Speaker 1: Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster, Part one, Blue Wednesday,
Speaker 1: The first Wednesday in every month was a perfectly awful day,
Speaker 1: a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage,
Speaker 1: and forgotten with haste. Every floor must be spotless, every
Speaker 1: chair dustless, and every bed without a wrinkle. Ninety seven
Speaker 1: squirming little orphans must be scrubbed and combed and buttoned
Speaker 1: into freshly starched ginghams, and all ninety seven reminded of
Speaker 1: their manners and told to say yes sir, no sir
Speaker 1: whenever a trusty spoke. It was a distressing time, and
Speaker 1: poor Jerusha Abbot, being the oldest orphan, had to bear
Speaker 1: the brunt of it. But this particular First Wednesday, like
Speaker 1: its predecessors, finally dragged itself to a close. Jerusha escaped
Speaker 1: from the pantry where she had been making sandwiches for
Speaker 1: the asylum's guests, and turned upstairs to accomplish her regular work.
Speaker 1: Her special care was Room F where eleven little tots
Speaker 1: from four to seven occupied eleven little cots sat in
Speaker 1: a row. Jerusha assembled her charges, straightened their rumpled frocks,
Speaker 1: wiped their noses, and started them in an orderly and
Speaker 1: willing line towards the dining room to engage themselves for
Speaker 1: a blessed half hour with bread and milk and prune pudding.
Speaker 1: Then she dropped down on the window seat and leaned
Speaker 1: throbbing temples against the cool glass. She had been on
Speaker 1: her feet since five that morning, doing everybody's bidding, Scolded
Speaker 1: and hurried by a nervous matron, missus Lippet, behind the
Speaker 1: scenes did not always maintain that calm and pompous dignity
Speaker 1: with which she faced an audience of trustees and lady visitors.
Speaker 1: Jerusha gazed out across a broad stretch of frozen lawn
Speaker 1: beyond the tall iron paling that mar marked the confines
Speaker 1: of the asylum, down undulating ridges sprinkled with country estates
Speaker 1: to the spires of the village, rising from the midst
Speaker 1: of bare trees. The day was ended quite successfully, so
Speaker 1: far as she knew. The trustees and the visiting committee
Speaker 1: had made their rounds and read the reports and drunk
Speaker 1: their tea, and now were hurrying home to their own
Speaker 1: cheerful firesides to forget their bothersome little charges for another month.
Speaker 1: Jerusha leaned forward, watching with curiosity and a touch of
Speaker 1: wistfulness the stream of carriages and automobiles that rolled out
Speaker 1: of the asylum gates. In imagination, she followed first one equipage,
Speaker 1: then another, to the big houses dotted along the hillside.
Speaker 1: She pictured herself in a fur coat and a velvet
Speaker 1: hat trimmed with feathers, leaning back in the seat and
Speaker 1: nonchalantly murmuring home to the driver. But on the door
Speaker 1: sill of her home, the picture grew blurred. Jerusha had
Speaker 1: an imagination, an imagination. Missus Lippet told her that would
Speaker 1: get her into trouble if she didn't take care. But
Speaker 1: keen as it was, it could not carry her beyond
Speaker 1: the front porches of the houses she would enter. Poor, eager,
Speaker 1: adventurous little Jerusha, in all her seventeen years, had never
Speaker 1: stepped inside an ordinary house. She could not picture the
Speaker 1: daily routine of those other human beings who carried on
Speaker 1: their lives undiscommoded by orphans. Jerusha, Abbit, you are wanted
Speaker 1: in the office, and I think you'd better hurry up.
Speaker 1: Tommy Dylan, who had joined the choir, came singing up
Speaker 1: the stairs and down the corridor, his chant growing louder
Speaker 1: as he approached room f Jerusha wrenched herself from the
Speaker 1: window and refaced the troubles of life. Who wants me?
Speaker 1: She cut into Tommy's chant with a note of sharp anxiety.
Speaker 1: Missus lippet in the office, and I think she's mad
Speaker 1: ah Man. Tommy pie intoned, but his accent was not
Speaker 1: entirely malicious. Even the most hardened little orphan felt sympathy
Speaker 1: for an erring sister who was summoned to the office
Speaker 1: to face an annoyed matron. And Tommy liked Jerusha, even
Speaker 1: if she did sometimes jerk him by the arm and
Speaker 1: nearly scrub his nose off. Jerusha went without comment, but
Speaker 1: with two parallel lines on her brow. What could have
Speaker 1: gone wrong? She wondered? Were the sandwiches not thin enough?
Speaker 1: Were there shells in the nutcakes? Had a lady visitor
Speaker 1: seen the hole in Susie Hawthorne's stocking? Had oh horrors?
Speaker 1: One of the cherubic little babies in her own room
Speaker 1: f sauced a trustee. The long lower hall had not
Speaker 1: been lighted, and as she came downstairs, a last trustee
Speaker 1: stood on the point of departure in the open door
Speaker 1: that led to the porte cochere. Jerusha caught only a
Speaker 1: fleeting impression of the man, and the impression consisted entirely
Speaker 1: of tallness. He was waving his arm towards an automobile
Speaker 1: waiting in the curved drive as it sprang into motion
Speaker 1: and approached head on. For an instant, the glaring headlights
Speaker 1: threw his shadow sharply against the wall. Inside the shadow
Speaker 1: pictured grotesquely elongated legs and arms that ran along the
Speaker 1: floor and up the wall of the corridor. It looked,
Speaker 1: for all the world like a huge, wavering daddy long legs.
Speaker 1: Jerusha's anxious frown gave place to quick laughter. She was
Speaker 1: by nature a sunny soul and had always snatched the
Speaker 1: tiniest excuse to be amused. If one could derive any
Speaker 1: sort of entertainment out of the oppressive fact of a trustee,
Speaker 1: it was something unexpected to the good. She advanced to
Speaker 1: the office, quite cheered by the tiny episode, and presented
Speaker 1: a smiling face to missus Lippett. To her surprise, the
Speaker 1: matron was also, if not exactly smiling, at least appreciably affable.
Speaker 1: She wore an expression almost as pleasant as the one
Speaker 1: she donned for visitors. Sit down, Jerusha, I have something
Speaker 1: to say to you. Jerusha dropped into the nearest chair
Speaker 1: and waited with a touch of breathlessness. An automobile flashed
Speaker 1: past the window. Missus Lippett glanced after it. Did you
Speaker 1: notice the gentleman who has just gone? I saw his back.
Speaker 1: He is one of our most affluential trustees and has
Speaker 1: given large sums of money towards the asylum's support. I
Speaker 1: am not at liberty to mention his name. He expressly
Speaker 1: stipulated that he was to remain unknown. Jerushe's eyes widened slightly.
Speaker 1: She was not accustomed to being summoned to the office
Speaker 1: to discuss the eccentricities of trustees with the matron. This
Speaker 1: gentleman has taken an interest in several of our boys.
Speaker 1: You remember Charles Benton and Henry Freese. They were both
Speaker 1: sent through college by mister this trustee, and both have repaid,
Speaker 1: with hard working success the money that was so generously
Speaker 1: expended mother payment. The gentleman does not wish Heretofore, his
Speaker 1: philanthropies have been directed solely toward the boys. I have
Speaker 1: never been able to interest him in the slightest degree
Speaker 1: in any of the girls in the institution, No matter
Speaker 1: how deserving. He does not I may tell you care
Speaker 1: for girls. No, ma'am, Jerushem murmured, since some replies seemed
Speaker 1: to be expected at this point. Today, at the regular meeting,
Speaker 1: the question of your future was brought up. Missus Lippett
Speaker 1: allowed a moment of silence to fall, then resumed in
Speaker 1: a slow, placid manner, extremely trying to her hearers suddenly
Speaker 1: tightened nerves. Usually, as you know, the children are not
Speaker 1: kept after they are sixteen. But an exception was made
Speaker 1: in your case. You had finished our school at fourteen,
Speaker 1: and having done so well in your studies, not always,
Speaker 1: I must say, in your conduct, it was determined to
Speaker 1: let you go on in the village high school. Now
Speaker 1: you are finished that, and of course the asylum cannot
Speaker 1: be responsible any longer for your support. As it is,
Speaker 1: you have had two years more than most. Missus Lippett
Speaker 1: overlooked the fact that Jerusha had worked hard for her
Speaker 1: board during those two years, that the convenience of the
Speaker 1: asylum had come first and her education second, that on
Speaker 1: days like the present, she was kept at home to scrub.
Speaker 1: As I say, the question of your future was brought up,
Speaker 1: and your record was discussed thoroughly discussed. Missus Lippet brought
Speaker 1: accusing eyes to bear upon the prisoner in the dock,
Speaker 1: and the prisoner looked guilty because it seemed to be expected,
Speaker 1: not because she could remember any strikingly black pages in
Speaker 1: her record. Of course, the usual disposition of one in
Speaker 1: your place would be to put you in a position
Speaker 1: where you could begin to work. But you have done
Speaker 1: well in school in certain branches. It seems that your
Speaker 1: work in English has even been brilliant. Miss Pritchard, who
Speaker 1: is on our visiting committee, is also on the school.
Speaker 1: She has been talking with your rhetoric teacher and made
Speaker 1: a speech in your favor. She also read aloud an
Speaker 1: essay that you had written, entitled Blue Wednesday. Jerusha's guilty
Speaker 1: expression this time was not assumed. It seemed to me
Speaker 1: that you showed little gratitude in holding up to ridicule
Speaker 1: the institution that has done so much for you. Had
Speaker 1: you not managed to be funny, I doubt if you
Speaker 1: would have been forgiven. But fortunately for you, mister that is,
Speaker 1: the gentleman who has just gone appears to have an
Speaker 1: immoderate sense of humor. On the strength of that impertinent
Speaker 1: paper he has offered to send you to college. To college.
Speaker 1: Jerusha's eyes grew big. Missus Lippett nodded. He waited to
Speaker 1: discuss the terms with me. They are unusual. The gentleman,
Speaker 1: i may say, is erratic. He believes that you have
Speaker 1: originality and he is planning to educate you to become
Speaker 1: a writer. A writer. Jerus's mind was numbed. She could
Speaker 1: only repeat Missus Lippet's words. That is his wish. Whether
Speaker 1: anything will come of it, the future will show. He
Speaker 1: is giving you a very liberal allowance, almost for a
Speaker 1: girl who had never had any experience and take care
Speaker 1: of money. Too liberal. But he planned the matter in detail,
Speaker 1: and I did not feel free to make any suggestions.
Speaker 1: You are to remain here through the summer, and Miss
Speaker 1: Pritchard has kindly offered to superintend your outfit. Your board
Speaker 1: and tuition will be paid directly to the college, and
Speaker 1: you will receive, in addition, during the four years you
Speaker 1: were there, an allowance of thirty five dollars a month.
Speaker 1: This will enable you to enter on the same standing
Speaker 1: as the other students. The money will be sent to
Speaker 1: you by the Gentleman's private secretary once a month, and
Speaker 1: in return you will write a letter of acknowledgment once
Speaker 1: a month. That is, you are not to thank him
Speaker 1: for the money. He doesn't care to have that mentioned.
Speaker 1: But you are to write a letter telling of the
Speaker 1: progress in your studies and the details of your daily life,
Speaker 1: just such a letter as you would write to your
Speaker 1: parents if they were living. These letters will be addressed
Speaker 1: to mister John Smith and will be sent in care
Speaker 1: of the Secretary. The gentleman's name is not John Smith,
Speaker 1: but he prefers to remain unknown to you. He will
Speaker 1: never be anything but John Smith. His reason in requiring
Speaker 1: the letters is that he thinks nothing so foster's facility
Speaker 1: in literary expression as letter writing. Since you have no
Speaker 1: family with whom to correspond, he desires you to write
Speaker 1: in this way. Also he wishes to keep track of
Speaker 1: your progress. He will never answer your letters, nor in
Speaker 1: the slightest particular, take any notice of them. He detests
Speaker 1: letter writing and does not wish you to become a burden.
Speaker 1: If any point should ever arise where an answer would
Speaker 1: seem to be imperative, such as in the event of
Speaker 1: your being expelled, which I trust will not occur, you
Speaker 1: may correspond with mister Griggs, his secretary. These monthly letters
Speaker 1: are absolutely obligatory on your part. They are the only
Speaker 1: payment that mister Smith requires, so you must be as
Speaker 1: punctilious in sending them as though it were a bill
Speaker 1: that you were paying. I hope that they will always
Speaker 1: be respectful in tone and will reflect credit on your training.
Speaker 1: You must remember that you are writing to a trustee
Speaker 1: of the John Greerholm Jerushe's eyes longingly sought the door.
Speaker 1: Her head was in a whirl of excitement, and she
Speaker 1: wished only to escape from Missus Lippet's platitudes and think.
Speaker 1: She rose and took a tentative step backwards. Missus Lippett
Speaker 1: detained her with his gesture. It was an oratorical opportunity
Speaker 1: not to be slighted. I trust that you are properly
Speaker 1: grateful for this very rare good fortune that has befallen you.
Speaker 1: Not many girls in your position ever have such an
Speaker 1: opportunity to rise in the world. You must always remember, ay, yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: thank you. I think if that's all, I must go
Speaker 1: and sew a patch on Freddy Perkins's trousers. The door
Speaker 1: closed behind her, and Missus Lippett watched it with dropped
Speaker 1: jaw her preorientation in mid air. End of Part one,
Speaker 1: Part two, The Letters of Miss Jerusha Abbot to mister
Speaker 1: Daddy Longlegs Smith, two fifteen, Ferguson Hall, twenty fourth September.
Speaker 1: Dear kind trustee who sends orphans to college. Here I am.
Speaker 1: I traveled yesterday for four hours in a train. It's
Speaker 1: a funny sensation, isn't it. I never wrote in one before.
Speaker 1: College is the biggest, most bewildering place I get lost
Speaker 1: whenever I leave my room. I will write you a
Speaker 1: description later, when I'm feeling less muddled. Also, I will
Speaker 1: tell you about my lessons. Classes don't begin until Monday morning,
Speaker 1: and this is Saturday night, but I wanted to write
Speaker 1: a letter first, just to get acquainted. It seems queer
Speaker 1: to be writing letters to somebody you don't know. It
Speaker 1: seems queer for me to be writing letters at all.
Speaker 1: I've never written more than three or four in my life,
Speaker 1: so please overlook it if these are not a model kind.
Speaker 1: Before leaving yesterday morning, missus Lippett and I had a
Speaker 1: very serious talk. She told me how to behave all
Speaker 1: the rest of my life, and especially how to behave
Speaker 1: towards the kind gentleman who is doing so much for me.
Speaker 1: I must take care to be very respectful. But how
Speaker 1: can one be very respectful to a person who wishes
Speaker 1: to be called John Smith? Why couldn't you have picked
Speaker 1: a name with a little personality. I might as well
Speaker 1: write letters to dear hitching Post or dear clothes prop.
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about you a great deal this summer.
Speaker 1: Having somebody taken interest in me after all these years
Speaker 1: makes me feel as though I have found a sort
Speaker 1: of family. It seems as though I belonged to somebody now,
Speaker 1: and it's a very comfortable sensation. I must say, however,
Speaker 1: that when I think about you, my imagination has very
Speaker 1: little to work upon. There are just three things that
Speaker 1: I know. One you are tall, Two you are rich.
Speaker 1: Three you hate girls. I suppose I might call you
Speaker 1: dear mister girl hater, only that's rather insulting to me,
Speaker 1: or dear mister rich man. But that's insulting to you
Speaker 1: as though money were the only important thing about you.
Speaker 1: Besides being rich is such a very external quality. Maybe
Speaker 1: you won't stay rich all your life. Lots of very
Speaker 1: clever men get smashed up in Wall Street. But at
Speaker 1: least you will stay tall all your life. So I've
Speaker 1: decided to call you Daddy long Legs. I hope you
Speaker 1: won't mind. It's just a private pet name. We won't
Speaker 1: tell missus Lippett. The ten o'clock bell is going to
Speaker 1: ring in two minutes. Our day is divided into sections
Speaker 1: by bells. We eat and sleep and study by bells.
Speaker 1: It's very enlivening. I feel like a fire horse all
Speaker 1: the time there. It goes lights out, good night. Observe
Speaker 1: with what precision. I obey rules due to my training
Speaker 1: in the John Greer Home. Yours very respectfully, Jerusha Abbot
Speaker 1: to mister Daddy long Lake Smith, first October, Dear Daddy
Speaker 1: long Lakes, I love college, and I love you for
Speaker 1: sending me. I'm very, very happy, and so excited every
Speaker 1: moment of the time that I can scarcely sleep. You
Speaker 1: can't imagine how different it is from the John Greer Home.
Speaker 1: I never dreamed there was such a place in the world.
Speaker 1: I'm feeling sorry for everybody who isn't a girl and
Speaker 1: who can't come here. I am sure the college you
Speaker 1: attended when you were a boy couldn't have been so nice.
Speaker 1: My room is up in a tower that used to
Speaker 1: be the Contagious Ward before they built the new infirmary.
Speaker 1: There are three other girls on the same floor of
Speaker 1: the tower, a senior who wears spectacles and is always
Speaker 1: asking us pleased to be a little more quiet, and
Speaker 1: two freshmen named Ally mc bride and Julia Rutledge Pendleton.
Speaker 1: Sally has red hair and a turned up nose and
Speaker 1: is quite friendly. Julia comes from one of the first
Speaker 1: families in New York and hasn't noticed me yet. They
Speaker 1: room together, and the senior and I have singles. Usually
Speaker 1: freshmen can't get singles, they are very scarce, but I
Speaker 1: got one without even asking. I suppose the registrar didn't
Speaker 1: think it would be right to ask a properly brought
Speaker 1: up girl to room with a foundling. You see, there
Speaker 1: are advantages. My room is on the northwest corner, with
Speaker 1: two windows and a view. After you've lived in a
Speaker 1: ward for eighteen years with twenty room mates, it is
Speaker 1: RESTful to be alone. This is the first chance I've
Speaker 1: ever had to get acquainted with Jerusha Abbott. I think
Speaker 1: I'm going to like her. Do you think you are? Tuesday,
Speaker 1: they are organizing the freshman basketball team, and there's just
Speaker 1: a chance that I shall get in it. I am little,
Speaker 1: of course, but terribly quick and wiry and tough. While
Speaker 1: the others are hopping about in the air, I can
Speaker 1: dodge under their feet and grab the ball. It's loads
Speaker 1: of fun practicing out in the athletic field in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: with the trees all red and yellow, and the air
Speaker 1: full of the smell of burning leaves, and everybody laughing
Speaker 1: and shouting. These are the happiest girls I ever saw,
Speaker 1: and I am the happiest of all. I meant to
Speaker 1: write a long letter and tell you all the things
Speaker 1: I'm learning. Missus Lippett said, you wanted to know, But
Speaker 1: seventh hour has just rung, and in ten minutes I'm
Speaker 1: due with athletic field and gymnasium clothes. Don't you hope
Speaker 1: I'll get in the team? Yours always, Jerusha Abbot p s.
Speaker 1: Nine o'clock. SALLYE mac bride just poked her head in
Speaker 1: at my door. This is what she said. I am
Speaker 1: so homesick that I simply can't stand it. Do you
Speaker 1: feel that way? I smiled a little and said no,
Speaker 1: I thought I could pull through at least homesickness is
Speaker 1: one disease that I've escaped. I never heard of anybody
Speaker 1: being asylum sick. Did you tenth October? Dear Daddy longlegs,
Speaker 1: Did you ever hear of Michael Angelo? He was a
Speaker 1: famous artist who lived in Italy in the Middle Ages.
Speaker 1: Everybody in English literature seemed to know about him, and
Speaker 1: the whole class laughed because I thought he was an archangel.
Speaker 1: He sounds like an archangel, doesn't he. The trouble with
Speaker 1: college is that you are expected to know such a
Speaker 1: lot of things you've never learned. It's very embarrassing at times.
Speaker 1: But now when the girls talk about things that I
Speaker 1: have never heard of, I just keep still and look
Speaker 1: them up in the encyclopedia. I made an awful mistake
Speaker 1: the first day. Somebody mentioned Maurice Materlink, and I asked
Speaker 1: if she was a freshman. That joke has gone all
Speaker 1: over college. But anyway, I'm just as bright in glass
Speaker 1: as any of the others, brighter than some of them.
Speaker 1: Do you care to know how I've furnished my room.
Speaker 1: It's a symphony in brown and yellow. The wall was
Speaker 1: tinted buff, and I've bought yellow denim curtains and cushions,
Speaker 1: and a mahogany desk second hand for three dollars, and
Speaker 1: a ratan chair and a brown rug with an ink
Speaker 1: spot in the middle. I stand the chair over the spot.
Speaker 1: The windows are high up. You can't look out from
Speaker 1: an ordinary seat, but I unscrewed the looking glass from
Speaker 1: the back of the bureau, upholstered the top and moved
Speaker 1: it up against the window. It's just the right height
Speaker 1: for a window seat. You pull out the drawers like
Speaker 1: steps and walk up very comfortable. Sallie mc bride helped
Speaker 1: me choose the things at the Senior auction. She has
Speaker 1: lived in a house all her life and knows about furnishing.
Speaker 1: You can't imagine what fun it is to shop and
Speaker 1: pay with a real five dollar bill and get some
Speaker 1: change when you've never had more than a few cents
Speaker 1: in your life. I assure you, Daddy, dear, I do
Speaker 1: appreciate that allowance. Sally is the most entertaining person in
Speaker 1: the world, and Julia Ruttledge Pendleton the least. So it's
Speaker 1: queer what a mixture the registrar can make in the
Speaker 1: matter of roommates. Sallly thinks everything is funny even flunking.
Speaker 1: And Julia is bored at everything. She never makes the
Speaker 1: slightest effort to be amiable. She believes that if you
Speaker 1: are a Pendleton, that fact alone admits you to Heaven
Speaker 1: without any further examination. Julia and I were born to
Speaker 1: be enemies. And now I suppose you've been waiting very
Speaker 1: impatiently to hear what I am learning. One Latin second
Speaker 1: Punic War. Hannibal and his forces pitched camp at Lake Tresimeneus.
Speaker 1: Last night. They prepared an ambuscade for the Romans, and
Speaker 1: a battle took place at the fourth watch. This morning,
Speaker 1: Romans in retreat. Two French twenty four pages of the
Speaker 1: Three Musketeers and third conjunction irregular verbs. Three Geometry finished cylinders,
Speaker 1: now doing cones. Four English studying exposition. My style improves
Speaker 1: daily in clearness and brevity. Five Physiology reached the digestive
Speaker 1: system bile and the pancreas. Next time, yours on the
Speaker 1: way to being educated. Jerusha Abbot p s. I hope
Speaker 1: you never touch alcohol, Daddy, it does dreadful things to
Speaker 1: your liver. Wednesday, Dear Daddy, longlegs. I've changed my name.
Speaker 1: I'm still Jerusha in the catalog, but I'm Judy everywhere else.
Speaker 1: It's really too bad, isn't it. They have to give
Speaker 1: yourself the only pet name you ever had. I didn't
Speaker 1: make up the Judy though. That's what Freddy Perkins used
Speaker 1: to call me before he could talk plainly. I wish
Speaker 1: missus Lippett would use a little more ingenuity about choosing
Speaker 1: baby names. She gets the last names out of the
Speaker 1: telephone book. You'll find Abbot on the first page, and
Speaker 1: she picks the Christian names up anywhere. She got Jerusha
Speaker 1: from a tombstone. I've always hated it, but I rather
Speaker 1: like Judy. It's such a silly name. It belongs to
Speaker 1: the kind of girl. I'm not, a sweet, little blue
Speaker 1: eyed thing, petted and spoiled by all the family, who
Speaker 1: romps her way through life without any cares. Wouldn't it
Speaker 1: be nice to be like that? Whatever fault I may have,
Speaker 1: no one can ever accuse me of having been spoiled
Speaker 1: by my family, but it's great fun to pretend I've been.
Speaker 1: In the future, please always address me as Judy. Do
Speaker 1: you want to know something? I have three pairs of
Speaker 1: kid gloves. I've had kid mittens before from the Christmas tree,
Speaker 1: but never real kid gloves with five fingers. I take
Speaker 1: them out and try them on every little while. It's
Speaker 1: all I can do not to wear them to glasses, dinner, bell,
Speaker 1: goodbye Friday. What do you think? Daddy? The English instructor
Speaker 1: said that my last paper shows an unusual amount of originality?
Speaker 1: She did, truly, those were her words. It doesn't seem possible,
Speaker 1: does it, considering the eighteen years of training that I've had.
Speaker 1: The aim of the John Greer Holme, as you doubtless
Speaker 1: know and heartily approve of, is to turn the ninety
Speaker 1: seven orphans into ninety seven twins. The unusual artistic ability
Speaker 1: which I exhibit was developed at an early age through
Speaker 1: drawing chalk pictures of Missus Lippett on the woodshed door.
Speaker 1: I hope that I don't hurt your feelings when I
Speaker 1: criticize the home of my youth. But you have the
Speaker 1: upper hand, you know, for if I become too impertinent,
Speaker 1: you can always stop payment of your checks. That isn't
Speaker 1: a very polite thing to say. But you can't expect
Speaker 1: me to have any manners. A found le An asylum
Speaker 1: isn't a young lady's finishing school, You know, Daddy, It
Speaker 1: isn't the work that is going to be hard in college.
Speaker 1: It's the play. Half the time, I don't know what
Speaker 1: the girls are talking about. Their jokes seem to relate
Speaker 1: to a past that every one but me has shared.
Speaker 1: I'm a foreigner in the world and I don't understand
Speaker 1: the language. It's a miserable feeling. I've had it all
Speaker 1: my life. At the high school, the girls would stand
Speaker 1: in groups and just look at me. I was queer
Speaker 1: and different, and everybody knew it. I could feel John
Speaker 1: Greer Home written on my face, And when a few
Speaker 1: charitable ones would make a point of coming up and
Speaker 1: saying something polite, I hated every one of them, the
Speaker 1: charitable ones most of all. Nobody here knows that I
Speaker 1: was brought up in an asylum. I old Sallie McBride
Speaker 1: that my father and mother were dead, and that a kind,
Speaker 1: old gentleman was sending me to college, which is entirely
Speaker 1: true so far as it goes. I don't want you
Speaker 1: to think I'm a coward, but I do want to
Speaker 1: be like the other girls, and that dreadful home looming
Speaker 1: over my childhood is the one great, big difference if
Speaker 1: I can turn my back on that and shut out
Speaker 1: the remembrance, I think I might be just as desirable
Speaker 1: as any other girl. I don't believe there's any real
Speaker 1: underneath difference, do you anyway? Sallie McBride likes me? Yours ever?
Speaker 1: Judy Abbott, Nay Jerusha Saturday morning. I've just been reading
Speaker 1: this letter over and it sounds pretty uncheerful. But can't
Speaker 1: you guess that I have a special topic do Monday morning,
Speaker 1: and a review in geometry and a very sneezy cold Sunday.
Speaker 1: I forgot to post this yesterday, so I will add
Speaker 1: an indignant post grip. We had a bishop this morning,
Speaker 1: and what do you think he said? The most beneficent
Speaker 1: promise made us in the Bible?
Speaker 2: Is this?
Speaker 1: The poor ye have always with you. They were put
Speaker 1: here in order to keep us charitable. The poor please
Speaker 1: observe being a sort of useful domestic animal. If I
Speaker 1: hadn't grown into such a perfect lady, I should have
Speaker 1: gone up after service and told him what I thought.
Speaker 1: Twenty fifth October, Dear Daddy long Legs, I'm in the
Speaker 1: basketball team and you ought to see the bruise on
Speaker 1: my left shoulder. It's blue and mahogany with little streaks
Speaker 1: of orange. Julia Pendleton tried for the team, but she
Speaker 1: didn't get in.
Speaker 2: Hooray.
Speaker 1: You see what a mean disposition I have. College gets
Speaker 1: nicer and nicer. I like the girls and the teachers,
Speaker 1: and the classes in the campus and the things to eat.
Speaker 1: We have ice cream twice a week and we never
Speaker 1: have cornmeal mush. You only wanted to hear from me
Speaker 1: once a month, didn't you, And I've been peppering you
Speaker 1: with letters every few days. But I've been so excited
Speaker 1: about all these new adventures that I must talk to somebody,
Speaker 1: and you're the only one I know. Please excuse my exuberance.
Speaker 1: I'll settle pretty soon. If my letters bore you, you
Speaker 1: can always toss them into the waste basket. I promise
Speaker 1: not to write another till the middle of November. Yours,
Speaker 1: most loquaciously, Judy Abbott, fifteenth November. Dear Daddy long legs,
Speaker 1: listen to what I've learned today. The area of the
Speaker 1: convex surface of this frustum of a regular pyramid is
Speaker 1: half the product of the sum of the perimeters of
Speaker 1: its bases by the altitude of either of its trapezoids.
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound true, but it is. I can prove it.
