Sallie McBride just poked her head in at my door. This is what she
said:
“I’m so homesick that I simply can’t stand it. Do you feel that
way?”
I smiled a little and said no, I thought I could pull through. At
least homesickness is one disease that I’ve escaped! I never heard
of anybody being asylumsick, did you?
October 10th.
_Dear Daddy-Long-Legs_,
Did you ever hear of Michael Angelo?
He was a famous artist who lived in Italy in the Middle Ages.
Everybody in English Literature seemed to know about him and the
whole class laughed because I thought he was an archangel. He sounds
like an archangel, doesn’t he? The trouble with college is that you
are expected to know such a lot of things you’ve never learned.
It’s very embarrassing at times. But now, when the girls talk about
things that I never heard of, I just keep still and look them up in
the encyclopedia.
I made an awful mistake the first day. Somebody mentioned Maurice
Maeterlinck, and I asked if she was a Freshman. That joke has gone
all over college. But anyway, I’m just as bright in class as any of
the others--and brighter than some of them!
Do you care to know how I’ve furnished my room? It’s a symphony in
brown and yellow. The wall was tinted buff, and I’ve bought yellow
denim curtains and cushions and a mahogany desk (second hand for
three dollars) and a rattan chair and a brown rug with an ink spot
in the middle. I stand the chair over the spot.
The windows are up high; you can’t look out from an ordinary seat.
But I unscrewed the looking-glass from the back of the bureau,
upholstered the top, and moved it up against the window. It’s just
the right height for a window seat. You pull out the drawers like
steps and walk up. Very comfortable!
Sallie McBride helped me choose the things at the Senior auction.
She has lived in a house all her life and knows about furnishing.
You can’t imagine what fun it is to shop and pay with a real
five-dollar bill and get some change--when you’ve never had more
than a nickel in your life. I assure you, Daddy dear, I do
appreciate that allowance.
Sallie is the most entertaining person in the world--and Julia
Rutledge Pendleton the least so. It’s queer what a mixture the
registrar can make in the matter of room-mates. Sallie thinks
everything is funny--even flunking--and Julia is bored at
everything. She never makes the slightest effort to be amiable. She
believes that if you are a Pendleton, that fact alone admits you to
heaven without any further examination. Julia and I were born to be
enemies.
And now I suppose you’ve been waiting very impatiently to hear what
I am learning?
I. _Latin:_ Second Punic war. Hannibal and his forces pitched camp
at Lake Trasimenus last night. They prepared an ambuscade for the
Romans, and a battle took place at the fourth watch this morning.
Romans in retreat.
II. _French:_ 24 pages of the “Three Musketeers” and third
conjugation, irregular verbs.