September 30th.
_Dear Daddy_,
Are you still harping on that scholarship? I never knew a man so
obstinate and stubborn and unreasonable, and tenacious, and
bull-doggish, and unable-to-see-other-people’s-points-of-view as
you.
You prefer that I should not be accepting favors from strangers.
Strangers!--And what are you, pray?
Is there any one in the world that I know less? I shouldn’t
recognize you if I met you on the street. Now, you see, if you had
been a sane, sensible person and had written nice, cheering,
fatherly letters to your little Judy, and had come occasionally and
patted her on the head, and had said you were glad she was such a
good girl--Then, perhaps, she wouldn’t have flouted you in your old
age, but would have obeyed your slightest wish like the dutiful
daughter she was meant to be.
Strangers indeed! You live in a glass house, Mr. Smith.
And besides, this isn’t a favor; it’s like a prize--I earned it by
hard work. If nobody had been good enough in English, the committee
wouldn’t have awarded the scholarship; some years they don’t.
Also--But what’s the use of arguing with a man? You belong, Mr.
Smith, to a sex devoid of a sense of logic. To bring a man into
line, there are just two methods: one must either coax or be
disagreeable. I scorn to coax men for what I wish. Therefore, I must
be disagreeable.
I refuse, sir, to give up the scholarship; and if you make any more
fuss, I won’t accept the monthly allowance either, but will wear
myself into a nervous wreck tutoring stupid Freshmen.
That is my ultimatum!
And listen--I have a further thought. Since you are so afraid that
by taking this scholarship, I am depriving some one else of an
education, I know a way out. You can apply the money that you would
have spent for me, toward educating some other little girl from the
John Grier Home. Don’t you think that’s a nice idea? Only, Daddy,
_educate_ the new girl as much as you choose, but please don’t
_like_ her any better than me.
I trust that your secretary won’t be hurt because I pay so little
attention to the suggestions offered in his letter, but I can’t help
it if he is. He’s a spoiled child, Daddy. I’ve meekly given in to
his whims heretofore, but this time I intend to be FIRM.
Yours,
With a Mind,
Completely and Irrevocably and World-without-End Made-up.