Speaker 1: You've never heard about my clothes, have you, Daddy, six dresses,
Speaker 1: all new and beautiful and bought for me, handed down
Speaker 1: from somebody bigger. Perhaps you don't realize what a climax
Speaker 1: that makes in the career of an Orthan. You gave
Speaker 1: them to me, and I am very, very, very much obliged.
Speaker 1: It's a fine thing to be educated, but nothing compared
Speaker 1: to the dizzying experience of owning six new dresses. Miss Pritchard,
Speaker 1: who is on the visiting committee, picked them out, not
Speaker 1: Miss Lippett, Thank goodness. I have an evening dress pink
Speaker 1: mul over silk. I'm perfectly beautiful in that, and a
Speaker 1: blue church dress, and a dinner dress of red veiling
Speaker 1: with oriental trimming makes me look like a gypsy. And
Speaker 1: another of rose colored shalli and a gray street suit,
Speaker 1: and an every day dress for classes. That wouldn't be
Speaker 1: an awfully big wardrobe for Julia Rutledge Pendleton perhaps, but
Speaker 1: for Jerusha Abbot. Oh my, I suppose you're thinking now what.
Speaker 2: A frivolous, shallow little.
Speaker 1: Beast she is, and what a waste of money to
Speaker 1: educate a girl. But Daddy, if you'd been dressed in
Speaker 1: checked Ginghams all your life, you'd appreciate how I feel.
Speaker 1: And when I started in the high school, I entered
Speaker 1: upon another period even worse than the checked Gingham's, the
Speaker 1: poor box. You can't know how I dreaded appearing in
Speaker 1: school in those miserable poor box dresses. I was perfectly
Speaker 1: sure to be put down in class next to the
Speaker 1: girl who first owned my dress, and she would whisper
Speaker 1: and giggle and point it out to the others. The
Speaker 1: bitterness of wearing your enemies cast off clothes eats into
Speaker 1: your soul. If I wore silk stockings for the rest
Speaker 1: of my life, I don't believe I could obliterate the
Speaker 1: scar Latest war bulletin news from the scene of action
Speaker 1: at the Fourth Watch on Thursday the thirteenth of November,
Speaker 1: Hannibal routed the advance guard of the Romans and led
Speaker 1: the Carthaginian forces over the mountains into the plains of Casilinum.
Speaker 1: A cohort of light armed Numidians engaged the infantry of
Speaker 1: Quintus Fabus Maximus two battles and light skirmishing Romans repulsed
Speaker 1: with heavy losses. I have the honor of being your
Speaker 1: special correspondent from the front j abbott p S. I
Speaker 1: know I'm not to expect any letters in return, and
Speaker 1: I've been warned not to bother you with questions, But
Speaker 1: tell me, Daddy, just this once. Are you awfully old
Speaker 1: or just a little old? And are you perfectly bald
Speaker 1: or just a little bald? It is very difficult thinking
Speaker 1: about you in the abstract, like a theorem in geometry.
Speaker 1: Given a tall rich man who hates girls but is
Speaker 1: very generous to one quite impertinent girl, what does he
Speaker 1: look like? R? S v P. Nineteenth December. Dear Daddy
Speaker 1: long Legs, you never answered my question, and it was
Speaker 1: very important. Are you bald? I have it planned exactly
Speaker 1: what you look like, very satisfactorily until I reach the
Speaker 1: top of your head, and then I am stuck. I
Speaker 1: can't decide whether you have white hair or black hair,
Speaker 1: or sort of sprinkling gray hair, or maybe none at all.
Speaker 1: Here is your portrait, but the problem is shall I
Speaker 1: add some hair? Would you like to know what color
Speaker 1: your eyes are? They're gray and your eyebrows stick out
Speaker 1: like a porch roof. Beetling, they're called in novels. And
Speaker 1: your mouth is a straight line with a tendency to
Speaker 1: turn down at the corners. Oh you see, I know
Speaker 1: you're a snappy old thing with a temper. Chapel Bell,
Speaker 1: nine forty five PM. I have a new unbreakable rule. Never,
Speaker 1: never to study at night, no matter how many written
Speaker 1: reviews are coming in the morning. Instead, I read just
Speaker 1: plain books. I have to, you know, because there are
Speaker 1: eighteen blank years behind me. You wouldn't believe, Daddy, what
Speaker 1: an abyss of ignorance my mind is. I am just
Speaker 1: realizing the depths myself. The things that most girls with
Speaker 1: a properly assorted family and a home and friends in
Speaker 1: a library know by absorption, I have never heard of.
Speaker 1: For example, I never read Mother Goose or David Copperfield
Speaker 1: or Ivan Hoe, or Cinderella or Bluebeard or Robinson Crusoe
Speaker 1: or Jane Eyre or Alice in Wonderland or a word
Speaker 1: of Rudyard Kipling. I didn't know that Henry the eighth
Speaker 1: was married more than once, or that Shelley was a poet.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that people used to be monkeys, and
Speaker 1: that the Garden of Eden was a beautiful myth. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that r l S stood for Robert Louis Stevenson,
Speaker 1: or that George Eliot was a lady. I had never
Speaker 1: seen a picture of them ownA lissa. And it's true,
Speaker 1: but you won't believe it. I had never heard of
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes. Now I know all these things, and a
Speaker 1: lot of others besides. But you can see how much
Speaker 1: I need to catch up. And oh but it's fun.
Speaker 1: I look forward all day to evening. And then I
Speaker 1: put an engaged on the door, and get into my
Speaker 1: nice red bathrobe and furry slippers, and pile all the
Speaker 1: cushions behind me on the couch, and light the brass
Speaker 1: a student lamp at my elbow, and read and read
Speaker 1: and read. One book isn't enough. I have four going
Speaker 1: at once. Just now there are Tennyson's poems, and Vanity
Speaker 1: Fair and Kipling's Plain Tails and don't laugh Little Women.
Speaker 1: I find that I am the only girl in college
Speaker 1: who wasn't brought up on little women. I haven't told anybody,
Speaker 1: though that would stamp me as queer. I just quietly
Speaker 1: went and bought it with a dollar twelve of my
Speaker 1: last month's allowance, and the next time somebody mentions pickled limes,
Speaker 1: I'll know what she is talking about. Ten o'clock bell.
Speaker 1: This is a very interrupted letter Saturday, Sir, I have
Speaker 1: the honor to report fresh explorations in the field of geometry.
Speaker 1: On Friday last we abandoned our former works in parallela
Speaker 1: pipeds and proceeded to truncated prisms. We are finding the
Speaker 1: road rough and a very uphill Sunday. The Christmas holidays
Speaker 1: begin next week and the trunks are up. The corridors
Speaker 1: are so filled up that you can hardly get through,
Speaker 1: and everybody is so bubbling over with excitement that studying
Speaker 1: is getting left out. I'm going to have a beautiful
Speaker 1: time in vacation. There's another freshman who lives in Texas
Speaker 1: staying behind, and we are planning to take long walks
Speaker 1: and if there's any ice learned to skate, then there
Speaker 1: is still the whole library to be read and three
Speaker 1: empty weeks to do it in. Goodbye, Daddy, I hope
Speaker 1: that you are feeling as happy as I am. Yours Ever,
Speaker 1: Judy p. S. Don't forget to answer my question. If
Speaker 1: you don't want the trouble of writing, have your secretary telegraph.
Speaker 1: He can just say mister Smith is quite bald, or
Speaker 1: mister Smith is not bald, or mister Smith has white hair,
Speaker 1: and you can deduct the twenty five cents out of
Speaker 1: my allowance. Goodbye till January and a Merry Christmas. End
Speaker 1: of Part two, Part three towards the end of the
Speaker 1: Christmas vacation exact date unknown. Dear Daddy long Legs. Is
Speaker 1: it snowing where you are? All the world that I
Speaker 1: see from my tower is draped in white, and the
Speaker 1: flakes are coming down as big as popcorns. It's late afternoon.
Speaker 1: The sun is just setting a cold yellow color behind
Speaker 1: some colder violet hills, and I am up in my
Speaker 1: window seat using the last light to write to you.
Speaker 1: Your five gold pieces were surprise. I'm not used to
Speaker 1: receiving Christmas presents. You have already given me such lots
Speaker 1: of things. Everything I have. You know that I don't
Speaker 1: quite feel that I deserve extras, but I like them
Speaker 1: just the same. You want to know what I bought
Speaker 1: with my money? Number one, a silver watch in a
Speaker 1: leather case to wear on my wrist and get me
Speaker 1: to recitations in time. Number two Matthew Arnold's Poems. Number three,
Speaker 1: A hot water bottle. Number four, a steamer rug. My
Speaker 1: tower is cold. Number five. Five hundred sheets of yellow
Speaker 1: manuscript paper. I'm going to commence being an author pretty soon.
Speaker 1: Number six. A dictionary of synonyms to enlarge the author's vocabulary.
Speaker 1: Number seven. I don't much like to confess this last item,
Speaker 1: but I will. A pair of silk stockings. And now, Daddy,
Speaker 1: never say I don't tell all. It was a very
Speaker 1: low motive, if you must know it, that prompted the
Speaker 1: silk stockings. Julia Pendleton comes into my room to do geometry,
Speaker 1: and she sits cross legged on the couch and wears
Speaker 1: silk stockings every night. But just wait, as soon as
Speaker 1: she gets back from vacation, I shall go in and
Speaker 1: sit on her couch in my silk stockings. You see, Daddy.
Speaker 1: It's a miserable creature that I am. But at least
Speaker 1: I'm honest. And you knew already from my asylum record
Speaker 1: that I wasn't perfect, didn't you to recapitulate? That's the
Speaker 1: way the English instructor begins every other sentence. I am
Speaker 1: very much obliged for my seven presents. I'm pretending to
Speaker 1: myself that they came in a box from my family
Speaker 1: in California. The watch is from father, the rug from mother,
Speaker 1: the hot water bottle from grandmother, who is always worrying
Speaker 1: for fear I shall catch cold in this climate. And
Speaker 1: the yellow paper form my little brother Harry. My sister
Speaker 1: Isabelle gave me the silk stockings, and Aunt Susan the
Speaker 1: Matthew Arnold poems. Uncle Harry, little Harry is named after him,
Speaker 1: gave me the dictionary. He wanted to send chocolates, but
Speaker 1: I insisted on synonyms. You don't object, do you to
Speaker 1: playing the part of a composite family? And now shall
Speaker 1: I tell you about my vacation? Or are you only
Speaker 1: interested in my education? As such? I hope you appreciate
Speaker 1: the delicate shade of meaning in as such. It is
Speaker 1: the latest addition to my vocabulary. The girl from Texas
Speaker 1: is named Lorona Fenton. Almost as funny as Jerusha, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I like her, but not so much as Sallie McBride.
Speaker 1: I shall never like anyone so much as Sally except you.
Speaker 1: I must always like you the best of all, because
Speaker 1: you're my whole family rolled into one. Lorona and I
Speaker 1: and two sophomores have walked cross country every pleasant day
Speaker 1: and explore Lord the whole neighborhood, dressed in short skirts
Speaker 1: and nitch jackets and caps, and carrying shiny sticks to
Speaker 1: whack things with. Once we walked into town four miles
Speaker 1: and stopped at a restaurant where the college girls go
Speaker 1: for dinner broiled lobster thirty five cents and for dessert
Speaker 1: buckwheat cakes and maple syrup fifteen cents. Nourishing and cheap.
Speaker 1: It was such a lark, especially for me, because it
Speaker 1: was so awfully different from the asylum. I feel like
Speaker 1: an escaped convict every time I leave the campus. Before
Speaker 1: I thought, I started to tell the others what an
Speaker 1: experience I was having. The cat was almost out of
Speaker 1: the bag when I grabbed it by its tail and
Speaker 1: pulled it back. It's awfully hard for me not to
Speaker 1: tell everything I know. I'm a very confiding soul by nature.
Speaker 1: If I didn't have you to tell things too, I'd burst.
Speaker 1: We had a molasses candy poll last Friday evening, given
Speaker 1: by the house matron of Ferguson to the left behinds
Speaker 1: in the other halls. There were twenty two of us altogether,
Speaker 1: freshmen and sophomores, and juniors and seniors, all united in
Speaker 1: amicable accord. The kitchen is huge, with copper pots and
Speaker 1: kettles hanging in rows on the stone wall. The littlest
Speaker 1: castorle among them about the size of a wash boiler.
Speaker 1: Four hundred girls live in Ferguson the chef in a
Speaker 1: white cap and apron, fetched out twenty two other white
Speaker 1: caps and aprons. I can't imagine where he got so many,
Speaker 1: and we all turned ourselves into cooks. It was great fun,
Speaker 1: though I have seen better candy. When it was finally finished,
Speaker 1: and ourselves in the kitchen and the door knobs all
Speaker 1: thoroughly sticky, we organized a procession, and, still in our
Speaker 1: caps and aprons, each carrying a big fork or spoon
Speaker 1: or frying pan, we marched through the empty corridors to
Speaker 1: the officer's parlor, where half a dozen professors and instructors
Speaker 1: were passing a trinquill evening. We serenaded them with college
Speaker 1: songs and offered refreshments. They accepted politely but dubiously. We
Speaker 1: left them sucking chunks of molasses candy, sticky and speechless.
Speaker 1: So you see, Daddy, my education progresses. Don't you really
Speaker 1: think that I ought to be an artist instead of
Speaker 1: an author. Vacation will be over in two days, and
Speaker 1: I shall be glad to see the girls again. My
Speaker 1: tower is just a trifle lonely. When nine people occupy
Speaker 1: a house that was built for four hundred, they do
Speaker 1: rattle around a bit. Eleven pages. Poor daddy, you must
Speaker 1: be tired. I meant this to be a short, little
Speaker 1: thank you note, but when I get started, I seem
Speaker 1: to have a ready pen. Good Bye and thank you
Speaker 1: for thinking of me. I should be perfectly happy, except
Speaker 1: for one little threatening cloud on the horizon. Examinations come
Speaker 1: in February. Yours with love, Judy p. S. Maybe it
Speaker 1: isn't proper to send love. If it isn't, please excuse,
Speaker 1: but I must love somebody, and there is only you
Speaker 1: and missus Lippett to choose between. So you see, you'll
Speaker 1: have to put up with it, dear daddy, because I
Speaker 1: can can't love her on the eve. Dear Daddy long legs,
Speaker 1: you should see the way this college is studying. We've
Speaker 1: forgotten we ever had a vacation. Fifty seven irregular verbs
Speaker 1: have I introduced to my brain in the past four days.
Speaker 1: I'm only hoping they'll stay till after examinations. Some of
Speaker 1: the girls sell their textbooks when they're through with them,
Speaker 1: but I intend to keep mine. Then, after I've graduated,
Speaker 1: I shall have my whole education in a row in
Speaker 1: the bookcase, and when I need to use any detail,
Speaker 1: I can turn to it without the slightest hesitation. So
Speaker 1: much easier and more accurate than trying to keep it
Speaker 1: in your head. Julia Pendleton dropped in this evening to
Speaker 1: pay a social call and stayed a solid hour. She
Speaker 1: got started on the subject of family, and I couldn't
Speaker 1: switch her off. She wanted to know what my mother's
Speaker 1: maiden name was. Did you ever hear such an impertinent
Speaker 1: question to ask of a person from a foundling asylum.
Speaker 1: I didn't have the courage to say I didn't know,
Speaker 1: so I just miserably plumped on the first name I
Speaker 1: could think of, and that was Montgomery. Then she wanted
Speaker 1: to know whether I belonged to the Massachusetts Montgomery's or
Speaker 1: the Virginia Montgomery's. Her mother was a Rutherford. The family
Speaker 1: came over in the Ark and were connected by marriage
Speaker 1: with Henry the eighth. On her father's side. They date
Speaker 1: back further than Adam. On the topmost branches of her
Speaker 1: family tree, there's a superior breed of monkeys with very fine,
Speaker 1: silky hair and extra long tails. I meant to write
Speaker 1: you a nice, cheerful, entertaining letter tonight, but I'm too
Speaker 1: sleepy and scared. The freshman's lot is not a happy one.
Speaker 1: Yours about to be examined. Judy Abbot Sunday, Dearest Daddy
Speaker 1: long Legs. I have some awful, awful, awful news to
Speaker 1: tell you, but I won't begin with it. I'll try
Speaker 1: to get you in a good humor first. Jerusha Abbot
Speaker 1: has commenced to be an author a whom entitled from
Speaker 1: My Tower appears in the February Monthly on the first page,
Speaker 1: which is a very great honor for a freshman. My
Speaker 1: English instructor stopped me on the way out from chapel
Speaker 1: last night and said it was a charming piece of work,
Speaker 1: except for the sixth line, which had too many feet.
Speaker 1: I will send you a copy in case you care
Speaker 1: to read it. Let me see if I can think
Speaker 1: of something else pleasant.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm learning to skate and can glide about quite respectably.
Speaker 1: All by myself. Also, I've learned how to slide down
Speaker 1: a rope from the roof of the gymnasium, and I
Speaker 1: can vault a bar three feet and six inches high,
Speaker 1: I hope shortly to pull up to four feet. We
Speaker 1: had a very inspiring sermon this morning, preached by the
Speaker 1: Bishop of Alabama. His text was judge, not that ye
Speaker 1: be not judged. It was about the necessity of overlooking
Speaker 1: mistakes in others and not discouraging people by harsh judgments.
Speaker 1: I wish you might have heard it. This is the sunniest,
Speaker 1: most blinding winter afternoon, with icicles dripping from the fir trees,
Speaker 1: and all the world bending under a weight of snow
Speaker 1: except me. I'm bending under a weight of sorrow. Now
Speaker 1: for the news courage, Judy, you must tell, are you
Speaker 1: surely in a good humor? I failed in mathematics and
Speaker 1: Latin prose. I am tutoring in them and will take
Speaker 1: another examination next month. I'm sorry if you're disappointed, but
Speaker 1: otherwise I don't care a bit because I've learned such
Speaker 1: a lot of things not mentioned in the catalog. I've
Speaker 1: read seventeen novels and bushels of poetry. Really necessary novels
Speaker 1: like Vanity Fair and Richard Feverel and Alice in Wonderland,
Speaker 1: also Emerson's Essays and Lockhart's Life of Scott and the
Speaker 1: first volume of Gibson's Roman Empire, and half of ben
Speaker 1: Venudo Sellini's life. Wasn't he entertaining? He used to saunter
Speaker 1: out and casually kill a man before breakfast. So you see, Daddy,
Speaker 1: I'm much more intelligent than if i'd just stuck to Latin.
Speaker 1: Will you forgive me this once if I promise never
Speaker 1: to fail again? Yours in sackcloth, Judy, Dear Daddy long legs.
Speaker 1: This is an extra letter in the middle of the
Speaker 1: month because I'm rather lonely tonight. It's awfully stormy. All
Speaker 1: the lights are out on the campus, but I drank
Speaker 1: black coffee and I can't go to sleep. I had
Speaker 1: a supper party this evening, consisting of Sally and Julia
Speaker 1: and Leonora Fenton and sardines and toasted muffins and salad
Speaker 1: and fudge and coffee. Julia said she had a good time,
Speaker 1: but Sally stayed to help wash the dishes. I might
Speaker 1: very usefully put some time on Latin tonight, but there's
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. I'm a very languid Latin scholar.
Speaker 1: We've finished Livy and Desenectute and now engaged with d'amikitia
Speaker 1: pronounced damn akitia. Should you mind just for a little
Speaker 1: while pretending you are my grandmother? Sally has one, and
Speaker 1: Julia and Leonora each too, and they were all comparing
Speaker 1: them tonight. I can't think of anything I'd rather have.
Speaker 1: It's such a respectable relationship, So if you really don't object.
Speaker 1: When I went into town yesterday I saw the sweetest
Speaker 1: cap of clooney lace trimmed with lavender ribbon. I am
Speaker 1: going to make you a present of it on your
Speaker 1: eighty third birthday. That's the clock in the chapel tower,
Speaker 1: striking twelve. I believe I am sleepy after all. Good night, Granny,
Speaker 1: I love you, Dearly Judy the IDEs of March, Dear
Speaker 1: d LLL. I am studying Latin prose composition. I have
Speaker 1: been studying it. I shall be studying it. I shall
Speaker 1: be about to have been studying it. My re examination
Speaker 1: comes the seventh hour next Tuesday, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: pass or bust. So you may expect to hear from
Speaker 1: me next, whole and happy and free from conditions or
Speaker 1: in fragments. I will write a respectable letter when it's
Speaker 1: over to night. I have a pressing engagement with the
Speaker 1: oblative absolute. Yours, in evident haste j A. Twenty sixth March,
Speaker 1: Mister D. L. L. Smith, Sir, you never answer my questions.
Speaker 1: You never show the slightest interest in anything I do.
Speaker 1: You are probably the horridest one of all those horrid trustees.
Speaker 1: And the reason you are educating me is not because
Speaker 1: you care a bit about me, but for a sense
Speaker 1: of duty. I don't know a single thing about you.
Speaker 1: I don't even know your name. It is very uninspiring
Speaker 1: writing to a thing. I haven't a doubt but that
Speaker 1: you throw my letters into the waste basket without reading them. Hereafter,
Speaker 1: I shall write only about work. My re examinations in
Speaker 1: Latin and geometry came last week. I passed them both,
Speaker 1: and now free from conditions, yours truly, Jerusha Abbot, second April.
Speaker 1: Dear Daddy long Legs, I am a beast. Please forget
Speaker 1: about that dreadful letter I sent you last week. I
Speaker 1: was feeling terribly lonely and miserable and sore, throaty the
Speaker 1: night I wrote. I didn't know it, but I was
Speaker 1: just sickening for tonsilitis and gripe and lots of things mixed.
Speaker 1: I'm in the infirmary now and have been here for
Speaker 1: six days. This is the first time they would let
Speaker 1: me sit up and have a pen and paper. The
Speaker 1: head nurse is very bossy, but I've been thinking about
Speaker 1: it all the time, and I shan't get well until
Speaker 1: you forgive me. Here is a picture of the way
Speaker 1: I look with a bandage tied around my head in
Speaker 1: rabbit's ears. Doesn't that arouse your sympathy. I am having
Speaker 1: sublingual land swelling, and I've been studying physiology all the
Speaker 1: year without ever hearing of sublingual glands. How futile a
Speaker 1: thing is education. I can't write any more. I get
Speaker 1: rather shy when I sit up too long. Please forgive
Speaker 1: me for being impertinent and ungrateful. I was badly brought up.
Speaker 1: Yours with love, Judy Abbott, the Infirmary, fourth April, Dearest
Speaker 1: Daddy long Legs. Yesterday evening, just towards dark, when I
Speaker 1: was sitting up in bed, looking out at the rain
Speaker 1: and feeling awfully bored, with life in a great institution.
Speaker 1: The nurse appeared with a long white box addressed to
Speaker 1: me and filled with the loveliest pink rose buds and
Speaker 1: much nicer still, it contained a card with a very
Speaker 1: polite message written in a funny, little uphill backhand, but
Speaker 1: one which shows a great deal of character. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Daddy a thousand times. Your flowers make the first real,
Speaker 1: true present I ever received in my life. If you
Speaker 1: want to know what a baby I am, I lay
Speaker 1: down and cried because I was so happy. Now that
Speaker 1: I am sure you read my letters, I'll make them
Speaker 1: much more interesting so they'll be worth keeping in a
Speaker 1: safe with red tape round them. Only. Please take out
Speaker 1: that dreadful one and burn it. I'd hate to think
Speaker 1: that you ever read it.
Speaker 2: Over.
Speaker 1: Thank you for making a very sick, cross miserable freshman cheerful.
Speaker 1: Probably you have lots of loving family and friends, and
Speaker 1: you don't know what it feels like to be alone,
Speaker 1: but I do. Goodbye. I'll promise never to be horrid again,
Speaker 1: because now I know you're a real person. Also, i'll
Speaker 1: promise never to bother you with any more questions. Do
Speaker 1: you still hate girls? Yours? Forever? Judy eighth hour Monday.
Speaker 1: Dear Daddy long Legs, I hope you aren't the trustee
Speaker 1: who sat on the toad it went off, I was
Speaker 1: told with quite a pop, So probably he was a
Speaker 1: fatter trustee. Do you remember the little dugout places with
Speaker 1: gratings over them by the laundry windows in the John
Speaker 1: Greer home. Every spring when the hop toad season opened,
Speaker 1: we used to form a collection of toads and keep
Speaker 1: them in those window holes, and occasionally they would spill
Speaker 1: over into the laundry, causing a very pleasurable commotion on
Speaker 1: wash day. We were severely punished in our activities in
Speaker 1: this direction, but in spite of all the discouragement, the
Speaker 1: toads would collect, and one day, well, I won't bore
Speaker 1: you with particulars, but somehow one of the fattest, biggest,
Speaker 1: juiciest toads got into one of those big leather armchairs
Speaker 1: in the trustees room, and that afternoon the trustees meeting.
Speaker 1: But I dare say you were there and recall the rest.
Speaker 1: Looking back dispassionately after a period of time, I will
Speaker 1: say that punishment was merited, and if I remember rightly adequate,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm in such a reminiscent mood,
Speaker 1: except that spring and the reappearance of toads always awakens
Speaker 1: the old acquisitive instinct. The only thing that keeps me
Speaker 1: from starting a collection is the fact that no rule
Speaker 1: exists against it. After Chapel Thursday, What do you think
Speaker 1: is my favorite book? Just now? I mean, I change
Speaker 1: every three days? Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte was quite young
Speaker 1: when she wrote it, and had never been outside of
Speaker 1: Hailworth Churchyard. She had never known any men in her life.
Speaker 1: How could she imagine a man like Heathcliff. I couldn't
Speaker 1: do it. And I'm quite young and never outside the
Speaker 1: John Grier Asylum. I've had every chance in the world.
Speaker 1: Sometimes a dreadful fear comes over me that I'm not
Speaker 1: a genius. Will you be awfully disappointed, Daddy, if I
Speaker 1: don't turn out to be a great author. In the spring,
Speaker 1: when everything is so beautiful and green and budding, I
Speaker 1: feel like turning my back on lessons and running away
Speaker 1: to play with the weather. There are such a lot
Speaker 1: of adventures out in the fields. It's much more entertaining
Speaker 1: to live books than to write them. Ow that was
Speaker 1: a shriek, which brought Sallie and Julia, and for a
Speaker 1: disgusted moment the Senior from across the hall. It was
Speaker 1: caused by a centipede like this, only worse. Just as
Speaker 1: I had finished the last sentence and was thinking what
Speaker 1: to say next, plump it fell off the ceiling and
Speaker 1: landed at my side. I tipped two cups off the
Speaker 1: tea table in trying to get away. Sally whacked it
Speaker 1: with the back of my hair brush, which I shall
Speaker 1: never be able to use again, and killed the front end,
Speaker 1: but the rear fifty feet ran under the bureau and escaped.
Speaker 1: This dormitory, owing to its age and ivy covered walls,
Speaker 1: is full of centipedes. They are dreadful creatures. I'd rather
Speaker 1: find a tiger under the bed. Friday, nine thirty p m.
Speaker 1: Such a lot of troubles. I didn't hear the rising
Speaker 1: bell this morning. Then I broke my shoe string while
Speaker 1: I was hurrying to dress and dropped my collar button
Speaker 1: down my neck. I was late for breakfast and also
Speaker 1: for first hour recitation. I forgot to take any blotting paper,
Speaker 1: and my fountain pen leaked in trigonometry professor and I
Speaker 1: had a disagreement touching a little matter of logarithms. On
Speaker 1: looking it up, I found that she was right. We
Speaker 1: had mutton stew and pie plant for lunch. Hate them both.
Speaker 1: It tastes like the asylum. The post brought me nothing
Speaker 1: but Bill's, though I must say that I never do
Speaker 1: get anything else. My family are not the kind that
Speaker 1: write in English class. This afternoon we had an unexpected
Speaker 1: written lesson.
Speaker 2: This was it?
Speaker 1: I asked, no other thing, No other was denied. I
Speaker 1: offered being for it. The Mighty Merchant smiled Brazil. He
Speaker 1: twirled a button without a glance my way. But Madam,
Speaker 1: is there nothing else that we can show you today?
Speaker 1: That is a poem. I don't know who wrote it
Speaker 1: or what it means. It was simply printed out on
Speaker 1: the blackboard when we arrived, and we were ordered to
Speaker 1: comment upon it. When I read the first verse, I
Speaker 1: thought I had an idea. The Mighty Merchant was a
Speaker 1: divinity who distributes blessed in return for virtuous deeds. But
Speaker 1: when I got to the second verse and found him
Speaker 1: twirling a button, it seemed a blasphemous supposition, and I
Speaker 1: hastily changed my mind. The rest of the class was
Speaker 1: in the same predicament, and there we sat for three
Speaker 1: quarters of an hour with blank paper and equally blank minds.
