this afternoon we had an unexpected written lesson.
this was it:
i asked no other thing,
no other was denied.
i offered being for it;
the mighty merchant smiled.
brazil? he twirled a button
without a glance my way:
but, madam, is there nothing else
that we can show today?
that is a poem. i don't know who wrote it or what it means. it
was simply printed out on the blackboard when we arrived and we
were ordered to comment upon it. when i read the first verse
i thought i had an idea--the mighty merchant was a divinity
who distributes blessings in return for virtuous deeds--
but when i got to the second verse and found him twirling a button,
it seemed a blasphemous supposition, and i hastily changed my mind.
the rest of the class was in the same predicament; and there we
sat for three-quarters of an hour with blank paper and equally
blank minds. getting an education is an awfully wearing process!
but this didn't end the day. there's worse to come.
it rained so we couldn't play golf, but had to go to gymnasium instead.
the girl next to me banged my elbow with an indian club. i got
home to find that the box with my new blue spring dress had come,
and the skirt was so tight that i couldn't sit down. friday is
sweeping day, and the maid had mixed all the papers on my desk.
we had tombstone for dessert (milk and gelatin flavoured with vanilla).
we were kept in chapel twenty minutes later than usual to listen to
a speech about womanly women. and then--just as i was settling down
with a sigh of well-earned relief to the portrait of a lady, a girl
named ackerly, a dough-faced, deadly, unintermittently stupid girl,
who sits next to me in latin because her name begins with a (i
wish mrs. lippett had named me zabriski), came to ask if monday's
lesson commenced at paragraph 69 or 70, and stayed one hour.
she has just gone.
did you ever hear of such a discouraging series of events?
it isn't the big troubles in life that require character.
anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage,
but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh--i really
think that requires spirit.
it's the kind of character that i am going to develop. i am
going to pretend that all life is just a game which i must play
as skilfully and fairly as i can. if i lose, i am going to shrug
my shoulders and laugh--also if i win.
anyway, i am going to be a sport. you will never hear me
complain again, daddy dear, because julia wears silk stockings
and centipedes drop off the wall.
yours ever,
judy
answer soon.
