May 30th.
_Dear Daddy-Long-Legs_,
Did you ever see this campus? (That is merely a rhetorical question.
Don’t let it annoy you.) It is a heavenly spot in May. All the
shrubs are in blossom and the trees are the loveliest young
green--even the old pines look fresh and new. The grass is dotted
with yellow dandelions and hundreds of girls in blue and white and
pink dresses. Everybody is joyous and care-free, for vacation’s
coming, and with that to look forward to, examinations don’t count.
Isn’t that a happy frame of mind to be in? And oh, Daddy! I’m the
happiest of all! Because I’m not in the asylum any more; and I’m
not anybody’s nurse-maid or typewriter or bookkeeper (I should have
been, you know, except for you).
I’m sorry now for all my past badnesses.
I’m sorry I was ever impertinent to Mrs. Lippett.
I’m sorry I ever slapped Freddie Perkins.
I’m sorry I ever filled the sugar bowl with salt.
I’m sorry I ever made faces behind the Trustees’ backs.
I’m going to be good and sweet and kind to everybody because I’m
so happy. And this summer I’m going to write and write and write
and begin to be a great author. Isn’t that an exalted stand to
take? Oh, I’m developing a beautiful character! It droops a bit
under cold and frost, but it does grow fast when the sun shines.
That’s the way with everybody. I don’t agree with the theory that
adversity and sorrow and disappointment develop moral strength. The
happy people are the ones who are bubbling over with kindliness.
I have no faith in misanthropes. (Fine word! Just learned it.) You
are not a misanthrope are you, Daddy?
I started to tell you about the campus. I wish you’d come for a
little visit and let me walk you about and say:
“That is the library. This is the gas plant, Daddy dear. The Gothic
building on your left is the gymnasium, and the Tudor Romanesque
beside it is the new infirmary.”
Oh, I’m fine at showing people about. I’ve done it all my life at
the asylum, and I’ve been doing it all day here. I have honestly.
And a Man, too!
That’s a great experience. I never talked to a man before (except
occasional Trustees, and they don’t count). Pardon, Daddy. I don’t
mean to hurt your feelings when I abuse Trustees. I don’t consider
that you really belong among them. You just tumbled onto the Board
by chance. The Trustee, as such, is fat and pompous and benevolent.
He pats one on the head and wears a gold watch chain.
[Illustration]
That looks like a June bug, but is meant to be a portrait of any
Trustee except you.
However--to resume:
I have been walking and talking and having tea with a man. And with
a very superior man--with Mr. Jervis Pendleton of the House of
Julia; her uncle, in short (in long, perhaps I ought to say; he’s
as tall as you). Being in town on business, he decided to run out to
the college and call on his niece. He’s her father’s youngest
brother, but she doesn’t know him very intimately. It seems he
glanced at her when she was a baby, decided he didn’t like her,
and has never noticed her since.
Anyway, there he was, sitting in the reception room very proper with
his hat and stick and gloves beside him; and Julia and Sallie with
seventh-hour recitations that they couldn’t cut. So Julia dashed
into my room and begged me to walk him about the campus and then
deliver him to her when the seventh hour was over. I said I would,
obligingly but unenthusiastically, because I don’t care much for
Pendletons.
But he turned out to be a sweet lamb. He’s a real human being--not
a Pendleton at all. We had a beautiful time; I’ve longed for an
uncle ever since. Do you mind pretending you’re my uncle? I believe
they’re superior to grandmothers.
Mr. Pendleton reminded me a little of you, Daddy, as you were twenty
years ago. You see I know you intimately, even if we haven’t ever
met!
He’s tall and thinnish with a dark face all over lines, and the
funniest underneath smile that never quite comes through but just
wrinkles up the corners of his mouth. And he has a way of making you
feel right off as though you’d known him a long time. He’s very
companionable.
We walked all over the campus from the quadrangle to the athletic
grounds; then he said he felt weak and must have some tea. He
proposed that we go to College Inn--it’s just off the campus by the
pine walk. I said we ought to go back for Julia and Sallie, but he
said he didn’t like to have his nieces drink too much tea; it made
them nervous. So we just ran away and had tea and muffins and
marmalade and ice-cream and cake at a nice little table out on the
balcony. The inn was quite conveniently empty, this being the end of
the month and allowances low.
We had the jolliest time! But he had to run for his train the minute
he got back and he barely saw Julia at all. She was furious with me
for taking him off; it seems he’s an unusually rich and desirable
uncle. It relieved my mind to find he was rich, for the tea and
things cost sixty cents apiece.
This morning (it’s Monday now) three boxes of chocolates came by
express for Julia and Sallie and me. What do you think of that? To
be getting candy from a man!