Speaker 1: Getting an education is an awfully wearing process. But this
Speaker 1: didn't end the day. There's worse to come. It rained,
Speaker 1: so we couldn't play golf, but we had to go
Speaker 1: to gymnasium instead. The girl next to me banged my
Speaker 1: elbow with an Indian club. I got home to find
Speaker 1: that the box with my new blue Spring address had come,
Speaker 1: and the skirt was so tight that I couldn't sit down.
Speaker 1: Friday is sweeping day, and the maid had mixed all
Speaker 1: the papers on my desk. We had tombstone for dessert,
Speaker 1: milk and gelatin flavored with vanilla. We were kept in
Speaker 1: chapel twenty minutes later than usual to listen to a
Speaker 1: speech about womanly women. And then, just as I was
Speaker 1: settling down with a sigh of well earned relief, to
Speaker 1: the portrait of a lady, a girl named Ackerly, a
Speaker 1: dough faced, deadly, uninterminently stupid girl who sits next to
Speaker 1: me in Latin because her name begins with A. I
Speaker 1: wish missus Lippett had named me ZABRISKI came to ask
Speaker 1: if Monday's lesson commenced at paragraphs sixty nine or seventy
Speaker 1: and stayed one hour, she has just gone. Did you
Speaker 1: ever hear of such a discouraging series of events? It
Speaker 1: isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody
Speaker 1: can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy
Speaker 1: with courage, But to meet the petty hazards of the
Speaker 1: day with a laugh, I really think that requires spirit.
Speaker 1: It's the kind of character that I'm going to develop.
Speaker 1: I am going to pretend that all life is just
Speaker 1: a game which I must play as skillfully and fairly
Speaker 1: as I can. If I lose, I am going to
Speaker 1: shrug my shoulders and laugh. Also if I win. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I am going to be a sport. You will never
Speaker 1: hear me complain again, Daddy, Dear, because Julia wears silk
Speaker 1: stockings and centipedes drop off the wall. Yours ever, Judy
Speaker 1: answer soon. Twenty seventh May, Daddy long Legs esquire, Dear Sir,
Speaker 1: I am in receipt of a letter from Missus Lippett.
Speaker 1: She hopes that I am doing well in deportment and studies.
Speaker 1: Since I probably have no place to go this summer.
Speaker 1: She will let me come back to the asylum and
Speaker 1: work for my board until college opens. I hate the
Speaker 1: John Grier home. I'd rather die than go back yours
Speaker 1: most truthfully, Jerusha Abbott Cher Daddy, Jean blans lu etambric
Speaker 1: jesuistrehurus about the farm, parsca jeanne jenebin on a farm,
Speaker 1: don ma vie, and I'd hate to retu mer cha
Speaker 1: John Grier a wash dishes to lette. There would be
Speaker 1: danger of Calcaucho's afrouez happening. Parscaeget perdue ma hmilitae to
Speaker 1: autrefois a je pour that I would just break out
Speaker 1: calcajour a smash every cup and saucer, Don lameison, pardon
Speaker 1: breviete a paper ginnipo pas send demey Novelle parsque suis
Speaker 1: d'n french class a jet pou cou moisieur le prefaceur
Speaker 1: is going to call me on toute de suite. He
Speaker 1: did beauvoi juvou mme bouku Judy thirtieth May, Dear Daddy
Speaker 1: long legs, did you ever see this campus? This is
Speaker 1: merely a rhetorical question. Don't let it annoy you. It
Speaker 1: is a heavenly spot in May. All the shrubs are
Speaker 1: in blossom, and the trees are the loveliest, young green.
Speaker 1: Even the old pines look fresh and new. The grass
Speaker 1: is dotted with yellow dandelions, and hundreds of girls in
Speaker 1: blue and white and pink dresses. Everybody joyous and carefree
Speaker 1: for vacations coming, and with that to look forward to
Speaker 1: examinations don't count. Isn't that a happy frame of mind
Speaker 1: to be in? And oh daddy, I'm the happiest of
Speaker 1: all because I'm not in the asylum anymore. And I'm
Speaker 1: not anybody's nursemaid or typewriter or bookkeeper. I should have been,
Speaker 1: you know, except for you. I'm sorry now for all
Speaker 1: my past badnesses. I'm sorry I was ever impertinent to
Speaker 1: missus Lippet. I'm sorry I ever slapped Freddie Perkins. I'm
Speaker 1: sorry I ever filled the sugar.
Speaker 2: Bowl with salt.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I ever made faces behind the trustees' backs.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be good and sweet and kind to
Speaker 1: everybody because I'm so happy, and this summer I'm going
Speaker 1: to write and write and write and begin to be
Speaker 1: a great author. Isn't that an exalted stand to take. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm developing a beautiful character. It droops a bit under
Speaker 1: cold and frost, but it does grow fast when the
Speaker 1: sunsh shines. That's the way with everybody. I don't agree
Speaker 1: with the theory that adversity and sorrow and disappointment develop
Speaker 1: moral strength. The happy people are the ones who are
Speaker 1: bubbling over with kindliness. I have no faith in misanthropies.
Speaker 1: Fine word, just learned it. You are not a misanthropy,
Speaker 1: are you, Daddy? I started to tell you about the campus.
Speaker 1: I wish you'd come for a little visit and let
Speaker 1: me walk you about and say, that is the library.
Speaker 1: This is the gas plant, daddy, dear. The gothic building
Speaker 1: on your left is the Gymnasium, and the Tudor Romanesque
Speaker 1: beside it is the new infirmary. Oh, I'm fine at
Speaker 1: showing people about. I've done it all my life at
Speaker 1: the asylum, and I've been doing it all day here.
Speaker 1: I have, honestly, and a man too. That's a great experience.
Speaker 1: I never talked to a man before, except occasional trustees,
Speaker 1: and they don't count. Pardon, Daddy, I don't mean to
Speaker 1: hurt your feeling. When I abuse trustees, I don't consider
Speaker 1: that you really belong among them. You just tumbled onto
Speaker 1: the board by chance. The trustee as such is fat
Speaker 1: and pompous and benevolent. He pats me on the head
Speaker 1: and wears a gold watch chain that looks like a
Speaker 1: june bug, but is meant to be a portrait of
Speaker 1: any trustee except you. However, to resume, I have been
Speaker 1: walking and talking and having tea with a man, and
Speaker 1: with a very superior man, with mister Jervis Pendleton, of
Speaker 1: the House of Julia, her uncle. In short in long
Speaker 1: perhaps I ought to say, he's as tall as you.
Speaker 1: Being in town on business, he decided to run out
Speaker 1: to the college and call on his niece. He's her
Speaker 1: father's youngest brother, but she doesn't know him very intimately.
Speaker 1: It seems he glanced at her when she was a baby,
Speaker 1: decided he didn't like her, and has never noticed her since. Anyway,
Speaker 1: there he was sitting in the reception room, very proper
Speaker 1: with his hat and stick and gloves beside him, and
Speaker 1: Julia and Sally with the seventh hour recitations. They couldn't cut,
Speaker 1: so Julia dashed into my room and begged me to
Speaker 1: walk him about the campus and then deliver him to
Speaker 1: her when the seventh hour was over. I said I
Speaker 1: would obligingly, but unenthusiastically, because I don't care much for Pendleton's.
Speaker 1: But he turned out to be a sweet lamb. He's
Speaker 1: a real human being, not a Pendleton at all. We
Speaker 1: had a beautiful time. I've longed for an uncle ever since.
Speaker 1: Do you mind pretending you're my uncle? I believe they're
Speaker 1: superior to grandmother's. Mister Pendleton remind me a little of you, Daddy,
Speaker 1: as you were twenty years ago. You see, I know
Speaker 1: you intimately, even if we haven't ever met. He's tall
Speaker 1: and thinnish, the dark face all over lines and the
Speaker 1: funniest underneath, a smile that never quite comes through but
Speaker 1: just wrinkles up at the corners of his mouth. And
Speaker 1: he has a way of making you feel right off,
Speaker 1: as though you've known him a long time. He's very companionable.
Speaker 1: We walked all over the campus, from the quadrangle to
Speaker 1: the athletic grounds. Then he said he felt weak and
Speaker 1: must have some tea. He proposed that we go to
Speaker 1: College Inn. It's just off the campus by the pine Walk.
Speaker 1: I said we ought to go back for Julia and Sally,
Speaker 1: but he said he didn't like to have his nieces
Speaker 1: drink too much tea. It made him nervous. So we
Speaker 1: just ran away and had tea in muffins and marmalade
Speaker 1: and ice cream and cake at a nice little table
Speaker 1: out in the balcony. The inn was quite conveniently empty,
Speaker 1: this being the end of the month and allowance is low.
Speaker 1: We had the jolliest time. But he had to run
Speaker 1: for his train the minute he got back, and he
Speaker 1: barely saw Julia at all. She was furious with me
Speaker 1: for taking him off. It seems he's an unusually rich
Speaker 1: and desirable uncle. It relieved my mind to find he
Speaker 1: was rich. For the tea in things cost sixty cents apiece.
Speaker 1: This morning it's Monday now. Three boxes of chocolates came
Speaker 1: by express for Julia and SALLYE and me. What do
Speaker 1: you think of that? To be getting candy from a man.
Speaker 1: I began to feel like a girl instead of a fire.
Speaker 1: I wish you'd come and have tea some day and
Speaker 1: let me see if I like you. But wouldn't it
Speaker 1: be dreadful if I didn't? However, I know I should bien.
Speaker 1: I make hew my compliments. Jamai June, tout oublier, Judy ps.
Speaker 1: I looked in the glass this morning and found a
Speaker 1: perfectly new dimple that I'd never seen before. It's very curious.
Speaker 1: Where do you suppose it came from? Ninth June. Dear Daddy,
Speaker 1: long legs, Happy day. I've just finished my last examination
Speaker 1: of physiology and now three months on a farm. I
Speaker 1: don't know what kind of a thing a farm is.
Speaker 1: I've never been on one in my life. I've never
Speaker 1: even looked at one except from the car window. But
Speaker 1: I know I'm going to love it, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to love being free. I am not used even yet
Speaker 1: to being outside the John Greerholme. Whenever I think of it,
Speaker 1: excited little thrills chase up and die on my back.
Speaker 1: I feel as though I must run faster and faster,
Speaker 1: and keep looking over my shoulder to make sure that
Speaker 1: missus Lippid isn't after me with her arms stretched out
Speaker 1: to grab me back. I don't have to mind anyone
Speaker 1: this summer, do I. Your nominal authority doesn't annoy me
Speaker 1: in the least. You are too far away to do
Speaker 1: any harm. Missus Lippett is dead forever so far as
Speaker 1: I am concerned. And the Semples aren't expected to overlook
Speaker 1: my moral welfare, are they? No, I'm sure not. I
Speaker 1: am entirely grown up. Hooray. I leave you now to
Speaker 1: pack a trunk and three boxes of tea kettles and
Speaker 1: dishes and sofa cushions and books. Yours ever, Judy, Yes,
Speaker 1: here's my physiology exam. Do you think you could have passed?
Speaker 1: End of Part three, Part four, Lock Willow Farm, Saturday night,
Speaker 1: Dearest Daddy long Legs. I've only just come and I'm
Speaker 1: not unpacked, but I can't wait to tell you how
Speaker 1: much I like farms. This is a heavenly, heavenly, heavenly spot.
Speaker 1: The house is square like this and old a hundred
Speaker 1: years or so. It has a veranda on the side
Speaker 1: which I can't draw, and a sweet porch in front.
Speaker 1: The picture really doesn't do it justice. Those things that
Speaker 1: look like feather dusters are maple trees, and the prickly
Speaker 1: ones that border the drive are murmuring pines and hemlocks.
Speaker 1: It stands on the top of a hill and looks
Speaker 1: way off over miles of green meadows to another line
Speaker 1: of hills. That is the way Connecticut goes in a
Speaker 1: series of Marcel waves, and lock Willow Farm is just
Speaker 1: on the crest of one wave. The barns used to
Speaker 1: be across the road where they obstructed the view, but
Speaker 1: a kind flash of lightning came from heaven and burnt
Speaker 1: them down. The people are mister and Missus Semple, and
Speaker 1: a hired girl and two hired men. The hired people
Speaker 1: eat in the kitchen, and the Semples and Judy in
Speaker 1: the dining room. We had ham and eggs and biscuits
Speaker 1: and honey and jelly cake and pie and pickles and
Speaker 1: cheese and tea for supper, and a great deal of conversation.
Speaker 1: I have never been so entertaining in my life. Everything
Speaker 1: I say appears to be funny. I suppose it is
Speaker 1: because I've never been in the country before, and my
Speaker 1: questions are backed by an all inclusive ignorance. The room
Speaker 1: marked with a cross is not where the murder was committed,
Speaker 1: but the one that I occupy. It's big and square
Speaker 1: and empty, with adorable old fashioned furniture and windows that
Speaker 1: have to be propped up on sticks, and green shades
Speaker 1: trimmed with gold that fall down if you touch them.
Speaker 1: And a big square mahogany table. I'm going to spend
Speaker 1: the summer with my elbows spread out on it writing
Speaker 1: a novel. Oh Daddy, I'm so excited. I can't wait
Speaker 1: till daylight to explore. It's eight thirty now and I
Speaker 1: am about to blow out my candle and try.
Speaker 2: To go to sleep.
Speaker 1: We rise at five. Did you ever know such fun
Speaker 1: I can't believe this is really Judy. You and the
Speaker 1: Good Lord give me more than I deserve. I must
Speaker 1: be a very very very good person to pay. I
Speaker 1: am going to be. You will see good night, Judy
Speaker 1: p s. You should hear the frogs sing and the
Speaker 1: little pig's squeal, and you should see the new moon.
Speaker 1: I saw it over my right shoulder. Lock Willow, twelfth July.
Speaker 1: Dear Daddy, long Legs, How did your secretary come to
Speaker 1: know about lock Willow? That isn't a rhetorical question. I
Speaker 1: am awfully curious to know. For listen to this. Mister
Speaker 1: Jervis Pendleton used to own this farm, but now he
Speaker 1: has given it to missus Semple, who was his old nurse.
Speaker 1: Did you ever hear of such a funny coincidence? She
Speaker 1: still calls him Master Jerviy and talks about what a
Speaker 1: sweet little boy he used to be. She has one
Speaker 1: of his baby curls put away in a box and
Speaker 1: it is red, or at least reddish. Since she discovered
Speaker 1: that I know him, I have risen very much. In
Speaker 1: her opinion, Knowing a member of the Pendleton family is
Speaker 1: the best introduction one can have at luck Willow, and
Speaker 1: the cream of the whole family is Master Jervis. I
Speaker 1: am pleased to say that Julia belongs to an inferior branch.
Speaker 1: The farm gets more and more entertaining. I rode on
Speaker 1: a hay wagon yesterday. We have three big pigs and
Speaker 1: nine little piglets, and you should see them eat. They
Speaker 1: are pigs. We've oceans of little baby chickens and ducks
Speaker 1: and turkeys and guinea fowls. You must be mad to
Speaker 1: live in a city when you might live on a farm.
Speaker 1: It is my daily business to hunt the eggs. I
Speaker 1: fell off a beam in the barn loth yesterday while
Speaker 1: I was trying to crawl over to a nest that
Speaker 1: the black hen had stolen. And when I came in
Speaker 1: with a scratched knee, missus semple bounded up with witch
Speaker 1: Hazel murmuring all the time. Dear, dear, it seems only
Speaker 1: yesterday that Master Jervy fell off that very same beam
Speaker 1: and scratched his very same knee. The scenery around here
Speaker 1: is perfectly beautiful. There's a valley and a river, and
Speaker 1: a lot of wooded hills, and way in the distance,
Speaker 1: a tall blue mountain that simply melts in your mouth.
Speaker 1: We churn twice a week, and we keep the cream
Speaker 1: in the spring house, which is made of stone with
Speaker 1: a brook running underneath. Some of the farmers around here
Speaker 1: have a separator, but we don't care for these new
Speaker 1: fashioned ideas. It may be a little harder to separate
Speaker 1: the cream in pans, but it's sufficiently better to pay.
Speaker 1: We have six calves, and I've chosen the names for
Speaker 1: all of them. Sylvia because she was born in the woods.
Speaker 1: Lesbia after the Lesbia in Kettalusts, Sally Julia, a spotted
Speaker 1: nondescript animal. Judy after me Daddy long legs. You don't mind,
Speaker 1: do you, Daddy? He's pure Jersey and has a sweet disposition.
Speaker 1: He looks like this. You can see how appropriate the
Speaker 1: name is. I haven't had time yet to begin my
Speaker 1: immortal novel. The farm keeps me too busy. Yours always, Judy. Ps.
Speaker 1: I've learned to make doughnuts. Ps. Two. If you are
Speaker 1: thinking of raising chickens, let me recommend buff Orpington's. They
Speaker 1: haven't any pin feathers. P. S. Three. I wish I
Speaker 1: could send you a pat of the nice fresh butter
Speaker 1: I churned yesterday. I am a dairy maid. Ps. Four.
Speaker 1: This is a picture of Miss Jerusha Abbot, the future
Speaker 1: great author, driving home the cows Sunday. Dear Daddy long Legs,
Speaker 1: isn't it funny? I started to write to you yesterday afternoon,
Speaker 1: but as far as I got was the heading Dear
Speaker 1: Daddy long Legs. And then I remembered I'd promised to
Speaker 1: pick some blackberries for supper. So I went off and
Speaker 1: left the sheet lying on the table. And when I
Speaker 1: came back today, what do you think I found sitting
Speaker 1: in the middle of the page, A real true Daddy
Speaker 1: long Legs. I picked him up very gently by one
Speaker 1: leg and dropped him out of the window. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: hurt one of them for the world. They always remind
Speaker 1: me of you. We hitched up the spring wagon this
Speaker 1: morning and drove to the center to church. It's a
Speaker 1: sweet little white framed church with a spire and three
Speaker 1: doric columns in front, or maybe ionic. I always get
Speaker 1: them mixed. A nice sleepy sermon, with everybody drowsily waving
Speaker 1: palm leaf fans, and the only sound aside from the minister,
Speaker 1: the buzzing of locusts in the trees outside. I didn't
Speaker 1: wake up till I found myself on my feet singing
Speaker 1: the hymn, and then I was awfully sorry I hadn't
Speaker 1: listened to the sermon. I should like to know more
Speaker 1: of the psychology of a man who could pick out
Speaker 1: such a hymn.
Speaker 2: This was it.
Speaker 1: Come leave your sports and earthly toys and join me
Speaker 1: in celestial joys or else. Dear friend, a long farewell.
Speaker 1: I leave you now to sink to Hell. I find
Speaker 1: that it isn't safe to discuss religion with Semples. Their God,
Speaker 1: whom they have inherited intact from their remote Puritan ancestors,
Speaker 1: is a narrow, irrational, unjust, mean, revengeful, bigoted person. Thank Heaven,
Speaker 1: I don't inherit God from anybody. I am free to
Speaker 1: make mine up as I wish him. He's and sympathetic
Speaker 1: and imaginative and forgiving and understanding, and he has a
Speaker 1: sense of humor. I like the Semples immensely. Their practice
Speaker 1: is so superior to their theory. They are better than
Speaker 1: their own. God I told them so, and they are
Speaker 1: horribly troubled. They think I am blasphemous, and I think
Speaker 1: they are. We've dropped theology from our conversation. This is
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon. A MASSI hired man in a purple tie
Speaker 1: and some bright yellow buckskin gloves, very red and shaved,
Speaker 1: has just driven off with Carrie, hired girl in a
Speaker 1: big hat trimmed with red roses and a blue muslin dress,
Speaker 1: and her hair curled as tight as it will curl.
Speaker 1: A Maassi spent all the morning washing the buggy, and
Speaker 1: Carrie stayed home from church, ostensibly to cook the dinner,
Speaker 1: but really to iron the muslin dress. In two minutes more,
Speaker 1: when this letter is finished, I am going to settle
Speaker 1: down to a book which I found in the attic.
Speaker 1: It's entitled on the Trail, and sprawled across the front
Speaker 1: page in a funny little boy hand Jervis Pendleton. If
Speaker 1: this book should ever roam box, its ears and send
Speaker 1: it home. He's spent the summer here once after he
Speaker 1: had been ill when he was about eleven years old,
Speaker 1: and he left on the trail behind it looks well read.
Speaker 1: The marks of his grimy little hands are frequent. Also,
Speaker 1: in a corner of the attic there is a water
Speaker 1: wheel and a windmill, and some bows and arrows. Missus
Speaker 1: Semple talks so constantly about him that I begin to
Speaker 1: believe he really lives. Not a grown man with a
Speaker 1: silk hat and walking stick, but a nice, dirty tussel
Speaker 1: headed boy who clatters up the stairs with an awful
Speaker 1: racket and leaves the screen doors open, and is always
Speaker 1: asking for cookies and getting them too. If I know
Speaker 1: Missus Semple, he seems to have been an adventurous little soul,
Speaker 1: and brave and truthful. I'm sorry to think he is
Speaker 1: a Pendleton. He was meant for something better. We're going
Speaker 1: to begin threshing oats tomorrow. A steam engine is coming,
Speaker 1: and three extra men. It grieves me to tell you
Speaker 1: that Buttercup, the spotted cow with one horn, mother of Lesbia,
Speaker 1: has done a disgraceful thing. She got into the orchard
Speaker 1: Friday evening in eight apples under the trees and eight
Speaker 1: and eight until they went to her head. For two
Speaker 1: days she has been perfectly dead drunk. That is the
Speaker 1: truth I am telling. Did you ever hear anything so scandalous? Sir?
Speaker 1: I remain your affectionate orphan Judy abbot ps Indians in
Speaker 1: the first chapter and highwaymen in the second. I hold
Speaker 1: my breath. What can the third contain? Red hawk leapt
Speaker 1: twenty feet in the air and bit the dust. That
Speaker 1: is the subject of the frontispiece. Aren't Judy and Jervy
Speaker 1: having fun? Fifteenth September. Dear Daddy, I was weighed yesterday
Speaker 1: on the flower scales in the general store at the Coomers.
Speaker 1: I've gained nine pounds. Let me recommend Lock Willow as
Speaker 1: a health resort. Yours ever, Judy. End of Part four, Part.
Speaker 2: Five, Dear Daddy, long legs behold me a sophomore. I
Speaker 2: came up last Friday, sorry to leave lock Willow, but
Speaker 2: glad to see the campus again. It is a pleasant
Speaker 2: sensation to come back to something familiar. I'm beginning to
Speaker 2: feel at home in college and in command of the situation.
Speaker 2: I am beginning, in fact, to feel at home in
Speaker 2: the world. As though I really belonged to it and
Speaker 2: had not just crept in on sufferance. I don't suppose
Speaker 2: you understand. And the least what I'm trying to say,
Speaker 2: a person important enough to be a trustee can't appreciate
Speaker 2: the feelings of a person unimportant enough to be a founder.
Speaker 2: And now, Daddy, listen to this. Whom do you think?
Speaker 2: I am rooming with Sallly McBride and Julia Rutlich Pendleton.
Speaker 2: It's the truth. We have a study in three little bedrooms. Voilla,
Speaker 2: Sally and I decided last spring that we should like
Speaker 2: to room together, and Julia made up her mind to
Speaker 2: stay with Sally. Why I can't imagine, for they are
Speaker 2: not a bit alike. But the Pendletons are naturally conservative
Speaker 2: and inimical. Fine word to change anyway. Here we are.
Speaker 2: Think of Jerusha Abbott, late of the John Greer Home
Speaker 2: for Orphans rooming with a Pendleton. This is a democratic country.
Speaker 2: Sally is running for class president, and unless all science fail,
Speaker 2: she is going to be elected. Such an atmosphere of intrigue,
Speaker 2: you should see what politicians we are. Oh, I tell you, daddy,
Speaker 2: When we women get our rights, you men will have
Speaker 2: to look alive in order to keep yours. Election comes
Speaker 2: next Saturday, and we're going to have a torchlight procession
Speaker 2: in the evening, no matter who wins. In chemistry a
Speaker 2: most unusual study. I've never seen anything like it before.
Speaker 2: Molecules and atoms are the material employed. But I'll be
Speaker 2: in a position to discuss them more definitely next month.
Speaker 2: I am also taking argumentation and logic. Also History of
Speaker 2: the Whole World also plays with William Shakespeare, also French.
Speaker 2: If this keeps up many years longer, I shall become
Speaker 2: quite intelligent. I should rather have elected Economics than French,
Speaker 2: but I didn't dare because I was afraid that unless
Speaker 2: I re elected French, the professor would not let me pass.
Speaker 2: As it was, I just managed to squeeze through the
Speaker 2: June examination. But I will say that my high school
Speaker 2: preparation was not very adequate. There's one girl in the
Speaker 2: class who chatters away in French as fast as she
Speaker 2: does in English. She went abroad with her parents when
Speaker 2: she was a child and spent three years in a
Speaker 2: convent school. You can imagine how bright she is compared
Speaker 2: with the rest of us. Irregular verbs are mere playthings.
Speaker 2: I wish my parents had chucked me into a French
Speaker 2: convent when I was little instead of a found the asylum.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I don't either, because then maybe I should
Speaker 2: never have known you, and I'd rather know you than French.
Speaker 2: Good Bye, Daddy, I must call on Harriet Martin now, and,
Speaker 2: having discussed the chemical situation, casually drop a few thoughts
Speaker 2: on the subject of our next president. Yours in politics,
Speaker 2: Jay Abbott, seventeenth October. Dear Daddy, long legs. Supposing the
Speaker 2: swimming tank in the gymnasium were filled full of lemon jelly?
Speaker 2: Could a person trying to swim manage to keep on
Speaker 2: top of wood? He sink? We were having lemon jelly
Speaker 2: for dessert when the question came up. We discussed it
Speaker 2: heatedly for half an hour, and it's still unsettled. Sally
Speaker 2: thinks that she could swim in it, but I'm perfectly
Speaker 2: sure that the best swimmer in the world would sink.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be funny to be drowned in lemon jelly?
Speaker 2: Two other problems are engaging the attention of our table. First,
Speaker 2: what shape are the rooms in an octagon house? Some
Speaker 2: of the girls insist that they're square, but I think
Speaker 2: they'd have to be shaped like a piece of pie.
Speaker 2: Don't you second, suppose there were a great, big hollow
Speaker 2: sphere made of looking glass and you were sitting inside.
Speaker 2: Where would it stop reflecting your face and begin reflecting
Speaker 2: your back. The more one thinks about this problem, the
Speaker 2: more puzzling it becomes. You can see with what deep
Speaker 2: philosophical reflection we engage our leisure. Did I ever tell
Speaker 2: you about the election? It happened three weeks ago, But
Speaker 2: so fast do we live that three weeks is ancient history.
Speaker 2: Sally was elected, and we had a torchlight parade with
Speaker 2: transparencies saying McBride forever, and a band consisting of fourteen pieces,
Speaker 2: three mouth organs and eleven combs. We are very important persons.
Speaker 2: Now in two fifty eight, Julia and I come in
Speaker 2: for a great deal of reflected glory. It's quite a
Speaker 2: social strain to be living in the same house with
Speaker 2: the president when we share Daddy, except de mes compliment, respectors,
Speaker 2: Just ri vautrue Judy, twelfth November, Dear Daddy, long legs,
Speaker 2: we beat the freshman at basketball yesterday. Of course we're pleased,
Speaker 2: But oh, if we could only beat the juniors. I'd
Speaker 2: be willing to be black and blue all over and
Speaker 2: stay in bed a week in a witch hazel compress.
Speaker 2: Sally has invited me to spend the Christmas vacation with her.
Speaker 2: She lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. Wasn't it nice of her?
Speaker 2: I shall love to go. I've never been in a
Speaker 2: private family in my life except at lock Willow, and
Speaker 2: the Semples were grown up and old and don't count.
Speaker 2: But the mcbrides have a house full of children anyway
Speaker 2: two or three, and a mother and father and grandmother
Speaker 2: and an angora cat. It's a perfectly complete family. Packing
Speaker 2: your trunk and going away is more fun than staying behind.
Speaker 2: I'm terribly excited at the prospect seventh hour, I must
Speaker 2: run to rehearsal. I'm to be in the Thanksgiving theatricals.
Speaker 2: A prince in a tower with a velvet tunic and
Speaker 2: yellow curls. Isn't that a lark yours? J a Saturday?
Speaker 2: Do you want to know what I look like? Here's
Speaker 2: a photograph of all three that Leonora Fenton took. The
Speaker 2: light one who is laughing is and the tall one
Speaker 2: with her nose in the air. As Julia and The
Speaker 2: little one with the hair blowing across her face is Judy.
Speaker 2: She is really more beautiful than that, but the sun
Speaker 2: was in her eyes. Stone Gate, Worcester, Mass thirty one December.
Speaker 2: Dear Daddy long Legs, I meant to write to you
Speaker 2: before and thank you for your Christmas check. But life
Speaker 2: in the mc bridehousehold is very absorbing and I don't
Speaker 2: seem able to find two consecutive minutes to spend at
Speaker 2: a desk. I bought a new gown, one that I
Speaker 2: didn't need but just wanted. My Christmas present this year
Speaker 2: is from Daddy long Legs. My family just sent love.
