dear daddy-long-legs,
jimmie mcbride has sent me a princeton banner as big as one end
of the room; i am very grateful to him for remembering me, but i
don't know what on earth to do with it. sallie and julia won't
let me hang it up; our room this year is furnished in red, and you
can imagine what an effect we'd have if i added orange and black.
but it's such nice, warm, thick felt, i hate to waste it.
would it be very improper to have it made into a bath robe?
my old one shrank when it was washed.
i've entirely omitted of late telling you what i am learning,
but though you might not imagine it from my letters, my time is
exclusively occupied with study. it's a very bewildering matter
to get educated in five branches at once.
`the test of true scholarship,' says chemistry professor,
`is a painstaking passion for detail.'
`be careful not to keep your eyes glued to detail,' says history
professor. `stand far enough away to get a perspective of the whole.'
you can see with what nicety we have to trim our sails between
chemistry and history. i like the historical method best.
if i say that william the conqueror came over in 1492, and columbus
discovered america in 1100 or 1066 or whenever it was, that's a mere
detail that the professor overlooks. it gives a feeling of security
and restfulness to the history recitation, that is entirely lacking
in chemistry.
sixth-hour bell--i must go to the laboratory and look into a little
matter of acids and salts and alkalis. i've burned a hole as big
as a plate in the front of my chemistry apron, with hydrochloric acid.
if the theory worked, i ought to be able to neutralize that hole
with good strong ammonia, oughtn't i?
examinations next week, but who's afraid?
yours ever,
judy