Speaker 2: I've been having the most beautiful vacation visiting Sally. She
Speaker 2: lives in a big, old fashioned brick house with white trimmings,
Speaker 2: set back from the street, exactly the kind of house
Speaker 2: that I used to look at so curiously when I
Speaker 2: was in the John Grier Home and wonder what it
Speaker 2: could be like inside. I never expected to see with
Speaker 2: my own eyes, But here I am. Everything is so
Speaker 2: comfortable and RESTful and homelike. I walk from room to
Speaker 2: room and drink in the furnishings. It is the most
Speaker 2: perfect house for children to be brought up in with
Speaker 2: shadowy nooks for hide and seek, and open fireplaces for popcorn,
Speaker 2: and an attic to romp in on rainy days, and
Speaker 2: slippery banisters with a comfortable fat knob on the bottom,
Speaker 2: and a great, big sunny kitchen and a nice, fat
Speaker 2: sunny cook who has lived in the family thirteen years
Speaker 2: and always saves out a piece of dough for the
Speaker 2: children to bake. Just the sight of such a house
Speaker 2: makes you want to be a child all over again.
Speaker 2: And as for families, I never dreamed they could be
Speaker 2: so nice. Sally has a father and mother and grandmother
Speaker 2: and the sweetest three year old baby sister all over curls,
Speaker 2: and a medium sized brother who always forgets to wipe
Speaker 2: his feet, and a big, good looking brother named Jimmy,
Speaker 2: who is a junior at Princeton. We have the jolliest
Speaker 2: times at the table. Everybody laughs and jokes and talks
Speaker 2: at once, and we don't have to say grace beforehand.
Speaker 2: It's a relief not having to thank somebody for every
Speaker 2: mouthful you eat. I dare sam blasphemous, but you'd be
Speaker 2: too if you'd offered as much obligatory thanks as I have.
Speaker 2: Such a lot of things we've done. I can't begin
Speaker 2: to tell you about them. Mister McBride owns a factory,
Speaker 2: and Christmas Eve he had a tree for the employee's children.
Speaker 2: It was in the long packing room, which was decorated
Speaker 2: with evergreens and holly. Jimmy McBride was dressed as Santa
Speaker 2: Claus and Sally and I helped him distribute the presence.
Speaker 2: Dear me, Daddy, but it was a funny sensation. I
Speaker 2: felt as benevolent as a trustee of the John Greer Home.
Speaker 2: I kissed one sweet, sticky little boy, but I don't
Speaker 2: think I've patted any of them on the head. And
Speaker 2: two days after Christmas they gave a dance at their
Speaker 2: own house for me. It was the first really true
Speaker 2: ball I ever attended. College doesn't count where we dance
Speaker 2: with girls. I had a new white evening gown your
Speaker 2: Christmas present, many thanks, and long white gloves and white
Speaker 2: satin slippers. The only drawback to my perfect, utter, absolute
Speaker 2: happiness was the fact that Missus Lippett couldn't see me
Speaker 2: leading the cotillion with Jimmy McBride. Tell her about it, please,
Speaker 2: the next time you visit the J G. H. Yours ever,
Speaker 2: Judy Abbott ps. Would you be terribly displeased, Daddy, if
Speaker 2: I didn't turn out to be a great author after all,
Speaker 2: but just a plain girl? Six point thirty Saturday, Dear Daddy,
Speaker 2: we started to walk to town today, but mercy how
Speaker 2: it poured. I like winter to be winter with snow
Speaker 2: instead of rain. Julia's desirable uncle called again this afternoon
Speaker 2: and brought a five pound box of chocolates. There are advantages,
Speaker 2: you see about rooming with Julia. Our innocent prattle appeared
Speaker 2: to amuse him, and he waited for a later train
Speaker 2: in order to take tea in the study. We had
Speaker 2: an awful lot of trouble getting permission. It's hard enough
Speaker 2: entertaining fathers and grandfathers, but uncles are a step worse,
Speaker 2: and as for brothers and cousins, they are next to impossible.
Speaker 2: Julia had to swear that he was her uncle before
Speaker 2: a notary public and then have the county clerk's certificate attached.
Speaker 2: Thon't I know a lot of law? And even then
Speaker 2: I doubt if we could have had our tea if
Speaker 2: the Dean had chanced to see how youngish and good
Speaker 2: looking uncle jervis is anyway. We had it with brown
Speaker 2: bread Swiss cheese sandwiches. He helped make them, and then
Speaker 2: ate four. I told him that I had spent last
Speaker 2: summer at Lock Willow and we had a beautiful gossipy
Speaker 2: time about the semples and the horses and cows and chickens.
Speaker 2: All the horses that he used to know are dead,
Speaker 2: except Grover, who was a baby colt at the time
Speaker 2: of his last visit. And poor Grove now is so
Speaker 2: old he can just limp about the pasture. He asked
Speaker 2: if they still kept doughnuts in a yellow crock with
Speaker 2: a blue plate over it on the bottom shelf of
Speaker 2: the pantry, and they do. He wanted to know if
Speaker 2: there was still a woodchuck's hole under the pile of
Speaker 2: rocks in the night pasture, and there is. Amasi caught
Speaker 2: a big, fat gray one there this summer, the twenty
Speaker 2: fifth great grandson of the one Master Jervis caught when
Speaker 2: he was a little boy. I called him Master Jervy
Speaker 2: to his face, but he didn't appear to be insulted.
Speaker 2: Julia says she has never seen him so amiable. He's
Speaker 2: usually pretty unapproachable, but Julia hasn't a bit of tact
Speaker 2: and men I find acquire a great deal. They purr
Speaker 2: if you rub them the right way, and spit if
Speaker 2: you don't. That isn't a very elegant metaphor. I mean
Speaker 2: it figuratively. We are reading Marie Beshkertzeff's journal. Isn't it amazing?
Speaker 2: Listen to this? Last night I was seized by a
Speaker 2: fit of despair that found utterance in moans, and that
Speaker 2: finally drove me to throw the dining room clock into
Speaker 2: the sea. It makes me almost hope I'm not a genius.
Speaker 2: They must be very wearing to have about, and awfully
Speaker 2: destructive to the furniture mercy. How it keeps pouring, we
Speaker 2: shall have to swim to chapel tonight. Yours ever, Judy
Speaker 2: twentieth January. Dear Daddy longlegs, did you ever have a
Speaker 2: sweet baby girl who was stolen from the cradle in infancy?
Speaker 2: Maybe I am she? If we were in a novel,
Speaker 2: that would be the day to mont, wouldn't it. It's
Speaker 2: really awfully queer not to know what one is sort
Speaker 2: of exciting and romantic. There's such a lot of possibilities.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm not American. Lots of people, aren't. I may
Speaker 2: be straight descended from the ancient Romans. Or I may
Speaker 2: be a Viking's daughter. Or I may be the child
Speaker 2: of a Russian exile and belong by rights in a
Speaker 2: Siberian prison. Or maybe I'm a gypsy. I think perhaps
Speaker 2: I am. I have a very wandering spirit, though I
Speaker 2: haven't as yet had much chance to develop it. Do
Speaker 2: you know about that one scandalous blot in my career,
Speaker 2: the time I ran away from the asylum because they
Speaker 2: punished me for stealing cookies. It's down in the books,
Speaker 2: free for any trustee to read. But really, Daddy, what
Speaker 2: could you expect when you put a hungry little nine
Speaker 2: year old girl in a pantry scouring knives with the
Speaker 2: cookie jar at her elbow, and go off and leave
Speaker 2: her alone, and then suddenly pop in again. Wouldn't you
Speaker 2: expect to find her a bit crummy? And then when
Speaker 2: you jerk her by the elbow and box her ears
Speaker 2: and make her leave the table when the pudding comes
Speaker 2: and tell all the other children that it's because she's
Speaker 2: a thief, wouldn't you expect her to run away? I
Speaker 2: only ran four miles. They caught me and brought me back,
Speaker 2: and every day for a week I was tied like
Speaker 2: a naughty puppy to a stake in the back yard
Speaker 2: while the other children were out at recess. Oh dear,
Speaker 2: there's the chapel bell and after chapel I have a
Speaker 2: committee meeting. I'm sorry because I meant to write you
Speaker 2: a very entertaining letter. This time. I'll Feta Shane, Share,
Speaker 2: Daddy Pax Tibby, Judy p S. There's one thing I'm
Speaker 2: perfectly sure of. I'm not a chinaman. Fourth February, Dear,
Speaker 2: Daddy long Legs, Jimmy mc bride has sent me a
Speaker 2: Princeton banner as big as one end of the room.
Speaker 2: I'm very grateful to him for remembering me, but I
Speaker 2: don't know what on earth to do with it. Sally
Speaker 2: and Julia won't let me hang it up. Our room
Speaker 2: this year is furnished in red, and you can imagine
Speaker 2: what an effect we'd have if I added orange and black.
Speaker 2: But it's such a nice, warm, thick felt I hate
Speaker 2: to waste it. Would it be very improper to have
Speaker 2: it made into a bathrobe. My old one shrank when
Speaker 2: it was washed. I've entirely omitted of late telling you
Speaker 2: what I'm learning. But though you might not imagine it
Speaker 2: from my letters, my time is exclusively occupied with study.
Speaker 2: It's a very bewildering matter to get educated in five
Speaker 2: branches at once. The test of true scholarship, says chemistry professor,
Speaker 2: is a painstaking passion for detail. Be careful not to
Speaker 2: keep your eyes glued to detail, says history professor. Stand
Speaker 2: far enough away to get a perspective of the whole.
Speaker 2: You can see with what nicety we have to trim
Speaker 2: our sales between chemistry and history. I like the historical
Speaker 2: method best. If I say that William the Conqueror came
Speaker 2: over in fourteen ninety two, and Columbus discovered America in
Speaker 2: eleven hundred or ten sixty six, or whatever it was.
Speaker 2: That's a mere detail that the professor overlooks. It gives
Speaker 2: a feeling of security and restfulness to the history recitation
Speaker 2: that is entirely lacking in chemistry. Six hour bell. I
Speaker 2: must go to the laboratory and look into a little
Speaker 2: matter of acids and salts and alkalis. I've burned a
Speaker 2: hole as big as a plate in the front of
Speaker 2: my chemistry apron with hydrochloric acid. If the theory worked.
Speaker 2: I ought to be able to neutralize that hole with
Speaker 2: good strong ammonia on time examinations next week. But who
Speaker 2: he was afraid? Yours ever, Judy fifth March, Dear Daddy,
Speaker 2: long legs. There is a march wind blowing and the
Speaker 2: sky is filled with heavy, black moving clouds. The crows
Speaker 2: in the pine trees are making such a clamor. It's
Speaker 2: an intoxicating, exhilarating calling noise. You want to close your
Speaker 2: books and be off over the hills to race with
Speaker 2: the wind. We had a paper chase last Saturday over
Speaker 2: five miles of squashy cross country. The fox, composed of
Speaker 2: three girls and a bushel or so of confetti, started
Speaker 2: half an hour before the twenty seven hunters. I was
Speaker 2: one of the twenty seven, eight dropped by the wayside.
Speaker 2: We ended nineteen. The trail led over a hill, through
Speaker 2: a cornfield and into a swamp where we had to
Speaker 2: leap lightly from hummock to hummock, and of course half
Speaker 2: of us went in ankle deep. We kept losing the trail,
Speaker 2: and we wasted twenty five minutes over that swamp, then
Speaker 2: up a hill, through some woods and in at a
Speaker 2: barn window. The barn doors were all locked and the
Speaker 2: window was up high and pretty small. I don't call
Speaker 2: that fair, do you? But we didn't go through. We
Speaker 2: circumnavigated the barn and picked up the trail where it
Speaker 2: issued by way of a low shed roof on to
Speaker 2: the top of the fence. The fox thought he had
Speaker 2: us there, but we fooled him. Then straightway over two
Speaker 2: miles of rolling meadow and awfully hard to follow, for
Speaker 2: the confetti was getting sparse. The rule is that it
Speaker 2: must be at the most six feet apart, but they
Speaker 2: were the longest six feet I ever saw. Finally, after
Speaker 2: two hours of steady trotting, we tracked Monsieur Fox into
Speaker 2: the kitchen of Crystal Spring. That's a farm where the
Speaker 2: girls go in bob sleighs and hay wagons for chicken
Speaker 2: and waffle suppers, and we found the three foxes placidly
Speaker 2: eating milk and honey and biscuits. They hadn't thought we
Speaker 2: would get that far. They were expecting us to stick
Speaker 2: in the barn window. Both sides insist that they won.
Speaker 2: I think we did, don't you, because we caught them
Speaker 2: before they got back to campus. Anyway, all nineteen of
Speaker 2: us settled like locusts over the furniture and clamored for honey.
Speaker 2: There wasn't enough to go around. But missus Crystal Spring,
Speaker 2: that's our pet name for her. She's by right to
Speaker 2: Johnson brought up a jar of strawberry jam and a
Speaker 2: can of maple syrup, just made last week, and three
Speaker 2: loaves of brown bread. We didn't get back to college
Speaker 2: till half past six, half an hour late for dinner,
Speaker 2: and we went straight in without dressing and with perfectly
Speaker 2: unimpaired appetites. Then we all cut evening chapel, the state
Speaker 2: of our boots being enough of an excuse. I never
Speaker 2: told you about examinations. I passed everything with the utmost ease.
Speaker 2: I know the secret now and I am never going
Speaker 2: to fail again. I shan't be able to graduate with honors, though,
Speaker 2: because of that beastly Latin prose and geometry freshman year.
Speaker 2: But I don't care what's the hawgs, as long as
Speaker 2: you're rappy. That's a quotation. I've been reading the English classics.
Speaker 2: Speaking of classics, have you ever read Hamlet? If you haven't,
Speaker 2: do it right off, it's perfectly corking. I've been hearing
Speaker 2: about Shakespeare all my life, but I had no idea
Speaker 2: he really wrote so well. I always suspected him of
Speaker 2: going largely on his reputation. I have a beautiful play
Speaker 2: that I invented a long time ago. When I first
Speaker 2: learned to read. I put myself to sleep every night
Speaker 2: by pretending I'm the person, the most important person in
Speaker 2: the book I'm reading at the moment at present. I'm Aphelia,
Speaker 2: and such a sensible Ophelia. I keep Hamlet amused all
Speaker 2: the time, and pat him and scold him and make
Speaker 2: him wrap up his throat when he has a cold.
Speaker 2: I've entirely cured him of being melancholy. The King and
Speaker 2: Queen are both dead an accident at sea, no funeral necessary.
Speaker 2: So Hamlet and I are ruling in Denmark without any bother.
Speaker 2: We have the kingdom working beautifully. He takes care of
Speaker 2: the governing, and I look after the charities. I've just
Speaker 2: founded some first class orphan asylums. If you or any
Speaker 2: of the other trustees would like to visit them, I
Speaker 2: shall be pleased to show you. Through. I think you
Speaker 2: might find a great many helpful suggestions. I remain sir, yours,
Speaker 2: most graciously Ophelia, Queen of Denmark twenty fourth March, maybe
Speaker 2: the twenty fifth, Dear Daddy, longlegs. I don't believe I
Speaker 2: can be going to heaven. I am getting such a
Speaker 2: lot of good things here it wouldn't be fair to
Speaker 2: get them here after too. Listen to what has happened.
Speaker 2: Jerusha Abbott has won the Short Story Contest, a twenty
Speaker 2: five dollars prize that the Monthly holds every year, and
Speaker 2: she's a sophomore. The contestants are mostly seniors. When I
Speaker 2: saw my name posted, I couldn't quite believe it was true.
Speaker 2: Maybe I am going to be an author after all.
Speaker 2: I wish missus Lippett hadn't given me such a silly name.
Speaker 2: It sounds like an authoress, doesn't it. Also, I have
Speaker 2: been chosen for the Spring Dramatics, as you like it.
Speaker 2: Out of Doors, I'm going to be Celia own cousin
Speaker 2: to Rosalind. And lastly, Julia and Sally and I are
Speaker 2: going to New York next Friday to do some spring
Speaker 2: shopping and stay all night and go to the theater
Speaker 2: the next day with Master Jerviy. He invited us. Julia
Speaker 2: is going to stay at home with her family. But
Speaker 2: Sally and I are going to stop at the Martha
Speaker 2: Washington Hotel. Did you ever hear of anything so exciting?
Speaker 2: I've never been in a hotel in my life, nor
Speaker 2: an except once when the Catholic Church had a festival
Speaker 2: and invited the Orphans. But that wasn't a real play
Speaker 2: and it doesn't count. And what do you think We're
Speaker 2: going to see Hamlet? Think of that? We've studied it
Speaker 2: for four weeks in Shakespeare class and I know it
Speaker 2: by heart. I'm so excited over all these prospects that
Speaker 2: I could scarcely sleep. Goodbye, Daddy, This is a very
Speaker 2: entertaining world, yours, eh, Judy pes. I've just looked at
Speaker 2: the calendar. It's the twenty eighth. Another PostScript. I saw
Speaker 2: a street car conductor today with one brown eye and
Speaker 2: one blue. Wouldn't he make a nice villain for a
Speaker 2: detective story? Seventh April. Dear Daddy, long Legs, Mercy isn't
Speaker 2: New York? Big Wooster is nothing to it? Do you
Speaker 2: mean to tell me that you actually live in all
Speaker 2: that confusion? I don't believe that I shall recover for
Speaker 2: months from the bewildering effect of two days of it.
Speaker 2: I can't begin to tell you all the amazing things
Speaker 2: I've seen. I suppose you know, though, since you live
Speaker 2: there yourself. But aren't the streets entertaining and the people
Speaker 2: and the shops. I never saw such lovely things as
Speaker 2: there are in the windows. It makes you want to
Speaker 2: devote your life to wearing clothes. Sally and Julia and
Speaker 2: I went shopping together Saturday morning. Julia went into the
Speaker 2: very most gorgeous place I ever saw, white and gold walls,
Speaker 2: and blue carpets and blue silk curtains and gilt chairs.
Speaker 2: A perfectly beautiful lady with yellow hair and the long
Speaker 2: black silk trailing gown came to meet us with a
Speaker 2: welcoming smile. I thought we were paying a social call
Speaker 2: and started to shake hands, But it seems we were
Speaker 2: only buying hats. At least Julia was. She sat down
Speaker 2: in front of a mirror and tried on a dozen,
Speaker 2: each lovelier than the last, and bought the too loveliest
Speaker 2: of all. I can't imagine any joy in life greater
Speaker 2: than sitting down in front of a mirror and buying
Speaker 2: any hat you choose without having first to consider the price.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about it. Daddy New York would rapidly
Speaker 2: under this fine, stoical character which the John Greer Home
Speaker 2: so patiently built up. And after we'd finish our shopping,
Speaker 2: we met Master Jerviy at Sherry's. I suppose you've been
Speaker 2: in Sherry's picture that then picture the dining room of
Speaker 2: the John Greer Home, with its oilcloth covered tables and
Speaker 2: white crockery that you can't break, and wooden handled knives
Speaker 2: and forks, and fancy the way I felt. I ate
Speaker 2: my fish with the wrong fork, but the waiter very
Speaker 2: kindly gave me another so that nobody noticed. And after
Speaker 2: luncheon we went to the theater. It was dazzling, marvelous, unbelievable.
Speaker 2: I dream about it every night. Isn't Shakespeare wonderful? Hamlet
Speaker 2: is so much better on the stage than when we
Speaker 2: analyze it in class. I appreciated it before, but now,
Speaker 2: dear me, I think, if you don't mind, that I'd
Speaker 2: rather be an actress than a writer. Wouldn't you like
Speaker 2: me to leave college and go into a dramatic school?
Speaker 2: And then I'll send you a box for all my performances?
Speaker 2: And smile crossed the footlights only where a red rose
Speaker 2: in your buttonhole? Please, So I'll surely smile at the
Speaker 2: right man. It would be an awfully embarrassing mistake if
Speaker 2: I picked out the wrong one. We came back Saturday
Speaker 2: night and had our dinner in the train at little
Speaker 2: tables with pink lamps and Negro waiters. I never heard
Speaker 2: of meals being served in trains before, and I inadvertently said, so,
Speaker 2: where on earth were you brought up, said Julia to me.
Speaker 2: In a village, said I meekly to Julia. But didn't
Speaker 2: you ever travel, said she to me. Not till I
Speaker 2: came to college, and then it was only one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty miles, and we didn't eat, said I to her.
Speaker 2: She's getting quite interested in me because I say such
Speaker 2: funny things. I try hard not to, but they do
Speaker 2: pop out when I'm surprised, and I'm surprised most of
Speaker 2: the time. It's a dizzying experienced daddy to pass eighteen
Speaker 2: years in the John Greer Home and then suddenly to
Speaker 2: be plunged into the world. But I'm getting acclimated. I
Speaker 2: don't make such awful mistakes as I did, and I
Speaker 2: don't feel uncomfortable any more. With the other girls I
Speaker 2: used to score. Whenever people looked at me, I felt
Speaker 2: as though they saw right through my sham new clothes
Speaker 2: to the Czech Ginghams underneath. But I'm not letting the
Speaker 2: Ginghams bother me any more. Sufficient unto yesterday is the
Speaker 2: evil thereof. I forgot to tell you about our flowers.
Speaker 2: Master Jerviy gave us each a big bunch of violets
Speaker 2: and lilies of the valley. Wasn't that sweet of him?
Speaker 2: I never used to care much for men judging by trustees.
Speaker 2: When I'm changing my mind eleven pages, this is a
Speaker 2: letter have courage. I'm going to stop yours always, Judy
Speaker 2: tenth April. Dear mister rich Man, here's your check for
Speaker 2: fifty dollars. Thank you very much, but I do not
Speaker 2: feel that I can keep it. My allowance is sufficient
Speaker 2: to afford all the hats that I need. I am
Speaker 2: sorry that I wrote all that silly stuff about the
Speaker 2: millinery shop. It's just that I had never seen anything
Speaker 2: like it before. However, I wasn't begging, and I would
Speaker 2: rather not accept any more charity than I have to. Sincerely, Yours,
Speaker 2: Jerusha Abbott, eleventh April dearest Daddy, will you please forgive
Speaker 2: me for the letter I wrote you yesterday? After I
Speaker 2: posted it, I was sorry and tried to get it back,
Speaker 2: but that beastly mail clerk wouldn't give it back to me.
Speaker 2: It's the middle of the night now. I've been awake
Speaker 2: for hours thinking what a worm I am, What a
Speaker 2: thousand legged worm, And that's the worst I can say.
Speaker 2: I've closed the door very softly into the study so
Speaker 2: as not to wake Julia and Sally, and I'm sitting
Speaker 2: up in bed writing to you on paper torn out
Speaker 2: of my history notebook. I just wanted to tell you
Speaker 2: that I am sorry I was so impolite about your check.
Speaker 2: I know you meant it kindly, and I think you're
Speaker 2: an old dear to take so much trouble for such
Speaker 2: a silly thing as a hat. I ought to have
Speaker 2: returned it very much more graciously, but in any case,
Speaker 2: I had to return it. It's different with me than
Speaker 2: with other girls. They can take things naturally from people
Speaker 2: they have fathers and brothers and aunts and uncles. But
Speaker 2: I can't be on any such relations with anyone. I
Speaker 2: like to pretend you belong to me, just to play
Speaker 2: with the idea, but of course I know you don't.
Speaker 2: I'm alone, really, with my back to the wall, fighting
Speaker 2: the world, and I get sort of when I think
Speaker 2: about it. I put it out of my mind and
Speaker 2: keep on pretending. But don't you see, Daddy, I can't
Speaker 2: accept any more money than I have to, because someday
Speaker 2: I should be wanting to pay it back, and even
Speaker 2: as great an author as I intend to be, won't
Speaker 2: be able to face a perfectly tremendous debt. I love
Speaker 2: pretty hats and things, but I mustn't mortgage the future
Speaker 2: to pay for them. You'll forgive me, won't you? For
Speaker 2: being so rude. I have an awful habit of writing
Speaker 2: impulsively when I first think things, and then posting the
Speaker 2: letter beyond recall. But if I sometimes seem thoughtless and ungrateful,
Speaker 2: I never mean it. In my heart. I thank you
Speaker 2: always for the life and freedom and independence that you
Speaker 2: have given me. My childhood was just a long, sullen
Speaker 2: stretch of revolt, and now I am so happy every
Speaker 2: moment of the day that I can't believe it's true.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've made up heroin in a story book.
Speaker 2: It's a quarter past two. I'm going to tiptoe out
Speaker 2: to post this off. Now you'll receive it in the
Speaker 2: next mail after the other, so you won't have a
Speaker 2: very long time to think bad of me. Good night, Daddy,
Speaker 2: I love you always. Judy fourth May Dear Daddy. Longlegs
Speaker 2: Field Day last Saturday. It was a very spectacular occasion. First,
Speaker 2: we had a parade of all the classes, with everybody
Speaker 2: dressed in white linen, the seniors carrying blue and gold
Speaker 2: Japanese umbrellas and the junior's white and yellow banners. Our
Speaker 2: class had crimson balloons, very fetching, especially as they were
Speaker 2: always getting loose and floating off, and the freshman wore
Speaker 2: green tissue paper hats with long streamers. Also, we had
Speaker 2: a band in blue uniforms hired from town. Also about
Speaker 2: a dozen funny people like clowns in a circus to
Speaker 2: keep the spectators entertained between events. Julia was dressed as
Speaker 2: a fat country man with a linen duster and whiskers
Speaker 2: and a baggy umbrella. Patsy Moriarty Patricia, really did you
Speaker 2: ever hear such a name? Missus Lippet couldn't have done better?
Speaker 2: Who is tall and thin? Was Julia's wife, in an
Speaker 2: absurd green bonnet over one ear waves of las after
Speaker 2: follow the whole length of the course. Julia played the
Speaker 2: part extremely well. I never dreamed that a Pendleton could
Speaker 2: display so much comedy, spirit, begging Master Jervy's pardon. I
Speaker 2: don't consider him a true Pendleton though, any more than
Speaker 2: I consider you a true trustee. Sally and I weren't
Speaker 2: in the parade because we were entered for the events,
Speaker 2: and what do you think? We both won, at least
Speaker 2: in something. We tried for the running broad jump and lost,
Speaker 2: but Sally won the pole vaulting seven feet three inches
Speaker 2: and I won the fifty yard sprint eight seconds. I
Speaker 2: was pretty panting at the end, but it was great
Speaker 2: fun with the whole class waving balloons and cheering and
Speaker 2: yelling what's the matter with Judy Abbot?
Speaker 3: She's all right?
Speaker 2: Who's all right, Judy Abbot? That daddy is true fame,
Speaker 2: Then trotting back to the dressing tent and being rubbed
Speaker 2: down with alcohol and having a lemon to suck. You see,
Speaker 2: we're very professional. It's a fine thing to win an
Speaker 2: event for your class, because the class that wins the
Speaker 2: most gets the Athletic Cup for the year the seniors
Speaker 2: won it this year, with seven events to their credit.
Speaker 2: The Athletic Association gave a dinner in the gymnasium to
Speaker 2: all of the winners. We had fried soft shell crabs
Speaker 2: and chocolate ice cream molded in the shape of basketballs.
Speaker 2: I sat up half of last night reading Jane Eyre.
Speaker 2: Are you old enough, daddy to remember sixty years ago?
Speaker 2: And if so? Did people talk that way? The haughty
Speaker 2: lady Blanche says to the footman, stop your chattering knave
Speaker 2: and do my bidding. Mister Rochester talks about the metal
Speaker 2: welkin when he means the sky and asks for the
Speaker 2: mad woman, who laughs like a hyena and sets fire
Speaker 2: to bed curtains and tears up wedding veils and bites.
Speaker 2: It's melodrama of the purest, but just the same. You
Speaker 2: read and read and read. I can't see how any
Speaker 2: girl could have written such a book, especially any girl
Speaker 2: who was brought up in a churchyard. There's something about
Speaker 2: those Brontes that fascinates me. Their books, their lives, their spirit.
Speaker 2: Where did they get it? When I was reading about
Speaker 2: little Jane's troubles in the charity school, I got so
Speaker 2: angry that I had to go out and take a walk.
Speaker 2: I understood exactly how she felt. Having known Missus Lippett,
Speaker 2: I could see mister Brocklehurst. Don't be outraged, daddy. I
Speaker 2: am not intimating that the John Greer Home was like
Speaker 2: the Lowood Institute. We had plenty to eat, plenty to wear,
Speaker 2: a sufficient water to wash in, and a furnace in
Speaker 2: the cellar. But there was one deadly likeness. Our lives
Speaker 2: were absolutely monotonous and uneventful. Nothing nice ever happened except
Speaker 2: ice cream on Sundays, and even that was regular. In
Speaker 2: all the eighteen years I was there, I only had
Speaker 2: one adventure when the woodshed burned. We had to get
Speaker 2: up in the night and dress so as to be
Speaker 2: ready in case the house should catch. But it didn't catch,
Speaker 2: and we went back to bed. Everybody likes a few surprises,
Speaker 2: it's a perfectly natural human craving. But I never had
Speaker 2: one until Missus Lippett called me to the office to
Speaker 2: tell me that mister John Smith was going to send
Speaker 2: me to college. And then she broke the news so
Speaker 2: gradually that it just barely shocked me. You know, Daddy,
Speaker 2: I think the most necessary quality for any person to
Speaker 2: have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves
Speaker 2: in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic
Speaker 2: and understanding. It ought to be cultivated in children, but
Speaker 2: the John greer Holme instantly stamped out the slightest flicker
Speaker 2: that appeared. Duty was the one quality that wasn't encouraged.
Speaker 2: I don't think children ought to know the meaning of
Speaker 2: the word it's odious, detestable. They ought to do everything
Speaker 2: from love. Wait till you see the orphan asylum that
Speaker 2: I'm going to be the head of. It's my favorite play.
Speaker 2: At night before I go to sleep, I plan it
Speaker 2: out to the littlest detail, the meals and clothes and
Speaker 2: study and amusements and punishments. For even my superior orphans
Speaker 2: are sometimes bad, but anyway they're going to be happy.
Speaker 2: I think that everyone, no matter how many troubles he
Speaker 2: may have when he grows up, ought to have a
Speaker 2: happy childhood to look back upon. And if I ever
Speaker 2: have any children of my own, no matter how unhe
Speaker 2: happy I may be, I am not going to let
Speaker 2: them have any cares until they grow up. There goes
Speaker 2: the chapel bell. I'll finish this letter sometime Thursday. When
Speaker 2: I came in from laboratory this afternoon, I found a
Speaker 2: squirrel sitting on the tea table helping himself to almonds.
Speaker 2: These are the kind of callers we entertain now that
Speaker 2: warm weather has come in, the windows stay open Saturday morning.
Speaker 2: Perhaps you think last night, being Friday with no classes
Speaker 2: to day, that I passed a nice, quiet, readable evening
Speaker 2: with the set of Stevenson that I bought with my
Speaker 2: prize money. But if so, you've never attended a girls college. Daddy, Dear,
Speaker 2: six friends dropped in to make fudge, and one of
Speaker 2: them dropped the fudge while it was still liquid, right
Speaker 2: in the middle of our best rug. We shall never
Speaker 2: be able to clean up the mess. I haven't mentioned
Speaker 2: any lessons of late, but we are still having them
Speaker 2: every day. It's sort of a relief, though, to get
Speaker 2: away from them and discuss life in the large rather
Speaker 2: one sided discussions that you and I hold. But that's
Speaker 2: your own fault. You're welcome to answer back any time
Speaker 2: you choose. I've been writing this letter off and on
Speaker 2: for three days, and I fear by now. Vouzette biem board,
Speaker 2: good bye, nice mister Mann. Judy mister Daddy Longlegs smith Sir.
Speaker 2: Having completed the study of argumentation and the science of
Speaker 2: dividing a thesis into heads, I have decided to adopt
Speaker 2: the following form for letter writing. It contains all necessary
Speaker 2: facts but no unnecessary verbiage. One. We had written examinations
Speaker 2: this week in A chemistry B History. Two. A new
Speaker 2: dormitory is being built. A. Its material is a red
Speaker 2: brick B greystone. B. Its capacity will be A one dean,
Speaker 2: five instructors, B two hundred girls, C one housekeeper, three cooks,
Speaker 2: twenty waitresses, twenty chambermaids. Three. We had junk it for
Speaker 2: dessert to night. Four. I am writing a special topic
Speaker 2: upon the so of Shakespeare's plays. Five lu mac mahn
Speaker 2: slipped and fell this afternoon at basketball, and she a
Speaker 2: dislocated her shoulder B Where is her knee? Six? I
Speaker 2: have a new hat trimmed with a blue velvet ribbon
Speaker 2: B two blue quills, C three reb pom poms. Seven.
Speaker 2: It is half past nine. Eight. Good night Judy.
Speaker 3: End of Part five, Part six, second June. Dear Daddy
Speaker 3: long Legs, you will never guess the nice thing that
Speaker 3: has happened The mc brides have asked me to spend
Speaker 3: the summer at their camp at the Adirondacks. They belong
Speaker 3: to a sort of club on a lovely little lake
Speaker 3: in the middle of the woods. The different members have
Speaker 3: houses made of logs dotted about among the trees, and
Speaker 3: they go canoeing on the lake and take long walks
Speaker 3: through the trails to the other camps, and have dances
Speaker 3: once a week in the club house. Jimmy McBride is
Speaker 3: going to have a college friend visiting him part of
Speaker 3: the summer, so you see we shall have plenty of
Speaker 3: men to dance with. Wasn't it sweet of missus McBride
Speaker 3: to ask me? It appears that she liked me when
Speaker 3: I was there for Christmas. Please excuse this being short.
Speaker 3: It isn't a real letter. It's just to let you
Speaker 3: know that I am disposed of for the summer. Yours
Speaker 3: in a very contented frame of mind. Judy, fifth June,
Speaker 3: Dear Daddy long Legs, your secretary man has just written
Speaker 3: to me saying that mister Smith prefers that I should
Speaker 3: not accept missus McBride's invitation, but should return to Lockwillow
Speaker 3: the same as last year. Why why, why, Daddy, you
Speaker 3: don't understand about it. Missus McBride does want me, really
Speaker 3: and truly. I'm not the least bit of trouble in
Speaker 3: the house. I'm a help. They don't take up many servants,
Speaker 3: and Sally and I can do lots of useful things.
Speaker 3: It's a fine chance for me to learn housekeeping. Every
Speaker 3: woman to understand it, and I only know asylum keeping.
Speaker 3: There aren't any girls our age at the camp, and
Speaker 3: Missus McBride wants me for a companion for Sallie. We
Speaker 3: are planning to do a lot of reading together. We
Speaker 3: are going to read all the books for next year's
Speaker 3: English and Sociology. The professor said it would be a
Speaker 3: great help if we would get our reading finished in
Speaker 3: the summer, and it's so much easier to remember it
Speaker 3: if we read together and talk it over. Just to
Speaker 3: live in the same house with Sally's mother is an education.
Speaker 3: She is the most interesting, entertaining, companionable, charming woman in
Speaker 3: the world. She knows everything. Think how many summers I've
Speaker 3: spent with Missus Lippett and how I'll appreciate the contrast.
Speaker 3: You needn't be afraid that I'll be crowding them for
Speaker 3: their house is made of rubber. When they have a
Speaker 3: lot of company, they just sprinkle tents about it in
Speaker 3: the woods and turn the boys outside. It's going to
Speaker 3: be such a nice, healthy summer exercising out of doors
Speaker 3: every minute. Jimmy McBride is going to teach me how
Speaker 3: to ride horseback and paddle a canoe, and how to shoot,
Speaker 3: and oh lots of things I ought to know. It's
Speaker 3: the kind of nice, jolly, care free time that I've
Speaker 3: never had, and I think every girl deserves it once
Speaker 3: in her life. Of course, I'll do exactly as you say,
Speaker 3: but please please let me go, Daddy. I've never wanted
Speaker 3: anything so much. This isn't Jerusha Abbot, the future great
Speaker 3: author writing to you. It's just Judy, a girl. Ninth June,
Speaker 3: Mister John Smith, Sir, Yours of the seventh Instant at hand.
Speaker 3: In compliance with the instructions received through your secretary, I
Speaker 3: leave on Friday next to spend the summer at lock
Speaker 3: Willow Farm. I hope always to remain Miss Jerusha Abbot,
Speaker 3: lock Willow Farm, third August. Dear Daddy long Legs, it
Speaker 3: has been nearly two months since I wrote, which wasn't
Speaker 3: nice of me? I know, but I haven't loved you
Speaker 3: much this summer. You see, I'm being frank. You can't
Speaker 3: imagine how disappointed I was at having to give up
Speaker 3: the mc bride's camp. Of course, I know that you're
Speaker 3: my guardian and that I have to regard your wishes
Speaker 3: in all matters, but I couldn't see any reason. It
Speaker 3: was so distinctly the best thing that could have happened
Speaker 3: to me. If I had been Daddy and you had
Speaker 3: been Judy, I should have said, bless you, my child.
Speaker 3: Run along and have a good time, see lots of
Speaker 3: new people, and learn lots of new things, live out
Speaker 3: of doors, and get strong and well and rested for
Speaker 3: a year of hard work. But not at all, just
Speaker 3: a curt line from your secretary ordering me to lock Willow.
Speaker 3: It's the impersonality of your commands that hurts my feelings.
Speaker 3: It seems as though if you've felt the tiniest little
Speaker 3: bit for me the way I feel for you, you'd
Speaker 3: sometimes send me a message that you'd written with your
Speaker 3: own hand instead of those beastly typewritten secretary's notes. If
Speaker 3: there were the lightest hint that you cared, I'd do
Speaker 3: anything on earth to please you. I know that I
Speaker 3: was to write nice, long, detailed letters without ever expecting
Speaker 3: any answer. You're living up to your side of the bargain.
Speaker 3: I'm being educated, and I suppose you're thinking I'm not
Speaker 3: living up to mine. But Daddy, it is a hard bargain.
Speaker 3: It is really, I'm so awfully lonely. You are the
Speaker 3: only person I have to care for, and you are
Speaker 3: so shadowy. You're just an imaginary man that I've made up,
Speaker 3: and probably the real you isn't a bit like my
Speaker 3: imaginary you. But you did once, when I was ill
Speaker 3: in the infirmary, send me a message. And now, when
Speaker 3: I am feeling awfully forgotten, I get out your card
Speaker 3: and read it over. I don't think I am telling
Speaker 3: you at all what I started to say, which was this,
Speaker 3: although my feelings are still hurt, for it is very
Speaker 3: humiliating to be picked up and moved about by an
Speaker 3: arbitrary peremptory, unreasonable, omnipotent invisible providence. Still, when a man
Speaker 3: has been as kind and generous and thoughtful as you
Speaker 3: have heretofore been towards me, I suppose he has a
Speaker 3: right to be an arbitrary peremptory unreasonable invisible providence if
Speaker 3: he chooses, and so I'll forgive you and be cheerful again.
Speaker 3: But I still don't enjoy getting Sally's letters about the
Speaker 3: good times they are having in camp. However, we will
Speaker 3: draw a veil over that and begin again. I've been
Speaker 3: writing and writing this summer, four short stories finished and
Speaker 3: sent to four different magazines, so you see, I'm trying
Speaker 3: to be an author. I have a work room fixed
Speaker 3: in a corner of the attic where Master Jervy used
Speaker 3: to have his rainy day playroom. It's in a cool,
Speaker 3: breezy corner with two dormer windows and shaded by a
Speaker 3: maple tree, with a family of red squirrels living in
Speaker 3: a hole. I'll write a nicer letter in a few
Speaker 3: days and tell you all the farm news we need.
Speaker 3: Rain yours as ever, Judy tenth August, Mister Daddy long Legs, Sir,
Speaker 3: I address you from the second crotch in the willow tree,
Speaker 3: by the pool and the pasture. There was a frog
Speaker 3: croaking underneath, a locust singing overhead, and two little devil
Speaker 3: down heads darting up and down the trunk. I've been
Speaker 3: here for an hour. It's a very comfortable crotch, especially
Speaker 3: after being upholstered with two sofa cushions. I came up
Speaker 3: with a pen and tablet, hoping to write an immortal
Speaker 3: short story. But I've been having a dreadful time with
Speaker 3: my heroine. I can't make her behave as I want
Speaker 3: her to behave, So I've abandoned her for the moment,
Speaker 3: and am writing to you. Not much relief, though, for
Speaker 3: I can't make you behave as I want you either.
Speaker 3: If you are in that dreadful New York, I wish
Speaker 3: I could send you some of this lovely, breezy, sunshiny outlook.
Speaker 3: The country is heaven after a week of rain. Speaking
Speaker 3: of heaven, do you remember, mister Kellogg, that I told
Speaker 3: you about last summer, the minister of the little white
Speaker 3: church at the corners, Well, the poor old soul is
Speaker 3: dead last winter of pneumonia. I went half a dozen
Speaker 3: times to hear him preach, and got very well acquainted
Speaker 3: with his theology. He believed to the end exactly the
Speaker 3: same things he started with. It seems to me that
Speaker 3: a man who can think straight along for forty seven
Speaker 3: years without changing a single idea ought to be kept
Speaker 3: in a cabinet as a curiosity. I hope he is
Speaker 3: enjoying his harp and golden crown. He was so perfectly
Speaker 3: sure of finding them. There's a new young man, very
Speaker 3: consequential in his place. The congregation is pretty dubious, especially
Speaker 3: the faction led by geeking Cummings. It looks as though
Speaker 3: there was going to be an awful split in the church.
Speaker 3: We don't care for innovations and religion in this neighborhood.
Speaker 3: During our week of reign, I sat up in the
Speaker 3: attic and had an orgy of reading Stevenson. Mostly he
Speaker 3: himself is more entertaining than any of the characters in
Speaker 3: his books. I dare say he made himself into the
Speaker 3: kind of hero that would look well in print. Don't
Speaker 3: you think it was perfect of him to spend all
Speaker 3: the ten thousand dollars his father left for a yacht
Speaker 3: and go sailing off to the South Sees. He lived
Speaker 3: up to his adventurous creed. If my father had left
Speaker 3: me ten thousand dollars, I'd do it too. The thought
Speaker 3: of Vilema makes me wild. I want to see the tropics,
Speaker 3: I want to see the whole world. I'm going to
Speaker 3: be a great author. Or artist or actress or play
Speaker 3: right or whatever sort of a great person I turn
Speaker 3: out to be. I have a terrible wanderthirst. The very
Speaker 3: sight of a map makes me want to put on
Speaker 3: my hat and take an umbrella and start. I shall
Speaker 3: see before I die. The Palms and Temples of the South.
Speaker 3: Thursday evening at twilight, sitting on the doorstep, very hard
Speaker 3: to get any news into this letter. Judy is becoming
Speaker 3: so philosophical of late that she wishes to discourse largely
Speaker 3: of the world in general, instead of descending to the
Speaker 3: trivial details of daily life. But if you must have
Speaker 3: news here, it is our nine young pigs waded across
Speaker 3: the brook and ran away last Tuesday, and only eight
Speaker 3: came back. We don't want to accuse any one unjustly,
Speaker 3: but we suspect that widow Dowd has won more than
Speaker 3: she ought to have. Mister Weaver has painted his barn
Speaker 3: and his two silos and a bright pumpkin yellow, a
Speaker 3: very ugly color, but he says it will wear. The
Speaker 3: Brewers have company this week, missus Brewer's sister and two
Speaker 3: nieces from Ohio. One of our Rhode Island reds only
Speaker 3: brought off three chicks out of fifteen eggs. We can't
Speaker 3: imagine what was the trouble. Rhode Island Reds, in my opinion,
Speaker 3: are a very inferior breed. I prefer buff or Pringkings.
Speaker 3: The new clerk in the post office at Bonnie Rig
Speaker 3: four corners drank every drop of Jamaica ginger they had
Speaker 3: in stock seven dollars worth before he was discovered. Old
Speaker 3: Ira Hatch has rheumatism and can't work any more. He
Speaker 3: never saved his money when he's earning good wages, so
Speaker 3: now he has to live on the town. There's to
Speaker 3: be an ice cream social at the schoolhouse next Saturday evening.
Speaker 3: Come and bring your families. I have a new hat
Speaker 3: that I bought twenty five cents at the post office.
Speaker 3: This is my latest portrait on my way to rake
Speaker 3: the hay. It's getting too dark to see anyway. The
Speaker 3: news is all used up. Good night, Judy Friday, Good morning,
Speaker 3: here is some news. What do you think you'd never
Speaker 3: never guess? Who's coming to lock Willow? A letter to
Speaker 3: missus Semple from mister Pendleton. He's motoring through the Berkshires
Speaker 3: and is tired and wants to rest at a nice
Speaker 3: quiet farm. If he climbs out at her doorsteps some night,
Speaker 3: will she have a room ready for him. Maybe he'll
Speaker 3: stay one week, or maybe two, or maybe three. He'll
Speaker 3: see how RESTful it is when he gets here. Such
Speaker 3: a flutter as we are in the whole house is
Speaker 3: being cleaned and all the curtains washed. I'm driving to
Speaker 3: the corners this morning to get some new oil cloth
Speaker 3: to the entry and two cans of brown floor paint
Speaker 3: for the hall and back stairs. Missus Dowd is engaged
Speaker 3: to come tomorrow to wash the windows. In the exigency
Speaker 3: of the moment, we wave our suspicions in regard to
Speaker 3: the piglet. You might think from this account of our
Speaker 3: activities that the house was not already immaculate. But I
Speaker 3: assure you, however, it was. Whatever Missus Semple's limitations. She
Speaker 3: is a housekeeper. But isn't it just like a man daddy,
Speaker 3: He doesn't give the remotest hint as to whether he
Speaker 3: will land on the doorstep to day or two weeks
Speaker 3: from to day. We shall live in a perpetual breathlessness
Speaker 3: until he comes. And if he doesn't hurry, the cleaning
Speaker 3: may all have to be done over again. There's AMESI
Speaker 3: waiting below with the buckboard and Grover. I drive alone,
Speaker 3: but if you could see old Grove, you wouldn't be
Speaker 3: worried as to my safety. With my hand on my
Speaker 3: heart farewell, Judy, Yes, isn't that a nice ending? I
Speaker 3: got it out of Stephenson's letters Saturday. Good morning again.
Speaker 3: I didn't get this enveloped yesterday before the postman came,
Speaker 3: so i'll ads some more. We have one mail a
Speaker 3: day at twelve o'clock. Rural delivery is a blessing to
Speaker 3: the farmers. Our postman not only delivers letters, but he
Speaker 3: runs errands for us in town at five cents an
Speaker 3: errand yesterday he brought me some shoe strings and a
Speaker 3: jar of cold cream. I sun burned all the skin
Speaker 3: off my nose before I got my new hat and
Speaker 3: a blue windsor tie and a bottle of blacking all
Speaker 3: for ten cents. That was an unusual bargain owing to
Speaker 3: the largeness of my order. Also, he tells us what
Speaker 3: is happening in the great world. Several people on the
Speaker 3: route take daily papers and he reads them as he
Speaker 3: jogs along, and repeats the news to the ones who
Speaker 3: don't subscribe. So in case the war breaks out between
Speaker 3: the United States and Japan, or the president is assassinated,
Speaker 3: or mister Rockefeller leaves a million dollars to the John
Speaker 3: Grier Home, you needn't bother to write. I'll hear it anyway.
Speaker 3: No sign yet of Master Jerviy, But you should see
Speaker 3: how clean our house is, and with what anxiety we
Speaker 3: wipe our feet before we step in. I hope he'll
Speaker 3: come soon. I am longing for someone to talk to
Speaker 3: missus Semple, to tell you the truth. It's rather monotonous.
Speaker 3: She never lets ideas interrupt the easy flow of her conversation.
Speaker 3: It's a funny thing about the people here. Their world
Speaker 3: is just this single hilltop. They are not a bit universal,
Speaker 3: if you know what I mean. It's exactly the same
Speaker 3: as at the John Greerhome. Our ideas there were bounded
Speaker 3: by the four sides of the iron fence. Only I
Speaker 3: didn't mind it so much because I was younger and
Speaker 3: was so awfully busy. By the time I got all
Speaker 3: my beds made and my baby's faces washed, and had
Speaker 3: gone to school and come home and washed their faces again,
Speaker 3: and darned their stockings and mended Freddy Perkins's trousers. He
Speaker 3: tore them every day of his life and learned my
Speaker 3: lessons in between. I was ready to go to bed,
Speaker 3: and I didn't notice any lack of social intercourse. But
Speaker 3: after two years in a conversational college, I do miss it,
Speaker 3: and I shall be glad to see somebody who speaks
Speaker 3: my language. I really believe I've finished, Daddy. Nothing else
Speaker 3: occurs to me at the moment. I'll try to write
Speaker 3: a longer letter next time. Yours always, Judy p. S.
Speaker 3: The lettuce hasn't done it all well this year. It
Speaker 3: was so dry early in the season. Twenty fifth August. Well, Daddy,
Speaker 3: Master Jerviy's here, and such a nice time as we're having,
Speaker 3: at least I am, and I think he is too.
Speaker 3: He has been here ten days and doesn't show any
Speaker 3: signs of going the way missus semple pampers. That man
Speaker 3: is scandalous. If she indulged him as much when he
Speaker 3: was a baby, I don't know how he ever turned
Speaker 3: out so well. He and I eat at a little
Speaker 3: table set on the side porch, or sometimes under the trees,
Speaker 3: or when it rains or is cold, in the best parlor.
Speaker 3: He just picks out the spot he wants to eat
Speaker 3: in and carry trots after him with the table. Then
Speaker 3: if it has been an awful nuisance and she has
Speaker 3: had to carry the dishes very far, she finds a
Speaker 3: dollar under the sugar bowl. He is an awfully companionable
Speaker 3: sort of man, though you would never believe it to
Speaker 3: see him casually. He looks at first glance just like
Speaker 3: a true Pendleton, but he isn't in the least. He
Speaker 3: is just as simple and unaffected and as sweet as
Speaker 3: can be. That seems a funny way to describe a man,
Speaker 3: but it's true. He's extremely nice with the farmers round here.
Speaker 3: He meets them in a sort of man to man
Speaker 3: fashion that disarms them immediately. They were very suspicious at first.
Speaker 3: They didn't care for his clothes. I will say that
Speaker 3: his clothes are rather amazing. He wears knickerbockers and pleated
Speaker 3: jackets and white flannels and riding clothes with puffed trousers.
Speaker 3: Whenever he comes down in anything new, missus Semple, beaming
Speaker 3: with pride, walks around and views him from every angle
Speaker 3: and urges him to be careful where he sits down.
Speaker 3: She is so afraid he will pick up some dust.
Speaker 3: It bores him dreadfully. He is always saying to her,
Speaker 3: run along, Lizzie, and tend to your work. You can't
Speaker 3: boss me any longer. I've grown up. It's awfully funny
Speaker 3: to think of that great, big, long legged man. He's
Speaker 3: nearly as long legged as you, daddy ever, sitting in
Speaker 3: missus Semple's lap and having his face washed. Particularly funny
Speaker 3: when you see her lap. She has two laps now
Speaker 3: and three chins. But he says that once she was
Speaker 3: thin and wiry, in spry, and could run faster than he.
Speaker 3: Such a lot of adventures we're having. We've explored the
Speaker 3: country for miles, and I've learned to fish with funny
Speaker 3: little flies made of feathers, also to shoot with a
Speaker 3: rifle and a revolver, also to ride horseback. There's an
Speaker 3: astonishing amount of life an old grove. We fed him
Speaker 3: on oats for three days, and he shineded a calf
Speaker 3: and almost ran away with me. Wednesday. We climbed sky
Speaker 3: Hill Monday afternoon. That's a mountain near here, not an
Speaker 3: off the high Mountain. Perhaps no snow on the summit,
Speaker 3: but at least you are pretty breathless when you reach
Speaker 3: the top. The lower slopes are covered with woods, but
Speaker 3: the top is just piled rocks and open more. We
Speaker 3: stayed up for the sunset and built a fire and
Speaker 3: cooked our supper. Master Jervy did the cooking. He said
Speaker 3: he knew how better than me, and he did too,
Speaker 3: because he's used to camping. Then we came down by moonlight,
Speaker 3: and when we reached the wood trail where it was dark,
Speaker 3: by the light of an electric bulb that he had
Speaker 3: in his pocket. It was such fun. He laughed and
Speaker 3: joked all the way and talked about interesting things. He's read,
Speaker 3: all the books I've ever read, and a lot of others. Besides,
Speaker 3: it's astonishing how many different things he knows. We went
Speaker 3: for a long tramp this morning and got caught in
Speaker 3: a storm. Our clothes were drenched before we reached home,
Speaker 3: but our spirits not even damp. You should have seen
Speaker 3: missus Semple's face when we'd ripped into her kitchen. Oh,
Speaker 3: Master Jervie, Miss Judy, you are soaked through. Dear, dear,
Speaker 3: what shall I do? That nice new coat is perfectly ruined.
Speaker 3: She was awfully funny. You would have thought that we
Speaker 3: were ten years old, and she had distracted mother. I
Speaker 3: was afraid for a while that we weren't going to
Speaker 3: get any jam for tea Saturday. I started this letter
Speaker 3: ages ago, but I haven't had a second to finish it.
Speaker 3: Isn't this a nice stought from Stevenson? The world is
Speaker 3: so full of a number of things. I am sure
Speaker 3: we should all be as happy as kings. It's true,
Speaker 3: you know, the world is full of happiness and plenty
Speaker 3: to go round if you are only willing to take
Speaker 3: the kind that comes your way. The whole secret is
Speaker 3: in being pliable. In the country, especially, there are such
Speaker 3: a lot of entertaining things. I can walk over everybody's land,
Speaker 3: and look at everybody's view, and dabble in everybody's brook
Speaker 3: and enjoy it just as much as though I owned
Speaker 3: the land, and with no taxes to pay. It's Sunday
Speaker 3: night now, about eleven o'clock, and I am supposed to
Speaker 3: be getting some beauty sleep. But I had black coffee
Speaker 3: for dinner, so no beauty sleep for me this morning,
Speaker 3: said missus Semple to mister Pendleton, with a very determined accent.
Speaker 3: We have I have to leave here at a quarter
Speaker 3: past ten in order to get to church.
Speaker 1: By eleven.
Speaker 3: Very well, Lizzie said, Master Jerviy, you have the buggy ready,
Speaker 3: and if I'm not dressed, just go on without waiting.
Speaker 3: We'll wait, said she, as you please, said he, only
Speaker 3: don't keep the horses standing too long. Then, while she
Speaker 3: was dressing, he told Carrie to pack up a lunch,
Speaker 3: and he told me to scramble into my walking clothes,
Speaker 3: and we slipped out the back way and went fishing.
Speaker 3: It discommoded the household dreadfully because lock Willow of a
Speaker 3: Sunday dines at two, but he ordered dinner at seven.
Speaker 3: He orders meals whenever he chooses. You would think the
Speaker 3: place where a restaurant. And that kept Carrie and Amesi
Speaker 3: from going driving, But he said it was all the
Speaker 3: better because it wasn't proper for them to go driving
Speaker 3: without a chaperone, And anyway, he wanted the horses himself
Speaker 3: take me driving. Did you ever hear anything so funny?
Speaker 3: And poor missus Semple believes that people who go fishing
Speaker 3: on Sundays will afterwards go to a sizzling hot hell.
Speaker 3: She is awfully troubled to think that she didn't train
Speaker 3: him better when he was small and helpless and she
Speaker 3: had the chance. Besides, she wished to show him off
Speaker 3: in church. Anyway, we had our fishing. He caught four
Speaker 3: little ones and we cooked them on a camp fire
Speaker 3: for lunch. They kept falling off our spiked sticks into
Speaker 3: the fire, so they tasted a little ashy, but we
Speaker 3: ate them. We got home at four, and went driving
Speaker 3: at five, and had dinner at seven, and at ten
Speaker 3: I was sent to bed. And here I am writing
Speaker 3: to you. I am getting a little sleepy though good night.
Speaker 3: Here is a picture of the one fish I caught ship,
Speaker 3: a boy cap'n long legs, a vast be lay yo
Speaker 3: ho ho, and a bottle of rum. Guess what I'm reading.
Speaker 3: Our conversation these past two days has been nautical and piratical.
Speaker 3: Isn't Treasure Island fun? Did you ever read it? Or
Speaker 3: wasn't it written when you were a boy? Stevenson only
Speaker 3: got thirty pounds for the serial rights. I don't believe
Speaker 3: it pays to be a great author. Maybe I'll be
Speaker 3: a school teacher. Excuse me for filling my letters so
Speaker 3: full of Stephenson. My mind is very much engaged with him.
Speaker 3: At present. He comprises lock Willow's Library. I've been writing
Speaker 3: this letter for two weeks, and I think it's about
Speaker 3: long enough. Never say, Daddy that I don't give details.
Speaker 3: I wish you were here too, we'd all have such
Speaker 3: a jolly time together. I like my different friends to
Speaker 3: know each other. I wanted to ask mister Pendleton if
Speaker 3: he knew you in New York. I should think he might.
Speaker 3: You must move in about the same exalted social circles,
Speaker 3: and you are both interested in reforms and things. But
Speaker 3: I couldn't for I don't know your real name. It's
Speaker 3: the silliest thing I ever heard of, not to know
Speaker 3: your name. Missus Lippett warned me that you were eccentric.
Speaker 3: I should think so affectionately. Judy p. S. On reading
Speaker 3: this over, I find that it isn't all Stephenson. There
Speaker 3: are one or two glancing references to Master Jervy tenth September.
Speaker 3: Dear Daddy, he has gone and we are missing him.
Speaker 3: When you get accustomed to people, or places or ways
Speaker 3: of living and then have them snatched away, it does
Speaker 3: leave an awfully empty, gnawing sort of sensation. I'm finding
Speaker 3: Missus Semple's conversation pretty unseasoned. Food College opens in two
Speaker 3: weeks and I shall be glad to begin work again.
Speaker 3: I have worked quite a lot this summer, though. Six
Speaker 3: short stories and seven poems. Those I sent to the
Speaker 3: magazines all came back with the most courteous promptitude. But
Speaker 3: I don't mind. It's good practice. Master Jervy read them.
Speaker 3: He brought in the post, so I couldn't help his knowing,
Speaker 3: and he said they were dreadful. They showed that I
Speaker 3: didn't have the slightest idea of what I was talking about.
Speaker 3: Master Jervy doesn't let politeness interfere with truth. But the
Speaker 3: last one I did, just a little sketch late in college.
Speaker 3: He said wasn't bad, and he had it typewritten, and
Speaker 3: I sent it to a magazine. They've had it two weeks.
Speaker 3: Maybe they're thinking it over. You should see the sky.
Speaker 3: There's the queerest orange colored light over everything. We're going
Speaker 3: to have a storm. It commenced just that moment, with
Speaker 3: tremendously big drops and all the shutters banging. I had
Speaker 3: to run to close the windows while carry flew to
Speaker 3: the attic with an armful of milk pans to put
Speaker 3: under the places where the roof leaks. And then just
Speaker 3: as I was resuming my pen, I remembered that I'd
Speaker 3: left a cushion and drug and hat and Matthew Arnold's
Speaker 3: poems under a tree in the orchard, so I dashed
Speaker 3: out to get them, all quite soaked. The red cover
Speaker 3: of the poems had run into the inside. The dover
Speaker 3: beach in the future will be washed by pink waves.
Speaker 3: A storm is awfully disturbing in the country. You are
Speaker 3: always having to think of so many things that are
Speaker 3: out of doors and getting spoiled. Thursday, Daddy, Daddy, what
Speaker 3: do you think? The postman has just come with two letters? First, Mice,
Speaker 3: the story is accepted fifty dollars a lore. I am
Speaker 3: an author. Second a letter from the college secretary. I'm
Speaker 3: to have a scholarship for two years that will cover
Speaker 3: board and tuition. It was founded for marked proficiency in
Speaker 3: English with general excellency in other lines, and I've won it.
Speaker 3: I applied for it before I left, but I didn't
Speaker 3: have an idea i'd get it on account of my
Speaker 3: freshman bad work in maths and Latin. But it seems
Speaker 3: I've made it up. I am awfully glad, Daddy, because
Speaker 3: now I won't be such a burden to you. The
Speaker 3: monthly allowance will be all all need, and maybe I
Speaker 3: can earn that with writing or tutoring or something. I'm
Speaker 3: longing to go back and begin work yours ever, jerushe Abbott,
Speaker 3: author of When the Sophomores Won the Game for sale
Speaker 3: at All Newstands price ten cents. End of Part six,
Speaker 3: Part seven, twenty sixth September. Dear Daddy Longlegs, back at
Speaker 3: college again and an upper classman. Our study is better
Speaker 3: than ever this year faces the South with two huge
Speaker 3: windows and oh so furnished. Julia with an unlimited allowance,
Speaker 3: arrived two days early and was attacked with a fever
Speaker 3: for settling. We have new wall paper and oriental rugs
Speaker 3: and mahogany chairs, not painted mahogany, which made us sufficiently
Speaker 3: happy last year, but real. It's very gorgeous, but I
Speaker 3: don't feel as though I belonged in it. I'm nervous
Speaker 3: all the time for fear I'll get an inkspot in
Speaker 3: the wrong place. And Daddy, I found your letter waiting
Speaker 3: for me. Pardon, I mean your secretaries. Will you kindly
Speaker 3: convey to me a comprehensible reason why I should not
Speaker 3: accept that scholarship? I don't understand your objection in the least,
Speaker 3: But anyway, it won't do the slightest good for you
Speaker 3: to object, for I've already accepted it, and I am
Speaker 3: not going to change. That sounds a little impertinent, but
Speaker 3: I don't mean it. So I suppose you feel that
Speaker 3: when you set out to educate me, you'd like to
Speaker 3: finish the work and put a neat period in the
Speaker 3: shape of a diploma at the end. But look at
Speaker 3: it just a second. From my point of view, I
Speaker 3: shall owe my education to you just as much as
Speaker 3: though I let you pay for the whole of it,
Speaker 3: but I won't be quite so much indebted. I know
Speaker 3: that you don't want me to return the money, but
Speaker 3: nevertheless I'm going to want to do it if I
Speaker 3: possibly can, and winning this scholarship makes it so much easier.
Speaker 3: I was expecting to spend the rest of my life
Speaker 3: in paying my debts, but now I shall only have
Speaker 3: to spend one half of the rest of it. I
Speaker 3: hope you'll understand my position and won't be cross the allowance.
Speaker 3: I shall still most gratefully accept. It requires an allowance
Speaker 3: to live up to Julia and her furniture. I wish
Speaker 3: that she had been reared to simpler tastes, or else
Speaker 3: that she were not my roommate. This isn't much of
Speaker 3: a letter. I meant to have written a lot, but
Speaker 3: I've been hemming four window curtains in three poortiers. I'm
Speaker 3: glad you can't see the link of the bitches, and
Speaker 3: polishing a brass desk set with tooth powder, very uphill work,
Speaker 3: and sawing off picture wire with manicure scissors, and unpacking
Speaker 3: four boxes of books and putting away two trunkfuls of clothes.
Speaker 3: It doesn't seem believable that Jerusha Abbot owns two trunks
Speaker 3: full of clothes, but she does. And welcoming back fifty
Speaker 3: dear friends in between. The opening day is a joyous occasion.
Speaker 3: Good night, daddy, dear, and don't be annoyed because your
Speaker 3: chick is wanting to scratch for herself. She's growing up
Speaker 3: into an awfully energetic little hand with the little determined
Speaker 3: cluck and lots of beautiful feathers, all due to you.
Speaker 3: Affectionately Judy thirtieth September, Dear daddy, are you still harping
Speaker 3: on that scholarship? I never knew a man so obstinate
Speaker 3: and stubborn and unreasonable and tenacious and bull doggish and
Speaker 3: unable to see other people's points of view as you.
Speaker 3: You prefer that I should not be accepting favorites from strangers. Strangers,
Speaker 3: and what are you pray? Is there any one in
Speaker 3: the world that I know less? I shouldn't recognize you
Speaker 3: if I met you in the street. Now, you see,
Speaker 3: if you had been a sane, sensible person and had
Speaker 3: written nice, cheering, fatherly letters to your little judy, and
Speaker 3: had come occasionally impatted her on the head and said
Speaker 3: you were glad she was such a good girl, then
Speaker 3: perhaps she wouldn't have flouted you in your old age,
Speaker 3: but would have a bade your slightest wish, like the
Speaker 3: dutiful daughter she was meant to be. Strangers. Indeed, you
Speaker 3: live in a glass house, mister Smith. And besides, this
Speaker 3: isn't a favor, It's like a prize. I earned it
Speaker 3: by hard work. If nobody had been good enough in English,
Speaker 3: the committee wouldn't have awarded the scholarship. Some years they don't. Also,
Speaker 3: but what's the use of arguing with the man you
Speaker 3: belong mister Smith? To a sex devoid of a sense
Speaker 3: of logic. To bring a man into line, there are
Speaker 3: just two methods. One must either coax or be disagreeable.
Speaker 3: I scorned coax men for what I wish, Therefore I
Speaker 3: must be disagreeable. I refuse, sir, to give up the scholarship,
Speaker 3: and if you make any more fuss, I won't accept
Speaker 3: the monthly allowance either, but will wear myself into a
Speaker 3: nervous wreck tutoring stupid freshman. That is my ultimatum. And listen,
Speaker 3: I have a further thought. Since you are so afraid
Speaker 3: that by taking this scholarship, I am depriving someone else
Speaker 3: of an education, I know a way out. You can
Speaker 3: apply the money that you would have spent for me
Speaker 3: toward educating some other little girl from the John Greer home.
Speaker 3: Don't you think that's a nice idea? Only Daddy, educate
Speaker 3: the new girl as much as you choose, but please
Speaker 3: don't like her any better than me. I trust that
Speaker 3: your secretary won't be hurt because I pay so little
Speaker 3: attention to the suggestions he offered in his letter. But
Speaker 3: I can't help it if he is. He's a spoiled
Speaker 3: child's daddy. I've meekly given in to his whims heretofore,
Speaker 3: But this time I intend to be firm yours, with
Speaker 3: a mind completely and irrevocably, and world without end made
Speaker 3: up up. Jerusha Abbot, ninth November. Dear Daddy long Legs.
Speaker 3: I started downtown today to buy a bottle of shoe
Speaker 3: blacking and some collars into the material for a new blouse,
Speaker 3: and a jar of violet cream and a cake of
Speaker 3: castile soap, all very necessary. I couldn't be happy another
Speaker 3: day without them. And when I tried to pay the
Speaker 3: car fare, I found that I had left my purse
Speaker 3: in the pocket of my other coat. So I had
Speaker 3: to get out and take the next car, and was
Speaker 3: late for Gymnasium. It's a dreadful thing to have no
Speaker 3: memory in two coats. Julia Pendleton has invited me to
Speaker 3: visit her for the Christmas holidays. How does that strike you,
Speaker 3: mister Smith? Fancy Jerusha Abbot of the John Greerholme sitting
Speaker 3: at the tables of the rich. I don't know why
Speaker 3: Julia wants me. She seems to be getting quite attached
Speaker 3: to me. Of late, I should tell the truth very
Speaker 3: much prefer going to Sallie's. But Julia asked me first,
Speaker 3: so if I go anywhere, it must be to New
Speaker 3: York instead of to Worcester. I'm rather odd at the
Speaker 3: prospect of meeting Pendleton's end mass, and also I have
Speaker 3: to get a lot of new clothes. So Daddy dear,
Speaker 3: if you write that you would prefer having me remain
Speaker 3: quietly at college, I will bow to your wishes with
Speaker 3: my usual sweet facility. I'm engaged at odd moments with
Speaker 3: the Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley. It makes nice
Speaker 3: light reading to pick up between times. Do you know
Speaker 3: what an archaeopteryx is? It's a bird and to Stereognothus.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure myself, but I think it's a missing link,
Speaker 3: like a bird with teeth or a lizard with wings. No,
Speaker 3: it isn't either. I've just looked in the book. It's
Speaker 3: a mesozoic mammal. I've elected economics this year, very illuminating subject.
Speaker 3: When I finish that, I'm going to take charity and reform. Then,
Speaker 3: mister Trustee, I'll know just how an orphan asylum ought
Speaker 3: to be run. Don't you think I'd make an admirable
Speaker 3: rot if I had my rights. I was twenty one
Speaker 3: last week this is an awfully wasteful country to throw
Speaker 3: away such an honest, educated, conscientious, intelligent citizen, as I
Speaker 3: would be yours always. Judy, seventh December, Dear Daddy Longlegs,
Speaker 3: thank you from your permission to visit Julia. I take
Speaker 3: it that silence means consent. Such a social whirl as
Speaker 3: we've been having, the Founder's Dance came last week. This
Speaker 3: was the first year that any of us could attend,
Speaker 3: only upperclassmen being allowed. I invited Jimmy mc bride, and
Speaker 3: Sally invited his roommate at Princeton, who visited them last
Speaker 3: summer at their camp, an awfully nice man with red hair.
Speaker 3: And Julia invited a man from New York, not very exciting,
Speaker 3: but socially irreproachable. He is connected with the de la
Speaker 3: materire Chichesters. Perhaps that means something to you. It doesn't
Speaker 3: illuminate me to any extent. However, our guests came Friday
Speaker 3: afternoon in time for tea in the Senior Corridor, and
Speaker 3: then dashed down to the hotel for dinner. The hotel
Speaker 3: was so full that they slept in rows on the
Speaker 3: billiard's tables. They say Jimmy mc bride says that the
Speaker 3: next time he has bidden to a social event in
Speaker 3: this college, he is going to bring one of their
Speaker 3: Adirondack tents and pitch it on the campus. At seven thirty,
Speaker 3: they came back for the President's reception and dance. Our
Speaker 3: functions commence early. We had the men's cards all made
Speaker 3: out ahead of time, and after every dance we'd leave
Speaker 3: them in groups under the letter that stood for their name,
Speaker 3: so that they could be readily found by their next partners.
Speaker 3: Jimmy mc bride, for example, would stand patiently under m
Speaker 3: until he was claimed. At least he ought to have
Speaker 3: stood patiently, but he kept wandering off and getting mixed
Speaker 3: with the r's and s's and all sorts of letters.
Speaker 3: I found him a very difficult guest. He was sulky
Speaker 3: because he had only three dances with me. He said
Speaker 3: he was bashful about dancing with girls he didn't know.
Speaker 3: The next morning we had a glee club concert. And
Speaker 3: who do you think wrote the funny new song composed
Speaker 3: for the occasion. It's the truth she did. Oh, I
Speaker 3: tell you, daddy, your little foundling is getting to be
Speaker 3: quite a prominent person. Anyway. Our gay two days were
Speaker 3: great fun, and I think the men enjoyed it. Some
Speaker 3: of them were awfully perturbed at first at the prospect
Speaker 3: of facing one thousand girls, but they got acclimated very quickly.
Speaker 3: Our two Princeton men had a beautiful time, at least
Speaker 3: they politely said they had. And they've invited us to
Speaker 3: their dance next spring. We've accepted, so please don't object, Daddy, Dear,
Speaker 3: Julia and Salie and I all had new dresses. Do
Speaker 3: you want to hear about them? Julia's was cream satin
Speaker 3: and gold embroidery, and she wore purple orchids. It was
Speaker 3: a dream and came from Paris and cost a million dollars.
Speaker 3: Sallie's was pale blue, trimmed with Persian embroidery and went
Speaker 3: beautifully with red hair. It didn't cost quite a million,
Speaker 3: but was just as effective as Julia's. Mine was pale
Speaker 3: pink crape machine trimmed with ecru lace and rose satin,
Speaker 3: and I carried crimson roses with Jimmie McBride's scent, Salie
Speaker 3: having told him what color to get, and we all
Speaker 3: had satin silk lippers and silk stockings and shiffon scarfs
Speaker 3: to match. You must be deeply impressed by these millinery details.
Speaker 3: One can't help thinking, Daddy, what a colorless life a
Speaker 3: man is forced to lead when one reflects that chiffon
Speaker 3: and Venetian point and hand embroidery and Irish crochet are
Speaker 3: to him mere empty words. Whereas a woman, whether she
Speaker 3: is interested in babies or microbes, or husbands, or poetry
Speaker 3: or servants or parallelograms or gardens or plato or bridge,
Speaker 3: it's fundamentally and always interested in clothes. It's the one
Speaker 3: touch of nature that makes the whole world. Kin that
Speaker 3: isn't original. I got it out of one of Shakespeare's plays. However,
Speaker 3: to resume, do you want me to tell you a
Speaker 3: secret that I've lately discovered, and will you promise not
Speaker 3: to think me vain? Then listen? I'm pretty I am really,
Speaker 3: I'd be an awful idiot not to know it. With
Speaker 3: three looking glasses in the room, a friend p s.
Speaker 3: This is one of those wicked anonymous letters you read
Speaker 3: about in novels. Twentieth December, Dear Daddy longlegs, I've just
Speaker 3: a moment because I must attend two classes, pack a
Speaker 3: trunk and a suit case and catch the four o'clock train,
Speaker 3: but I couldn't go without sending a word to let
Speaker 3: you know how much I appreciate my Christmas box. I
Speaker 3: love the furs and the necklace and the Liberty scarf,
Speaker 3: and the gloves and handkerchiefs and books and purse, and
Speaker 3: most of all, I love you. But Daddy, you have
Speaker 3: no business to spoil me this way. I'm only human,
Speaker 3: and a girl at that. How can I keep my
Speaker 3: mind sternly fixed on a studious career when you deflect
Speaker 3: me with such worldly frivilties. I have strong suspicions now
Speaker 3: as to which one of the John Greer trustees used
Speaker 3: to give the Christmas tree in the Sunday ice Cream.
Speaker 3: He was nameless, but by his works I know him.
Speaker 3: You deserve to be happy for all the good things
Speaker 3: you do. Good Bye and to very merry Christmas, Yours always,
Speaker 3: Judy P. S. I am sending a slight token two.
Speaker 3: I think you would like her if you knew her.
Speaker 3: Eleventh January, I meant to write to you from the city, Daddy,
Speaker 3: but New York is an engrossing place. I had an
Speaker 3: interesting and illuminating time, but I'm glad I don't belong
Speaker 3: to such a family, I should truly rather have the
Speaker 3: John Greerholme for a background. Whatever the drawbacks of my
Speaker 3: bringing up, there was at least no pretense about it.
Speaker 3: I know now what people mean when they say they
Speaker 3: are weighed down by things. The material atmosphere of that
Speaker 3: house was crushing. I didn't draw a deep breath until
Speaker 3: I was on an express train coming back. All the
Speaker 3: furniture was carved and upholstered and gorgeous. The people I
Speaker 3: met were beautifully dressed and low voiced and well bred.
Speaker 3: But it's the truth, Daddy. I never heard one word
Speaker 3: of real talk from the time we arrived until we left.
Speaker 3: I don't think an idea ever entered the front door.
Speaker 3: Missus Pendleton never thinks of anything but jewels and dressmakers
Speaker 3: and social engagements. She did seem a different mother from
Speaker 3: Missus mc bride. If I ever marry and have a family,
Speaker 3: I'm going to make them as exactly like the McBride's
Speaker 3: as I can.
Speaker 1: Not.
Speaker 3: For all the money in the world would I ever
Speaker 3: let any children of mine develop into Pendleton's. Maybe it
Speaker 3: isn't polite to criticize people you've been visiting. If it
Speaker 3: isn't please excuse this is very confidential between you and me.
Speaker 3: I only saw Master Jervy once when he called at
Speaker 3: tea time, and then I didn't really have a chance
Speaker 3: to speak to him alone. It was really disappointing after
Speaker 3: our nice time last summer. I don't think he cares
Speaker 3: much for his relatives, and I am sure they don't
Speaker 3: care much for him. Julia's mother says he's unbalanced. He's
Speaker 3: a socialist, except, thank Heavens, he doesn't let his hair
Speaker 3: grow and wear red ties. She can't imagine where he
Speaker 3: picked up his queer ideas. The family have been Church
Speaker 3: of England for generations. He throws away his money on
Speaker 3: every sort of crazy reform instead of spending it on
Speaker 3: such sensible things as yachts and autumnalis and polo ponies.
Speaker 3: He does buy candy with it, though, he sent Julia
Speaker 3: and me each a box for Christmas. You know, I
Speaker 3: think I'll be a socialist too. You wouldn't mind, would you, daddy.
Speaker 3: They're quite different from anarchists. They don't believe in blowing
Speaker 3: people up. Probably I am one by rights, I belong
Speaker 3: to the proletariat. I haven't determined yet just which kind
Speaker 3: I am going to be. I will look into the
Speaker 3: subject over Sunday and declare my principles in my next
Speaker 3: I've seen loads of theater and hotels and beautiful houses.
Speaker 3: My mind is a confused jungle of onyx and gilding
Speaker 3: and mosaic floors and palms. I'm still pretty breathless, but
Speaker 3: I am glad to get back to college. In my books,
Speaker 3: I believe that I really am a student. This atmosphere
Speaker 3: of academic calm I find more bracing than New York.
Speaker 3: College is a very satisfying sort of life. The books
Speaker 3: and study and regular classes keep you alive mentally, and
Speaker 3: then when your mind gets tired, you have the gymnasium
Speaker 3: in outdoor athletics, and always plenty of congenial friends who
Speaker 3: are thinking about the same things you are. We spend
Speaker 3: a whole evening in nothing but talk talk, talk, talk,
Speaker 3: and go to bed with very uplifted feeling as though
Speaker 3: we had settled permanently some pressing world problems and filling
Speaker 3: in every crevice. There is always such a lot of nonsense,
Speaker 3: just silly jokes about the little things that come up,
Speaker 3: but very satisfying. We do appreciate our own witticisms. It
Speaker 3: isn't the great, big pleasures that count the most, it's
Speaker 3: making a great deal out of the little ones. I've
Speaker 3: discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is
Speaker 3: to live in the now, not to be forever regretting
Speaker 3: the past or anticipating the future, but to get the
Speaker 3: most you can out of this very instant. It's like farming.
Speaker 3: You could have extensive farming and intensive farming. Well, I'm
Speaker 3: going to have intensive living after this. I'm going to
Speaker 3: enjoy every second, and I'm going to know I'm enjoying
Speaker 3: it while I'm enjoying it. Most people don't live. We
Speaker 3: just race. They are trying to reach some goal far
Speaker 3: away on the horizon, and in the heat of the
Speaker 3: going they get so breathless and panting that they lose
Speaker 3: all sight of the beautiful, tranquil country they are passing through.
Speaker 3: And then the first thing they know they are old
Speaker 3: and worn out, and it doesn't make any difference whether
Speaker 3: they've reached the goal or not. I've decided to sit
Speaker 3: down by the way and pile up a lot of
Speaker 3: little happinesses, even if I never become a great author.
Speaker 3: Did you ever know such a philosopherus as I am
Speaker 3: developing into yours ever, Judy p s. It's raining cats
Speaker 3: and dogs tonight. Two puppies and a kitten have just
Speaker 3: landed on the windowsill. Dear Comrade, hooray, I am a fabian.
Speaker 3: That's a socialist who's willing to wait. We don't want
Speaker 3: the social revolution to come tomorrow morning. It would be
Speaker 3: too upsetting. We wanted to come very gradually in the
Speaker 3: distant future, when we shall all be prepared and able
Speaker 3: to sustain the shock. In the meantime, we must be
Speaker 3: getting ready by instituting industrial, educational and orphan asylum reforms.
Speaker 3: Yours with fraternal love, Judy, Monday, third hour, eleventh February,
Speaker 3: Dear d l L. Don't be insulted because this is
Speaker 3: so short. It isn't a letter. It's just a line
Speaker 3: to say that I'm going to write a letter pretty
Speaker 3: soon when examinations are over. It is not only necessary
Speaker 3: that I pass, but pass well. I have a scholarship
Speaker 3: to live up to yours, studying hard Ja fifth March,
Speaker 3: Dear Daddy long Legs. President Cueler made a speech this
Speaker 3: evening about the modern generation being flippant and superficial. He
Speaker 3: says that we are losing the old ideals of earnest
Speaker 3: endeavor and true scholarship, and particularly is this falling off
Speaker 3: noticeable in our disrespectful attitude toward organized authority. We no
Speaker 3: longer pay a seemly deference to our superiors. I came
Speaker 3: away from chapel very sober. Am I too familiar? Daddy?
Speaker 3: Ought I to treat you with more dignity and aloofness? Yes,
Speaker 3: I'm sure I ought. I'll begin again, My dear mister Smith.
Speaker 3: You will be pleased to hear that I passed successfully
Speaker 3: my mid year examinations and am now commencing work in
Speaker 3: the new semester. I am leaving chemistry, having completed the
Speaker 3: course in qualitative analysis, and am entering upon the study
Speaker 3: of biology. I approach this subject with some hesitation, as
Speaker 3: I understand that we dissect angleworms and frogs. An extremely
Speaker 3: interesting and valuable lecture was given in the chapel last
Speaker 3: week upon Roman remains in southern France. I have never
Speaker 3: listened to a more illuminating exposition of the subject. We
Speaker 3: are reading Wordsworth's tinturn Albe in connection with our course
Speaker 3: in English literature. Whatdenness quisite work? It is, and how
Speaker 3: adequately it embodies his conceptions of pantheism. The Romantic movement
Speaker 3: of the early part of the last century, exemplified in
Speaker 3: the works of so much poets as Shelley, Byron, Heats
Speaker 3: and Wordsworth, appeals to me very much more than the
Speaker 3: classical period that preceded it. Speaking of poetry, have you
Speaker 3: ever read that charming little thing of Tennyson's called Locksley Hall.
Speaker 3: I am attending Gymnasium very regularly. Of late. A procter
Speaker 3: system has been devised, and failure to comply with the
Speaker 3: rules causes a great deal of inconvenience. The gymnasium is
Speaker 3: equipped with a very beautiful swimming tank of cement and marble,
Speaker 3: the gift of a former graduate. My room mate, Miss McBride,
Speaker 3: has given me her bathing suit. It shranks so that
Speaker 3: she can no longer wear it, and I am about
Speaker 3: to begin swimming lessons. We had delicious pink ice cream
Speaker 3: for dessert last night. Only vegetable dyes are used in
Speaker 3: coloring the food. The college is very much opposed, both
Speaker 3: from esthetic and hygienic motives, to the use of anoline dyes.
Speaker 3: The weather of late has been ideal bright sunshine and
Speaker 3: clouds interspersed with a few welcome snowstorms. I and my
Speaker 3: companions have enjoyed our walks to and from classes, particularly
Speaker 3: from trusting my dear mister Smith, this, this will find
Speaker 3: you in your usual good health. I remained most cordially yours,
Speaker 3: Jerusha Abbot, twenty fourth April. Dear Daddy, spring has come again.
Speaker 3: You should see how lovely the campus is. I think
Speaker 3: you might come and look at it for yourself. Master
Speaker 3: Jervy dropped in again last Friday, but he chose a
Speaker 3: most unpropitious time for Sally and Julia and I were
Speaker 3: just running to catch a train. And where do you think?
Speaker 3: We were going to Princeton to attend a dance in
Speaker 3: a ballgame, if you please. I didn't ask you if
Speaker 3: I might go because I had a feeling that your
Speaker 3: secretary would say no. But it was entirely regular. We
Speaker 3: had a leave of absence from college and Missus mc
Speaker 3: bride chaperoned us. We had a charming time, but I
Speaker 3: shall have to admit details they are too many and complicated. Saturday,
Speaker 3: up before dawn, the night watchman called us six of
Speaker 3: us and we made coffee and a chafing dish. You
Speaker 3: never saw so many grounds and walked two miles to
Speaker 3: the top of one tree hill to see the sunrise.
Speaker 3: We had to scramble up the last slope. The sun
Speaker 3: almost beat us. And perhaps you think we didn't bring
Speaker 3: back appetites to breakfast. Dear me, Daddy, I seem to
Speaker 3: have a very ejaculatory style to day. This page is
Speaker 3: peppered with exclamations. I meant to have written a lot
Speaker 3: about the budding trees and the new cinder path in
Speaker 3: the athletic field, and the awful lesson we have in
Speaker 3: biology for tomorrow, and the new canoes on the lake,
Speaker 3: and Catherine Prentice who has pneumonia, and Prexy's Angora kitten
Speaker 3: that strayed from home and has been boarding in Ferguson
Speaker 3: Hall for two weeks until a chambermaid reported it. And
Speaker 3: about my three new dresses, white and pink and blue
Speaker 3: polka dots with a hat to match. But I am
Speaker 3: too sleepy. I'm always making this as an excuse, am
Speaker 3: I not? But a girl's college is a busy place
Speaker 3: and we do get tired by the end of the day,
Speaker 3: particularly when the day begins at dawn. Affectionately, Judy fifteenth
Speaker 3: may dear Daddy longlegs. Is it good manners when you
Speaker 3: get into a car just to stare straight ahead and
Speaker 3: not see anybody else. A very beautiful lady in a
Speaker 3: very beautiful velvet dress got into the car today and
Speaker 3: without the slightest expression, sat for fifteen minutes and looked
Speaker 3: at a sign of advertising suspenders. It doesn't seem polite
Speaker 3: to ignore everybody else as though you were the only
Speaker 3: important person present. Anyway, you miss a lot. While she
Speaker 3: was absorbing that silly sign, I was studying a whole
Speaker 3: car full of interesting human beings. The accompanying illustration is
Speaker 3: hereby reproduced for the first time. It looks like a
Speaker 3: spider on the end of a string, but it isn't
Speaker 3: at all. It's picture of me learning to swim in
Speaker 3: the tank in the gymnasium. The instructor hooks a rope
Speaker 3: into a ring in the back of my belt and
Speaker 3: runs it through a pulley in the ceiling. It would
Speaker 3: be a beautiful system if one had perfect confidence in
Speaker 3: the probity of one's instructor. I'm always afraid, though, that
Speaker 3: she will let the rope get slack, so I keep
Speaker 3: one anxious eye on her and swim with the other.
Speaker 3: And with this divided interest, I do not make the
Speaker 3: progress that I otherwise might. Very miscellaneous weather we've been
Speaker 3: having of late. It was raining when I commenced, and
Speaker 3: now the sun is shining. Sally and I are going
Speaker 3: out to play tennis, thereby gaining exemption from Jim a
Speaker 3: week later. I should have finished this letter long ago,
Speaker 3: but I didn't. You don't mind, do you, Daddy, if
Speaker 3: I'm not very regular. I really do love to write
Speaker 3: to you. It gives me such a respectable feeling of
Speaker 3: having some family. Would you like me to tell you something?
Speaker 3: You are not the only man to whom I write letters.
Speaker 3: There are two others. I have been receiving beautiful long
Speaker 3: letters this winter from Master Jerviy, with typewritten envelopes, so
Speaker 3: Julia won't recognize the writing. Did you ever hear anything
Speaker 3: so shocking? And every week or so a very SCROLLI epistle,
Speaker 3: usually on yellow tablet paper, arrives from Princeton, all of
Speaker 3: which I answer with business like promptness. So you see
Speaker 3: I am not so very different from other girls. I
Speaker 3: get letters too. Did I tell you that I have
Speaker 3: been elected a member of the Senior Dramatic Club, very
Speaker 3: research organization, only seventy five members out of one thousand.
Speaker 3: Do you think, as a consistent socialist that I ought
Speaker 3: to be long? What do you suppose is at present
Speaker 3: engaging my attention in sociology? I am writing figuerre vu,
Speaker 3: a paper on the care of dependent children. The professor
Speaker 3: shuffled up his subjects and dealt them out promiscuously, and
Speaker 3: that fell to me Sedrosa and Nepa. There goes the
Speaker 3: gong for dinner. I'll post this as I passed the
Speaker 3: box affectionately. Jay fourth June, dear Daddy, very busy time.
Speaker 3: Commencement in ten days, examinations tomorrow, lots of studying, lots
Speaker 3: of packing, and the outdoor world so lovely that it
Speaker 3: hurts you to stay inside. But never mind, vacation's coming.
Speaker 3: Julia is going abroad this summer, and it makes the
Speaker 3: fourth time, no doubt about it, Daddy, goods are not
Speaker 3: distributed evenly. Sallie, as usual, goes to the Adirondacks. And
Speaker 3: what do you think I'm going to do? You may
Speaker 3: have three guesses. Lock Willow wrong, the Adirondacks with Sallie wrong,
Speaker 3: I'll never attempt that again. I was discouraged last year.
Speaker 3: Can't you guess anything else? You're not very inventive. I'll
Speaker 3: tell you, daddy, if you'll promise not to make a
Speaker 3: lot of objections. I warn your secretary in advance that
Speaker 3: my mind is made up. I am going to spend
Speaker 3: this summer at the sea side with a missus Charles Patterson,
Speaker 3: and tutor her daughter, who is to enter college in
Speaker 3: the autumn. I met her through the McBride's and she
Speaker 3: is a very charming woman. I am to give lessons
Speaker 3: in English and Latin to the younger daughter too, but
Speaker 3: I shall have a little time to myself, and I
Speaker 3: shall be earning fifty dollars a month. Doesn't that impress
Speaker 3: you as a perfectly exorbitant amount? She offered it. I
Speaker 3: should have blushed to ask for more than twenty five.
Speaker 3: I finish at Magnolia, that's where she lives, the first
Speaker 3: of September, and she'll probably spend the remaining three weeks
Speaker 3: at Lock Willow. I should like to see the semples
Speaker 3: again and all the friendly animals. How does my program
Speaker 3: strike you, daddy? I am getting quite independent, you see.
Speaker 3: You have put me on my feet and I think
Speaker 3: I can almost walk alone by now. Princeton commencement in
Speaker 3: our examinations exactly coincide, which is an awful blow. Sally
Speaker 3: and I did so want to get away in time
Speaker 3: for it, but of course that is utterly impossible. Good Bye, Daddy,
Speaker 3: Have a nice summer and come back in the autumn,
Speaker 3: rested and ready for another year of work. That's what
Speaker 3: you ought to be writing to me. I haven't any
Speaker 3: idea what you do in the summer or how you
Speaker 3: amuse yourself. I can't visualize your surroundings. Do you play
Speaker 3: golf or hunt, or ride horseback or just sit in
Speaker 3: the sun and meditate. Anyway, whatever it is, have a
Speaker 3: good time, and don't forget Judy. Tenth June. Dear Daddy,
Speaker 3: this is the hardest letter I ever wrote, but I
Speaker 3: have decided what I must do and there isn't going
Speaker 3: to be any turning back. It is very sweet and
Speaker 3: generous and dear of you to wish to send me
Speaker 3: to Europe this summer. For the moment I was intoxicated
Speaker 3: by the idea, but sober second thoughts said no, it
Speaker 3: would be rather illogical of me to refuse to take
Speaker 3: your money for college and then use it instead just
Speaker 3: for amusement. You mustn't get used to too many luxuries.
Speaker 3: One doesn't miss what one has never had. But it's
Speaker 3: awfully hard going without things after one is commenced thinking
Speaker 3: they are his hers. English language needs another pronoun by
Speaker 3: natural right. Living with Sally and Julia is an awful
Speaker 3: strain on my stoical philosophy. They have both had things
Speaker 3: from the time they were babies. They accept happiness as
Speaker 3: a matter of course. The world, they think, owes them
Speaker 3: everything they want. Maybe the world does. In any case,
Speaker 3: it seems to acknowledge the debt and pay up. But
Speaker 3: as for me, it owes me nothing, and distinctly told
Speaker 3: me so in the beginning. I have no right to
Speaker 3: borrow on credit, for there will come a time when
Speaker 3: the world will repudiate my claim. I seem to be
Speaker 3: floundering in a sea of metaphor, but I hope you
Speaker 3: grasp my meaning anyway. I have a very strong feeling
Speaker 3: that the only honest thing for me to do is
Speaker 3: to teach this summer and begin to support myself Magnolia.
Speaker 3: Four days later, I'd got just that much written. When
Speaker 3: what do you think happened? The maid arrived with Master
Speaker 3: Jervy's card. He is going abroad too this summer, not
Speaker 3: with Julia and her family, but entirely by himself. I
Speaker 3: told him that you had invited me to go with
Speaker 3: the lady who is shopping a party of girls. He
Speaker 3: knows about you, Daddy. That is, he knows that my
Speaker 3: father and mother are dead, and that a kind gentleman
Speaker 3: is sending me to college. I simply didn't have the
Speaker 3: courage to tell him about the John Greerholm and all
Speaker 3: the rest. He thinks that you are my guardian and
Speaker 3: a perfectly legitimate old family friend. I have never told
Speaker 3: him that I didn't know you. That would seem too queer. Anyway,
Speaker 3: He insisted on my going to Europe. He said that
Speaker 3: it was a necessary part of my education and that
Speaker 3: I mustn't think of refusing. Also that he would be
Speaker 3: in Paris at the same time, and that we would
Speaker 3: run away from the chaperone occasionally and have dinner together
Speaker 3: at nice, funny foreign restaurants. Well, Daddy, it did appeal
Speaker 3: to me. I almost weakened. If he hadn't been so dictatorial,
Speaker 3: maybe I should have entirely weakened. I can be enticed
Speaker 3: step by step, but I won't be forced. He said
Speaker 3: I was a silly, foolish, irrational, quixotic, idiotic, stubborn child.
Speaker 3: Those are a few of his abuse of adjectives. The
Speaker 3: rest escaped me, and that I didn't know what was
Speaker 3: good for me. I ought to let older people judge.
Speaker 3: We almost quarreled. I am not sure but that we
Speaker 3: entirely did. In any case, I packed my trunk fast
Speaker 3: and came up here. I thought I'd better see my
Speaker 3: bridges and flames behind me before I finished writing to you.
Speaker 3: They are entirely reduced to ashes now here. I am
Speaker 3: at cliff top, the name of Missus Patterson's cottage, with
Speaker 3: my trunk unpacked, and Florence the little one already struggling
Speaker 3: with first to clension nouns, and it bids fair to
Speaker 3: be a struggle. She is a most uncommonly spoilt child.
Speaker 3: I shall have to teach her first how to study.
Speaker 3: She has never in her life concentrated on anything more
Speaker 3: difficult than ice cream, soda water. We use a quiet
Speaker 3: corner of the cliffs for a schoolroom. Missus Patterson wishes
Speaker 3: me to keep them out of doors, and I will
Speaker 3: say that I find it difficult to concentrate with the
Speaker 3: blue sea before me, and ships a sailing by, and
Speaker 3: when I think I might be on one sailing off
Speaker 3: to foreign lands. But I won't let myself think of
Speaker 3: anything but Latin grammar, the prepositions a or ab absqui,
Speaker 3: korum whom da e or x pray pro sine tenus
Speaker 3: in soubter soub and super govern the ablative. So you see, Daddy,
Speaker 3: I am already plunged into work with my eyes persistently
Speaker 3: set against temptation. Don't be cross with me, please, And
Speaker 3: don't think that I do not appreciate your kindness, for
Speaker 3: I do, always, always. The only way I can ever
Speaker 3: repay you is by turning out a very useful citizen.
Speaker 3: Are women citizens, I don't suppose they are anyway a
Speaker 3: very useful person, And when you look at me, you
Speaker 3: can say I gave that very useful person to the world.
Speaker 3: That sounds well, doesn't it, Daddy? But I don't wish
Speaker 3: to mislead you. The feeling often comes over me that
Speaker 3: I am not at all remarkable. It is fun to planet,
Speaker 3: but in all probability I shan't turn out a bit
Speaker 3: different from any other ordinary person. I may end by
Speaker 3: marrying an undertaker and being an inspiration to him in
Speaker 3: his work. Yours ever, Judy, nineteenth August, Dear Daddy long Legs.
Speaker 3: My window looks out on the loveliest landscape, ocean'scape, rather
Speaker 3: nothing but water and rocks. The summer goes. I spend
Speaker 3: the morning with Latin and English and algebra, and my
Speaker 3: two stupid girls. I don't know how Marian is ever
Speaker 3: going to get into college, or stay in if she
Speaker 3: does get there. As for Florence, she is hopeless. But oh,
Speaker 3: such a little beauty. I don't suppose it matters in
Speaker 3: the least whether they are stupid or not, as long
Speaker 3: as they are pretty. One can't help thinking, though, how
Speaker 3: their conversation will bore their husbands. Unless they are fortunate
Speaker 3: enough to obtain stupid husbands. I suppose that's quite possible.
Speaker 3: The world seems filled with stupid men. I've met a
Speaker 3: number this summer. In the afternoon, we take a walk
Speaker 3: on the cliffs, or swim if the tide is right.
Speaker 3: I can swim in salt water with the utmost ease.
Speaker 3: You see, my education is already being put to use.
Speaker 3: A letter comes from mister Jervis Pendleton in Paris, rather
Speaker 3: a short concise letter. I'm not quite forgiven yet for
Speaker 3: refusing to follow his advice. However, if he gets back
Speaker 3: in time, you will see me for a few days
Speaker 3: at Lockwillow before college opens. And if I am very
Speaker 3: nice and sweet and docile, I shall I am led
Speaker 3: to infer be received into favor again. Also a letter
Speaker 3: from Sallie. She wants me to come to their camp
Speaker 3: for two weeks in September. Must I ask your permission?
Speaker 3: Or haven't I yet arrived at the place where I
Speaker 3: can do as I please? Yes, I am sure I have.
Speaker 3: I'm a senior, you know, having worked all summer. I
Speaker 3: feel like taking a little healthful recreation. I want to
Speaker 3: see the Adirondacks. I want to see Sallie. I want
Speaker 3: to see Sallie's brother. He's going to teach me to canoe.
Speaker 3: And we come to my chief motive, which is mean
Speaker 3: I want Master Jervey to arrive at lock Willow and
Speaker 3: find me not there. I must show him that he
Speaker 3: can't dictate to me. No one can dictate to me
Speaker 3: but you, Daddy, and you can't always. I'm off to
Speaker 3: the woods Judy Camp McBride, sixth September. Dear Daddy, your
Speaker 3: letter didn't come in time. I am pleased to say,
Speaker 3: if you wish your instructions to be obeyed, you must
Speaker 3: have your secretary transmit them in less than two weeks.
Speaker 3: As you observe. I am here and have been for
Speaker 3: five days. The woods are fine, and so is the camp,
Speaker 3: and so is the weather, and so are the McBride's,
Speaker 3: and so is the whole world. I'm very happy there's
Speaker 3: Jimmy calling for me to come canoeing. Good bye. Sorry
Speaker 3: to have disobeyed, but why are you so persistent about
Speaker 3: not wanting me to play a little when I've worked
Speaker 3: all the summer. I deserve two weeks. You are awfully
Speaker 3: dog in the mangerish. However, I love you still, Daddy,
Speaker 3: in spite of all your faults. Judy end of Part seven.
Speaker 2: Part eight, third October, Dear Daddy, long legs back at
Speaker 2: college and a senior also editor of the monthly. Doesn't
Speaker 2: seem possible, does it? That so sophisticated a person just
Speaker 2: four years ago was an inmate of the John Greer Home.
Speaker 2: We do arrive fast in America? What do you think
Speaker 2: of this? A note from Master Jervey directed to lock
Speaker 2: Willow and forwarded here. He's sorry, but he finds that
Speaker 2: he can't get up there this autumn. He's accepted an
Speaker 2: invitation to go yachting with some friends. Hopes I've had
Speaker 2: a nice summer and I'm enjoying the country. And he
Speaker 2: knew all the time that I was with the McBride's
Speaker 2: for Julia told him, so, you men ought to leave
Speaker 2: intrigued to women, you haven't a light enough touch. Julia
Speaker 2: has a trunk full of the most ravishing new clothes,
Speaker 2: an evening gown of rainbow liberty crape that would be
Speaker 2: fitting Raymond for the Angels in Paradise. And I thought
Speaker 2: that my own clothes this year were unprecedent. Is there
Speaker 2: such a word beautiful? I copied Missus Patterson's wardrobe with
Speaker 2: the aid of a cheap dressmaker, and though the gowns
Speaker 2: didn't turn out quite the twins of the originals, I
Speaker 2: was entirely happy until Julia unpacked. But now I live
Speaker 2: to see Paris. Dear Daddy, aren't you glad you're not
Speaker 2: a girl? I suppose you think that the fuss we
Speaker 2: make over clothes is too absolutely silly. It is no
Speaker 2: doubt about it, but it's entirely your fault. Did you
Speaker 2: ever hear about the learned hair professor who regarded unnecessary
Speaker 2: adornment with contempt and favored sensible, utilitarian clothes for women.
Speaker 2: His wife, who was an obliging creature, adopted dress reform.
Speaker 2: And what do you think he did? He eloped with
Speaker 2: a chorus girl yours ever? Judy p s The chambermaid
Speaker 2: nar Corridor wears blue checked Gingham aprons. I'm going to
Speaker 2: get her some brown ones instead and sink the blue
Speaker 2: ones in the bottom of the lake. I have a
Speaker 2: reminiscent chill every time I look at them. Seventeenth November,
Speaker 2: Dear Daddy long Legs, Such a blight has fallen over
Speaker 2: my literary career. I don't know whether to tell you
Speaker 2: or not, but I would like some sympathy, silent sympathy.
Speaker 2: Please don't reopen the wound by referring to it in
Speaker 2: your next letter. I've been writing a book all last
Speaker 2: winter in the evenings and all the summer when I
Speaker 2: wasn't teaching Latin to my two stupid children. I just
Speaker 2: finished it before college opened and sent it to a publisher.
Speaker 2: He kept it two months, and I was certain he
Speaker 2: was going to take it. But yesterday morning an express
Speaker 2: parcel came thirty cents due, and there it was back again,
Speaker 2: with a letter from the publisher, A very nice, fatherly letter,
Speaker 2: but frank. He said he saw from the address that
Speaker 2: I was still at college, and if I would accept
Speaker 2: some advice, he would suggest that I put all of
Speaker 2: my energy into my lessons and wait until I graduated
Speaker 2: before beginning to write. He enclosed his reader's opinion here
Speaker 2: it is plot, highly improbable, characterization, exaggerated, conversation, unnatural, a
Speaker 2: good deal of humor, but not always in the best
Speaker 2: of taste. Tell her to keep on trying, and in
Speaker 2: time she may produce a real book. Not on the
Speaker 2: whole flattering. Is it death? And I thought I was
Speaker 2: making a notable addition to American literature. I did, truly,
Speaker 2: I was planning to surprise you by writing a great
Speaker 2: novel before I graduated. I collected the material for it
Speaker 2: while I was at Julia's last Christmas. But I dare
Speaker 2: say the editor is right. Probably two weeks was not
Speaker 2: enough in which to observe the manners and customs of
Speaker 2: a great city. I took it walking with me yesterday afternoon,
Speaker 2: and when I came to the gas house, I went
Speaker 2: in and asked the engineer if I might borrow his furnace.
Speaker 2: He politely opened the door, and with my own hands,
Speaker 2: I chucked it in. I felt as though I had
Speaker 2: cremated my only child. I went to bed last night
Speaker 2: utterly dejected. I thought I was never going to amount
Speaker 2: to anything, and that you had thrown away your money
Speaker 2: for nothing. But what do you think. I woke up
Speaker 2: this morning with a beautiful new plot in my head,
Speaker 2: and I've been going about all day planning my characters
Speaker 2: just as happy as I could be. No one can
Speaker 2: ever accuse me of being a pessimist. If I had
Speaker 2: a husband and twelve children swallowed by an earthquake one day,
Speaker 2: I'd bob up smilingly the next morning and commenced to
Speaker 2: look for another set. Affectionately Judy fourteenth December, Dear Daddy
Speaker 2: long Legs. I dreamed the funniest dream last night. I
Speaker 2: thought I went into a book store and the clerk
Speaker 2: brought me a new book named The Life and Letters
Speaker 2: of Judy Abbot. I could see it perfectly, plainly red
Speaker 2: cloth binding, with a picture of the John greer Holme
Speaker 2: on the cover, and my portrait for a frontispiece, with
Speaker 2: very truly yours, Judy Abbot written below. But just as
Speaker 2: I was turning to the end to read the inscription
Speaker 2: on my tombstone, I woke up. Was very annoying. I
Speaker 2: almost found out whom I'm going to marry and when
Speaker 2: I'm going to die. Don't you think it would be
Speaker 2: interesting if you really could read the story of your life,
Speaker 2: written perfectly, truthfully by an omniscient author, and suppose you
Speaker 2: could only read it on this condition that you would
Speaker 2: never forget it, but would have to go through life
Speaker 2: knowing ahead of time exactly how everything you did would
Speaker 2: turn out, and foreseeing to the exact hour the time
Speaker 2: when you would die. How many people do you suppose
Speaker 2: would have the courage to read it then, or how
Speaker 2: many could suppress their curiosity sufficiently to escape from reading it,
Speaker 2: even at the price of having to live without hope
Speaker 2: and without surprises. Life is monotonous enough at best you
Speaker 2: have to eat and sleep about so often, But imagine
Speaker 2: how deadly monotonous it would be if nothing unexpected could
Speaker 2: happen between meals. Mercy, Daddy, there's a blot but I'm
Speaker 2: on the third page and I can't begin a new sheet.
Speaker 2: I'm going on with biology again this year. Very interesting subject.
Speaker 2: We're studying the alimentary system at present. You should see
Speaker 2: how sweet a cross section of the duodenum of a
Speaker 2: cat is under the microscope. Also, we've arrived at philosophy.
Speaker 2: Interesting but evanescent. I prefer biology, where you can pin
Speaker 2: the subject under discussion to a board. There's another and another.
Speaker 2: This pen is weeping copiously, please excuse its tears. Do
Speaker 2: you believe in free will? I do unreservedly. I don't
Speaker 2: agree at all with the philosophers who think that every
Speaker 2: action is the absolute, inevitable and automatic resultant of an
Speaker 2: aggregation of remote causes. That's the most immoral doctrine I
Speaker 2: ever heard. Nobody would be to blame for anything. If
Speaker 2: a man believed in fatalism, he would naturally just sit
Speaker 2: down and say the Lord's will be done, and continue
Speaker 2: to sit until he fell over dead. I believe absolutely
Speaker 2: in my own free will and my own power to accomplish,
Speaker 2: and that is the belief that moves mountains. You watch
Speaker 2: me become a great author. I have four chapters of
Speaker 2: my new book finished and five more drafted. This is
Speaker 2: a very obtruse letter. There's your headache, daddy. I think
Speaker 2: we'll stop now and make some fudge. I'm sorry I
Speaker 2: can't send you a piece. It will be unusually good
Speaker 2: for we are going to make it with real cream
Speaker 2: and three butter balls. Yours affectionately, Judy p s. We're
Speaker 2: having fancy dancing and gymnasium class. You can see by
Speaker 2: the accompanying picture how much we look like a real ballet.
Speaker 2: The one at the end accomplishing a graceful pirouet is me,
Speaker 2: I mean I twenty six December, My dear dear daddy,
Speaker 2: haven't you any sense? Don't you know that you mustn't
Speaker 2: give one girl seventeen Christmas presents? I'm a socialist, please remember?
Speaker 2: Do you wish to turn me in to a plutocrat?
Speaker 2: Think how embarrassing it would be if we should ever quarrel.
Speaker 2: I should have to engage a moving van to return
Speaker 2: your gifts. I'm sorry that the necktie ascent was so wobbly.
Speaker 2: I knit it with my own hands, As you doubtless
Speaker 2: discovered from internal evidence, you will have to wear it
Speaker 2: on cold days and keep your coat buttoned up. Tight.
Speaker 2: Thank you Daddy a thousand times. I think you're the
Speaker 2: sweetest man that ever lived and the foolishest Gudy. Here's
Speaker 2: a four leaf clover from Camp McBride to bring you
Speaker 2: good luck in the new year, ninth January. Do you
Speaker 2: wish to do something, Daddy, that will ensure your internal salvation.
Speaker 2: There's a family here who are in awfully desperate straits.
Speaker 2: A mother and father and four visible children. The two
Speaker 2: older boys have disappeared into the world to make their
Speaker 2: fortune and have not sent any of it back. The
Speaker 2: father worked in a glass factory and got consumption it's
Speaker 2: awfully unhealthy work, and has now been sent away to
Speaker 2: a hospital that took all their savings. And the support
Speaker 2: of the family falls upon the oldest daughter, who is
Speaker 2: twenty four. She dress makes for a dollar fifty a
Speaker 2: day when she can get it, and embroider centerpieces in
Speaker 2: the evening. The mother isn't very strong and is extremely
Speaker 2: ineffectual and pious. She sits with her hands folded a
Speaker 2: picture of patient resignation, while the daughter kills herself with
Speaker 2: overwork and responsibility and worry. She doesn't see how they
Speaker 2: are going to get through the rest of the winter,
Speaker 2: and I don't either. One hundred dollars would buy some
Speaker 2: coal and some shoes for three children, so that they
Speaker 2: could go to school, and give a little margin so
Speaker 2: that she needn't worry herself to death when a few
Speaker 2: days pass and she doesn't get work. You are the
Speaker 2: richest man I know. Don't you suppose you could spare
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars? That girl deserves help a lot more
Speaker 2: than I ever did. I wouldn't ask it, except for
Speaker 2: the girl. I don't care much what happens to the mother.
Speaker 2: She is such a jellyfish. The way people are forever
Speaker 2: rolling their eyes to heaven and saying, perhaps it's all
Speaker 2: for the best when they are perfectly dead short it's
Speaker 2: not makes me enraged. Humility or resignation, or whatever you
Speaker 2: choose to call it, is simply impotent inertia. I am
Speaker 2: for a more militant religion. We are getting the most
Speaker 2: dreadful lessons in philosoph all of Schopenhauer for tomorrow. The
Speaker 2: professor doesn't seem to realize that we are taking any
Speaker 2: other subject. He's a queer old duck. He goes about
Speaker 2: with his head in the clouds and blinks dazedly. When
Speaker 2: occasionally he strikes solid earth. He tries to lighten his
Speaker 2: lectures with an occasional witticism, and we do our best
Speaker 2: to smile. But I assure you his jokes are no
Speaker 2: laughing matter. He spends his entire time between classes and
Speaker 2: trying to figure out whether matter really exists, so whether
Speaker 2: he only thinks it exists. I'm sure my sewing girl
Speaker 2: hasn't any doubt but that it exists. Where do you
Speaker 2: think my new novel is in the waste basket? I
Speaker 2: can see myself that it's no good on earth? And
Speaker 2: when a loving author realizes that, what would be the
Speaker 2: judgment of a critical public? Later? I address you, daddy,
Speaker 2: from a bed of pain. For two days, I've been
Speaker 2: laid up with swollen tonsils. I can just swallow hot
Speaker 2: milk and that's all. What were your parents thinking of,
Speaker 2: not to have those tonsils out when you were a baby,
Speaker 2: The doctor wished to know. I'm sure I haven't an idea,
Speaker 2: but I doubt if they were thinking much about me
Speaker 2: yours JA. Next morning, I just read this over before
Speaker 2: sealing it. I don't know why I cast such a
Speaker 2: misty atmosphere over life. I hasten to assure you that
Speaker 2: I am young and happy and exuberant, and I trust
Speaker 2: you are the same. Youth has nothing to do with birthdays,
Speaker 2: only with a livenedness of spirit. So even if your
Speaker 2: hair is gray, Daddy, you can still be a boy.
Speaker 2: Affectionately Judy, twelfth January. Dear mister philanthropist, your check for
Speaker 2: my family came yesterday. Thank you so much. I cut
Speaker 2: gymnasium and took it down to them right after luncheon.
Speaker 2: And you should have seen the girl's face. She was
Speaker 2: so surprised and happy and relieved that she looked almost young,
Speaker 2: and she's only twenty four. Isn't it pitiful? Anyway? She
Speaker 2: feels now as though all the good things were coming together.
Speaker 2: She has steady work ahead for two months, someone's getting married,
Speaker 2: and there's a trousseau to make. Thank the Good Lord,
Speaker 2: cried the mother when she grasped the fact that the
Speaker 2: small piece of paper was one hundred dollars. It wasn't
Speaker 2: the good Lord at all, said I. It was Daddy,
Speaker 2: long legs, mister Smith, I called you, But it was
Speaker 2: the good Lord who put it in his mind, said she,
Speaker 2: not at all. I put it in his mind, myself
Speaker 2: said I. But anyway, Daddy, I trust the Good Lord
Speaker 2: will reward you suitably. You deserve ten thousand years out
Speaker 2: of purgatory. Yours most gratefully, Judy Abbott, fifteenth February. Mate, Please,
Speaker 2: your most excellent majesty. This morning I did eat my
Speaker 2: breakfast upon a cold turkey pie and a goose, and
Speaker 2: I did send for a cup of tea, a China
Speaker 2: drink of which I had never drank before. Don't be nervous, daddy,
Speaker 2: I haven't lost my mind. I'm merely quoting samal Peeps.
Speaker 2: We're reading him in connection with English history original sources.
Speaker 2: Sally and Julia and I converse now in the language
Speaker 2: of sixteen sixty. Listen to this. I went to Charing
Speaker 2: Cross to see Major Harrison, hanged, drawn and quoted. He
Speaker 2: looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition.
Speaker 2: And this dining with my lady, who is in handsome
Speaker 2: mourning for her brother who died yesterday of spotted fever,
Speaker 2: seems a little early to commence entertaining, doesn't it. A
Speaker 2: friend of Peep's devised a very cunning manner whereby the
Speaker 2: king might pay his debts out of the sale to
Speaker 2: poor people of old decayed provisions. What do you, a reformer,
Speaker 2: think of that? I don't believe we're so bad today.
Speaker 2: As the newspapers make out, Samuel was as excited about
Speaker 2: his clothes as any girl. He spent five times as
Speaker 2: much on dress as his wife. That appears to have
Speaker 2: been the golden age of husbands. Isn't this the touching entry?
Speaker 2: You see? He really was honest to day came home
Speaker 2: my fine camlet cloak with gold buttons, which cost me
Speaker 2: much money, and I pray God to make me able
Speaker 2: to pay for it. Excuse me for being so full
Speaker 2: of peeps. I'm writing a special topic on him. What
Speaker 2: do you think? Daddy? The Self Government Association has abolished
Speaker 2: the ten o'clock rule. We can keep our lights all
Speaker 2: night if we choose, the only requirement being that we
Speaker 2: do not disturb others. We're not supposed to entertain on
Speaker 2: a large The result is a beautiful commentary on human nature.
Speaker 2: Now that we may stay up as long as we choose,
Speaker 2: we no longer choose. Our heads begin to drop at
Speaker 2: nine o'clock, and by nine thirty the pen drops from
Speaker 2: our nerveless grasp. It's nine thirty now, good night, Sunday,
Speaker 2: Just back from church preacher from Georgia. We must take caa,
Speaker 2: he says, not to develop our intellects at the expense
Speaker 2: of our emotional natures. But methought it was a poor
Speaker 2: dry salmon. Peeps. Again, it doesn't matter what part of
Speaker 2: the United States or Canada they come from, or what
Speaker 2: denomination they are, we always get the same sermon. Why
Speaker 2: on earth don't they go to men's colleges and urge
Speaker 2: the students not to allow their manly natures to be
Speaker 2: crushed out by too much mental application. It's a beautiful day,
Speaker 2: frozen and icy and clear. As soon as dinner is over,
Speaker 2: Sally and Julia and Marty Keene and Eleanor Pratt friends
Speaker 2: of mine, but you don't know them. And I are
Speaker 2: going to put on short skirts at walk cross country
Speaker 2: to Crystal Spring Farm and have a fry chicken and
Speaker 2: waffle supper and then have Crystal Spring drive us home
Speaker 2: and his buckboard. We are supposed to be inside the
Speaker 2: campus at seven, but we are going to stretch a
Speaker 2: point tonight and make it eight. Farewell, kind sir, I
Speaker 2: have the honor of subscribing myself your most loyal, dutiful, faithful,
Speaker 2: and obedient servant. Jay Abbott, March fifth, Dear mister trustee,
Speaker 2: Tomorrow is the first Wednesday in the month, A weary
Speaker 2: day for the John Greerholme. How relieved they'll be when
Speaker 2: five o'clock comes and you pat them on the head
Speaker 2: take yourselves off. Did you individually ever pat me on
Speaker 2: the head, Daddy? I don't believe so. My memory seems
Speaker 2: to be concerned only with fat trustees. Give the home,
Speaker 2: my love, please, my truly love. I have quite a
Speaker 2: feeling of tenderness for it as I look back through
Speaker 2: a haze of four years. When I first came to college,
Speaker 2: I felt quite resembful, because I'd been robbed of the
Speaker 2: normal kind of childhood that the other girls had had.
Speaker 2: But now I don't feel that way in the least.
Speaker 2: I regard it as a very usual adventure. It gives
Speaker 2: me a sort of vantage point from which to stand
Speaker 2: aside and look at life emerging full grown. I get
Speaker 2: a perspective on the world that other people who have
Speaker 2: been brought up in the thick of things entirely lack.
Speaker 2: I know lots of girls, Julia, for instance, who never
Speaker 2: know that they are happy. They are so accustomed to
Speaker 2: the feeling that their senses are deadened to it. But
Speaker 2: as for me, I am perfectly sure every moment of
Speaker 2: my life that I am happy, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: keep on being no matter what unpleasant things turn up.
Speaker 2: I am going to regard them, even toothaches, as interesting
Speaker 2: experiences and be glad to know what they feel like.
Speaker 2: Whatever sky's above me, I have a heart for any fate. However, Daddy,
Speaker 2: don't take this new affection for the j g H
Speaker 2: two literally. If I have five children like Rousseau, I
Speaker 2: shan't leave them on the steps of a foundling asylum
Speaker 2: in order to ensure their being brought up. Simply give
Speaker 2: my kindest regards to missus Lippett that I think is
Speaker 2: truthful love would be a little strong, and don't forget
Speaker 2: to tell her what a beautiful nature I've developed Affectionately
Speaker 2: Judy lock Willow, fourth April, Dear Daddy, do you observe
Speaker 2: the postmark? Sally and I are embellishing lock Willow with
Speaker 2: our presence During the Easter vacation. We decided that the
Speaker 2: best thing we could do with our ten days was
Speaker 2: to come where it is quiet. Our nerves had got
Speaker 2: to the point where they wouldn't stand another meal. In Ferguson,
Speaker 2: dining in a room with four hundred girls is an ordeal.
Speaker 2: When you're tired. There's so much noisy you can't hear
Speaker 2: the girls across the table speak unless they make their
Speaker 2: hands into a megaphone and shout. That is the truth.
Speaker 2: We are tramping over the hills and reading and writing
Speaker 2: and having a nice RESTful time. We climbed to the
Speaker 2: top of sky Hill this morning, where Master Jerby and
Speaker 2: I once cooked supper. It doesn't seem possible that it
Speaker 2: was nearly two years ago. I could still see the
Speaker 2: place where the smoke of our fire blackened the rock.
Speaker 2: It is funny how certain places get connected with certain people,
Speaker 2: and you never go back without thinking of them. I
Speaker 2: was quite lonely without him for two minutes. What do
Speaker 2: you think is my latest activity? Daddy? You will begin
Speaker 2: to believe I am corrigible. I'm writing a book. I
Speaker 2: started it three weeks ago and am eating it up
Speaker 2: in chunks. I've caught the secret. Master Jervy and that
Speaker 2: editor Man were right. You are most convincing when you
Speaker 2: write about the things you know, and this time it
Speaker 2: is about something that I do know exhaustively. Guess where
Speaker 2: it's laid in the John Greer home. And it's good, Daddy.
Speaker 2: I actually believe it is just about the tiny little
Speaker 2: things that happened every day. I'm a realist now. I
Speaker 2: have abandoned romanticism. I shall go back to it later, though,
Speaker 2: when my own adventurous future begins. This new book is
Speaker 2: going to get itself finished and published. You see if
Speaker 2: it doesn't. If you just want a thing hard enough
Speaker 2: and keep on trying, you do get it in the end.
Speaker 2: I've been trying for four years to get a letter
Speaker 2: from you, and I haven't given up hope yet. Goodbye,
Speaker 2: Daddy Dear. I like to call you daddy dear. It's
Speaker 2: so illiterative, affectionately. Judy. Yes, I forgot to tell you
Speaker 2: the farm news, but it's very distressing. Skip this PostScript
Speaker 2: if you don't want your sensibilities all wrought up. Poor
Speaker 2: old Grove is dead. He got so that he couldn't chew,
Speaker 2: and they had to shoot him. Nine chickens were killed
Speaker 2: by a weasel or a skunk or a rat last week.
Speaker 2: One of the cows is sick and we had to
Speaker 2: have the veterinary surgeon out from Bonny Rig four corners.
Speaker 2: AMESI stayed up all night to give her lindsay oil
Speaker 2: and whiskey. But we have an awful suspicion that the
Speaker 2: poor sick cow got nothing but lindseed oil. Sentimental Tommy,
Speaker 2: the tortoise shell cat, has disappeared. We are afraid he's
Speaker 2: been caught in a trap. There are a lot of
Speaker 2: troubles in the world. Seventeenth May, Dear Daddy long Legs,
Speaker 2: This is going to be extremely short because my shoulder
Speaker 2: aches at the sight of a pen. Lecture notes all day,
Speaker 2: immortal novel, all evening, make too much writing commencement three
Speaker 2: weeks from next Wednesday. I think you might come and
Speaker 2: make my acquaintance. I shall hate you if you don't.
Speaker 2: Julia's inviting Master Jerviy, he being her family, and Sally's
Speaker 2: inviting Jimmy mc beee he being her family. But who
Speaker 2: is there for me to invite? Just you and lip It,
Speaker 2: and I don't want her. Please come yours with love
Speaker 2: and writer's cramp, Judy. End of Part eight of Daddy
Speaker 2: Long Legs by Jean Webster. Part nine, Lock Willow, nineteenth June,
Speaker 2: Dear Daddy long legs. I'm educated. My diploma is in
Speaker 2: the bottom bureau drawer of my two best dresses. Commencement
Speaker 2: was as usual, with a few showers at vital moments.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your rosebuds. They were lovely. Master Jervy
Speaker 2: and Master Jimmy both gave me roses too, but I
Speaker 2: left theirs in the bath tub and carried yours in
Speaker 2: the class procession. Here I am at Lock Willow for
Speaker 2: the summer forever. Maybe the board is cheap, the surroundings
Speaker 2: quiet and conductive to a literary life. What more does
Speaker 2: a struggling author wish? I am mad about my book.
Speaker 2: I think about it every waking moment and dream of
Speaker 2: it at night. All I want is peace and quiet,
Speaker 2: lots of time to work, interspersed with nourishing meals. Master
Speaker 2: Jervy is coming up for a week or so in August,
Speaker 2: and Jimmy mc bride is going to drop in sometime
Speaker 2: through the summer. He's connected with a bond house now
Speaker 2: and goes about the country selling bonds to banks. He's
Speaker 2: going to combine the Farmer's National at the Corners and
Speaker 2: me on the same trip. You see that Lock Willow
Speaker 2: isn't entirely lacking in society. I'd be expecting to have
Speaker 2: you come motoring through. Only I know now that it
Speaker 2: is hopeless. When you wouldn't come to my commencement, I
Speaker 2: tore you from my heart and buried you forever. Judy
Speaker 2: Abbott A. B. Twenty fourth July, Dearest Daddy long Legs.
Speaker 2: Isn't it fun to work? Or don't you ever do it?
Speaker 2: It's especially fun when your kind of work is the
Speaker 2: thing you'd rather do more than anything else in the world.
Speaker 2: I've been writing as fast as my pen would go
Speaker 2: every day this summer, and my only quarrel with life
Speaker 2: is that the days aren't long enough to write all
Speaker 2: the beautiful and valuable and entertaining thoughts. I'm thinking. I've
Speaker 2: finished the second draft of my book, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to begin the third tomorrow morning at half past seven.
Speaker 2: It's the sweetest book you ever saw, it is, truly.
Speaker 2: I think of nothing else. I can barely wait in
Speaker 2: the morning to dress and eat before beginning, And then
Speaker 2: I write and write and write till suddenly I'm so
Speaker 2: tired that I'm limp all over. Then I go out
Speaker 2: with Colin the new sheep Dog and rob through the
Speaker 2: fields and get a fresh supply of ideas for the
Speaker 2: next day. It's the most beautiful book you ever saw. Oh,
Speaker 2: pardon I said that before. You don't think being conceited,
Speaker 2: do you, Daddy Dear, I'm not really, only just now
Speaker 2: I'm in the enthusiastic stage. Maybe later on I'll get
Speaker 2: cold and critical and stuffy. No, I'm sure I won't.
Speaker 2: This time, I've written a real book. Just wait till
Speaker 2: you see it. I'll try for a moment to talk
Speaker 2: about something else I never told you, did I that
Speaker 2: AMESI and Carrie got married last May. They're still working here,
Speaker 2: but so far as I can see, it has spoiled
Speaker 2: them both. She used to laugh when he tramped in
Speaker 2: mud and dropped ashes on the floor, but now you
Speaker 2: should hear her scold, and she doesn't curl her hair
Speaker 2: any longer. AMESI, who used to be so obliging about
Speaker 2: beating rugs and carrying wood, grumbles if you suggest such
Speaker 2: a thing. Also, his neckties are quite dingy, black and
Speaker 2: brown where they used to be scarlet and purple. I
Speaker 2: have to determined never to marry. It's a deteriorating process.
Speaker 2: Evidently there isn't much of any farm news. The animals
Speaker 2: are all the best of health. The pigs are unusually fat,
Speaker 2: the cows seem contented, and the hens are laying well.
Speaker 2: Are you interested in poultry? If so, let me recommend
Speaker 2: that invaluable little work two hundred eggs per hen per year.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking of starting an incubator next spring and raising broilers.
Speaker 2: You see, I'm settled at Lockwillow permanently. I've decided to
Speaker 2: stay until I've written one hundred and fourteen novels like
Speaker 2: Anthony Trollop's Mother. Then I shall have completed my life
Speaker 2: work and can retire and travel. Mister James McBride spent
Speaker 2: last Sunday with us fried chicken and ice cream for dinner,
Speaker 2: both of which he appeared to appreciate. I was awfully
Speaker 2: glad to see him. He brought a momentary reminder that
Speaker 2: the world at large exists. Poor Jimmy is having a
Speaker 2: hard time pedaling his bonds. The Farmer's National at the
Speaker 2: Corners wouldn't have anything to do with them, in spite
Speaker 2: of the fact that they pay six percent interests and
Speaker 2: sometimes seven. I think he'll end up by going home
Speaker 2: to Worcester and taking a job in his father's factory.
Speaker 2: He's too open, a confiding, and kind hearted ever to
Speaker 2: make a successful fit andseer. But to be the manager
Speaker 2: of a flourishing overall factory is a very desirable position,
Speaker 2: don't you think. Just now he turns up his nose
Speaker 2: at overalls, but he'll come to them. I hope you'll
Speaker 2: appreciate the fact that this is a long letter from
Speaker 2: a person with writer's cramp. But I still love you, daddy, dear,
Speaker 2: and I am very happy with beautiful scenery all about,
Speaker 2: and lots to eat in a comfortable four post bed,
Speaker 2: and a ream of blank paper and a pint of ink.
Speaker 2: What more does one want in the world? Yours as always,
Speaker 2: Judy p s. The postman arrives with some more news.
Speaker 2: We are to expect Master Jervy on Friday next to
Speaker 2: spend a week. It's a very pleasant prospect. Only I'm
Speaker 2: afraid my poor book will suffer. Master Jervy is very demanding.
Speaker 2: Twenty seventh August, Dear Daddy longlegs, where are you? I wonder?
Speaker 2: I never know what part of the world you're in,
Speaker 2: but I hope you're not in New York during this
Speaker 2: awful weather. I hope you are on a mountain peak,
Speaker 2: but not in Switzerland, somewhere nearer, looking at the snow
Speaker 2: and thinking about me. Please be thinking about me. I'm
Speaker 2: quite lonely and I want to be thought about. Oh, Daddy,
Speaker 2: I wish I knew you then, when we were unhappy,
Speaker 2: we could cheer each other up. I don't think I
Speaker 2: can stand much more of Lock Willow. I'm thinking of moving.
Speaker 2: Sally is going to do settlement work in Boston next winter.
Speaker 2: Don't you think it would be nice for me to
Speaker 2: go with her? Then we could have a studio together.
Speaker 2: I would write while she's settled, and we could be
Speaker 2: together in the evenings. Evenings are very long when there's
Speaker 2: no one but the simples and carry and ameside to
Speaker 2: talk to. I know in advance that you won't like
Speaker 2: my studio idea. I can read your secretary's letter now,
Speaker 2: mister RuSHA Abbott, dear Madam, mister Smith prefers that you
Speaker 2: remain at lock Willow, yours truly, Elmer H. Griggs. I
Speaker 2: hate your secretary. I'm certain that a man named Elmer H.
Speaker 2: Griggs must be horrid, But truly, Daddy, I think I
Speaker 2: shall have to go to Boston. I can't stay here
Speaker 2: if something doesn't happen, and soon I shall throw myself
Speaker 2: into the silo pit out of sheer desperation. Oh mercy,
Speaker 2: but it's hot. All the grass is burnt up, and
Speaker 2: the brooks are dry. The roads are Dusty hasn't rained
Speaker 2: for weeks and weeks. This letter sounds as though I
Speaker 2: had hydrophobia, but I haven't. I just want some family. Goodbye,
Speaker 2: my dearest Daddy. I wish I knew you. Judy lock
Speaker 2: Willow nineteenth September, Dear Daddy, something has happened and I
Speaker 2: need advice. I need it from you and from nobody
Speaker 2: else in the world. Wouldn't it be possible for me
Speaker 2: to see you. It's so much easier to talk than
Speaker 2: to write, and I'm afraid your secretary might open the letter.
Speaker 2: Judy PS, I'm very unhappy. Lock Willow. Third October. Dear
Speaker 2: Daddy long Legs. Your note, written in your own hand
Speaker 2: and a pretty wobbly hand, came this morning. I'm so
Speaker 2: sorry that you've been ill. I wouldn't have bothered you
Speaker 2: with my affairs if I had known. Yes, I will
Speaker 2: tell you the trouble. It's sort of complicated to write
Speaker 2: and very private. Please don't keep this letter, but burn
Speaker 2: it before I begin. Here's a check for one thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: It seems funny, doesn't it, for me to be sending
Speaker 2: a check to you? Where do you think I got it?
Speaker 2: I've sold my story, Daddy. It's going to be published
Speaker 2: serially in seven parts and then in a book. You
Speaker 2: might think I'd be wild with joy, but I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm entirely apathetic. Of course, I'm glad to begin paying you.
Speaker 2: I owe you over two thousand and more. It's coming
Speaker 2: in installments. Now, don't be hard please about taking it,
Speaker 2: because it makes me happy to return it. I owe
Speaker 2: you a great deal more than the mere money, and
Speaker 2: the rest I will continue to pay all my life
Speaker 2: in gratitude and affection. And now, Daddy, about the other thing.
Speaker 2: Please give me your most worldly advice. Whether you think
Speaker 2: I'll like it or not. You know that I've always
Speaker 2: had a very special feeling towards you. You sort of
Speaker 2: represented my whole family. But you won't mind, will you?
Speaker 2: If I tell you that I have a very much
Speaker 2: more special feeling for another man, you can probably guess
Speaker 2: without much trouble who he is. I suspect that my
Speaker 2: letters have been very full of Master Jersey for a
Speaker 2: very long time. I wish I could make you understand
Speaker 2: what he's like and how entirely companionable we are. We
Speaker 2: think the same about everything. I'm afraid I have a
Speaker 2: tendency to make over my ideas to match his. But
Speaker 2: he's almost always right. He ought to be, you know,
Speaker 2: for he has fourteen year start of me, and otherwise though,
Speaker 2: he's just an overgrown boy and he does need looking after.
Speaker 2: He hasn't any sense about wearing rubbers when it rains.
Speaker 2: He and I always think the same things are funny,
Speaker 2: and that is such a lot. It's dreadful when two
Speaker 2: people's senses of humor are antagonistic. I don't believe there's
Speaker 2: any bridging that gulf, and he is well, He is
Speaker 2: just himself, and I miss him and miss him and
Speaker 2: miss him. The whole world seems empty and aching. I
Speaker 2: hate the moonlight because it's beautiful and he isn't here
Speaker 2: to see it with me. Maybe you've loved somebody too,
Speaker 2: and you know if you have, I don't need to explain.
Speaker 2: If you haven't, I can't explain anyway. That's the way
Speaker 2: I feel and I've refused to marry him. I didn't
Speaker 2: tell him why. I was just dumb and miserable. I
Speaker 2: couldn't think of anything to say. And now he's gone
Speaker 2: away imagining that I want to marry Jimmy McBride. I don't.
Speaker 2: In the least. I wouldn't think of marrying Jimmy. He
Speaker 2: hasn't grown up enough. The Master Jermy and I got
Speaker 2: into a dreadful muddle of misunderstanding, and we both hurt
Speaker 2: each other's feelings. The reason I sent him away was
Speaker 2: not because I didn't care for him, but because I
Speaker 2: cared for him so much. I was afraid he would
Speaker 2: regret it in the future, and I couldn't stand that
Speaker 2: it didn't seem right for a person of my lack
Speaker 2: of antecedents to marry into any such family as his.
Speaker 2: I never told him about the orphan asylum, and I
Speaker 2: hated to explain that I didn't know who I was.
Speaker 2: I may be dreadful, you know, and his family are proud,
Speaker 2: and I'm proud too. Also. I feel so bound to you.
Speaker 2: After having been educated to be a writer, I must
Speaker 2: at least try to be one. It would scarcely be
Speaker 2: fair to accept your education and then go off and
Speaker 2: not use it. But now that I'm going to be
Speaker 2: able to pay back the money, I feel that I
Speaker 2: have partially discharged that debt. Besides, I suppose I could
Speaker 2: keep on being a writer even if I did marry.
Speaker 2: The two professions are not necessarily exclusive. I've been thinking
Speaker 2: very hard about it. Of Course, he's a socialist, and
Speaker 2: he has unconventional ideas. Maybe he wouldn't mind marrying into
Speaker 2: the proletariat so much as some men might. Perhaps when
Speaker 2: two people are exactly in accord and always happy when
Speaker 2: together and lonely went apart, they ought not to let
Speaker 2: anything in the world stand between them. Of course I
Speaker 2: want to believe that, but I'd like to get your
Speaker 2: unemotional opinion. You probably belong to a family also, and
Speaker 2: we'll look at it from a worldly point of view
Speaker 2: and not just a sympathetic human point of view. So
Speaker 2: you see how brave I am to lay it before you.
Speaker 2: Suppose I go to him and explain that the trouble
Speaker 2: isn't Jimmy, but is the John Greerholme. Would that be
Speaker 2: a dreadful thing for me to do. It would take
Speaker 2: a great deal of courage, I'd almost rather be miserable
Speaker 2: for the rest of my life. This happened nearly two
Speaker 2: months ago. I haven't heard a word from him since
Speaker 2: he was here. I was just getting sort of acclimated
Speaker 2: to the feeling of a broken heart when a letter
Speaker 2: came from Julia that stirred me up all again. She
Speaker 2: said very casually that Uncle Jervis had been caught out
Speaker 2: all night in a storm when he was hunting in
Speaker 2: Canada and had been ill ever since with pneumonia, and
Speaker 2: I never knew it. I was feeling hurt because he
Speaker 2: had just disappeared into blankness without a word. I think
Speaker 2: he's pretty unhappy, and I know I am what seems
Speaker 2: to you the right thing for me to do. Judy,
Speaker 2: sixth October, Dear Daddy long Legs, Yes, certainly, I'll come
Speaker 2: at half past four next Wednesday afternoon. Of course I
Speaker 2: can find the way. I've been in New York three times,
Speaker 2: and I'm not quite a baby. I can't believe that
Speaker 2: I'm really going to see you. I've been just thinking
Speaker 2: of you so long that it hardly seems as though
Speaker 2: you are a tangible, flesh and blood person. You are
Speaker 2: awfully good daddy to bother yourself with me when you're
Speaker 2: not strong. Take care and don't catch cold. These fall
Speaker 2: rains are very damp. Affectionately, Judy, yes, I've just had
Speaker 2: an awful thought. Have you a butler? I'm afraid of
Speaker 2: butler's and if one opens the door, I shall faint
Speaker 2: upon the step. What can I say to him? You
Speaker 2: didn't tell me your name? Shall I ask for mister Smith?
Speaker 2: Thursday morning, my very dearest master Jervy, Daddy long legs
Speaker 2: Pendleton Smith. Did you sleep last night? I didn't, not
Speaker 2: a single wink. I was too amazed and excited and
Speaker 2: bewildered and happy. I don't believe I shall ever sleep
Speaker 2: again or eat either, But I hope you slept. You must,
Speaker 2: you know, because then you will get well faster and
Speaker 2: can come to me. Dear man, I can't bear to
Speaker 2: think how ill you've been, and all the time I
Speaker 2: never knew it. When the doctor came down yesterday to
Speaker 2: put me in the cab, he told me that for
Speaker 2: three days they gave you up. Oh dearest, if that
Speaker 2: had happened, the light would have gone out of the
Speaker 2: world for me. I suppose that someday in the far future,
Speaker 2: one of us must leave the other. But at least
Speaker 2: we shall have had our happiness, and there will be
Speaker 2: memories to live with. I meant to cheer you up,
Speaker 2: and instead I have to cheer myself, for, in spite
Speaker 2: of being happier than I ever dreamed I could be,
Speaker 2: I'm also soberer. A fear that something may happen rests
Speaker 2: like a shadow on my heart. Always before, I could
Speaker 2: be frivolous and care free and unconcerned because I had
Speaker 2: nothing precious to lose. But now I shall have a great,
Speaker 2: big worry all the rest of my life. Whenever you
Speaker 2: are away from me, I shall be thinking of all
Speaker 2: the automobiles that can run you over, or the signboards
Speaker 2: that can fall on your head, or the dreadful, squirmy
Speaker 2: germs that you may be swallowed. My peace of mind
Speaker 2: is gone forever. But anyway, I never cared much for
Speaker 2: just plain thiefs. Please get well, fast, fast fast. I
Speaker 2: want to have you close by where I can touch
Speaker 2: you and make sure you're tangible. Such a little half
Speaker 2: hour we had together. I'm afraid maybe I dreamed it.
Speaker 2: If I were only a member of your family, a
Speaker 2: very distant fourth cousin, then I could come and visit
Speaker 2: you every day and read aloud, and plump up your
Speaker 2: pillow and smooth out those two little wrinkles in your
Speaker 2: forehead and make the corners of your mouth turn up
Speaker 2: in a nice, cheerful smile. But you are cheerful again,
Speaker 2: aren't you you were? Yesterday? Before I left, the doctor
Speaker 2: said I must be a good nurse. The way you
Speaker 2: look ten years younger. I hope that being in love
Speaker 2: doesn't make everyone ten years younger. Will you still care
Speaker 2: for me, darling, if I turn out to be only eleven.
Speaker 2: Yesterday was the most wonderful day that could ever happen
Speaker 2: if I lived, I mean ninety nine. I shall never
Speaker 2: forget the tiniest detail. The girl that left lock Willow
Speaker 2: at dawn was a very different person from the one
Speaker 2: who came back at night. Missus Semple called me at
Speaker 2: half past four. I started wide awake in the darkness,
Speaker 2: and the first thought that popped into my head was
Speaker 2: I'm going to see Daddy long Legs. I ate breakfast
Speaker 2: in the kitchen by candlelight, then drove the five miles
Speaker 2: to the station through the most glorious October coloring. The
Speaker 2: sun came up on the way and the swamp maples
Speaker 2: and dogwood glowed crimson and orange, and the stone walls
Speaker 2: and cornfields sparkled with hoar frost. The air was keen
Speaker 2: and clear and full of promise. I knew something was
Speaker 2: going to happen all the way in the tray, and
Speaker 2: the rails kept singing, You're going to see Daddy long legs.
Speaker 2: It made me feel secure. I had such faith in
Speaker 2: Daddy's ability to set things right. And I knew that
Speaker 2: somewhere another man dearer than Daddy was wanting to see me.
Speaker 2: And somehow I had a feeling that before the journey ended,
Speaker 2: I should meet him too. And you see, when I
Speaker 2: came to the house on Madison Avenue, it looked so
Speaker 2: big and brown and forbidding that I didn't dare go in,
Speaker 2: So I walked round the block to get at my courage.
Speaker 2: But I needn't have been afraid. Your butler is such
Speaker 2: a nice, fatherly old man that he made me feel
Speaker 2: at home at once. Is this miss Abbott, he said
Speaker 2: to me, and I said yes, So I didn't have
Speaker 2: to ask for mister Smith after all. He told me
Speaker 2: to wait in the drawing room. It was a very
Speaker 2: somber magnificent man sort of room. I sat down on
Speaker 2: the edge of a big upholstered chair and kept saying
Speaker 2: to myself, I'm going to see Daddy long legs. I'm
Speaker 2: going to see Daddy long legs. Then presently the man
Speaker 2: came back and asked me please to step up to
Speaker 2: the library. I was so excited that really and truly
Speaker 2: my feet would hardly take me up outside the door.
Speaker 2: He turned and whispered, he's been very illness. This is
Speaker 2: the first day he's been allowed to sit up. You'll
Speaker 2: not stay long enough to excite him. I knew from
Speaker 2: the way he said it that he loved you, and
Speaker 2: I think he's an old deer. Then he knocked and
Speaker 2: said miss Abbott, and I went in and the door
Speaker 2: closed behind me. It was so dim coming in from
Speaker 2: the brightly lighted hall that for a moment I could
Speaker 2: scarcely make out anything. Then I saw a big easy
Speaker 2: chair before the fire, and a shining tea table with
Speaker 2: a smaller chair beside it, and I realized that a
Speaker 2: man was sitting in the big chair, propped up by pillows,
Speaker 2: with a runck over his knees. Before I could stop him,
Speaker 2: he rose rather shakily and steadied himself by the back
Speaker 2: of the chair and just looked at me without a word.
Speaker 2: And then and then I saw it was you. But
Speaker 2: even then I didn't understand. I thought Daddy had had
Speaker 2: you come there to meet me for a surprise. Then
Speaker 2: you laughed and held up your hand and said, dear
Speaker 2: little Judy, couldn't you guess that I was Daddy long legs?
Speaker 2: In an instant, it flashed over me. Oh but I
Speaker 2: have been stupid. A hundreds of little things might have
Speaker 2: told me if I'd had any wits, I wouldn't make
Speaker 2: a very good detective, would I? Daddy Jervy? What must
Speaker 2: I call you? Just plain Jervy sounds disrespectful, and I
Speaker 2: can't be disrespectful to you. It was a very sweet
Speaker 2: half hour before your doctor came and sent me away.
Speaker 2: I was so dazed when I got to the station
Speaker 2: that I almost took a train for Saint Louis. And
Speaker 2: you were pretty dazed too. You forgot to give me
Speaker 2: any tea. But we're both very very happy, aren't we.
Speaker 2: I drove back to Lockwillow in the dark, but oh
Speaker 2: how the stars were shining. And this morning I've been
Speaker 2: out with Colin, visiting all the places that you and
Speaker 2: I went to together, and remembering what you said and how
Speaker 2: you looked. The woods to dare burnished bronze, and the
Speaker 2: air is full of frost. It's climbing weather. I wish
Speaker 2: you were here to climb the hills with me. I'm
Speaker 2: missing you dreadfully, Jervy dear, but it's a happy kind
Speaker 2: of missing. Will be together soon. We belong to each
Speaker 2: other now, really and truly, no make believe. Doesn't it
Speaker 2: seem queer for me to belong to someone at last?
Speaker 2: It seems very very sweet. And I shall never let
Speaker 2: you be sorry for a single instant. Yours forever and ever, Judy.
Speaker 2: End of Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster