I just read this over before sealing it. I don't know WHY I cast such
a misty atmosphere over life. I hasten to assure you that I am young
and happy and exuberant; and I trust you are the same. Youth has
nothing to do with birthdays, only with ALIVEDNESS of spirit, so even
if your hair is grey, Daddy, you can still be a boy.
Affectionately,
Judy
12th Jan.
Dear Mr. Philanthropist,
Your cheque for my family came yesterday. Thank you so much! I cut
gymnasium and took it down to them right after luncheon, and you should
have seen the girl's face! She was so surprised and happy and relieved
that she looked almost young; and she's only twenty-four. Isn't it
pitiful?
Anyway, she feels now as though all the good things were coming
together. She has steady work ahead for two months--someone's getting
married, and there's a trousseau to make.
'Thank the good Lord!' cried the mother, when she grasped the fact that
that small piece of paper was one hundred dollars.
'It wasn't the good Lord at all,' said I, 'it was Daddy-Long-Legs.'
(Mr. Smith, I called you.)
'But it was the good Lord who put it in his mind,' said she.
'Not at all! I put it in his mind myself,' said I.
But anyway, Daddy, I trust the good Lord will reward you suitably. You
deserve ten thousand years out of purgatory.
Yours most gratefully,
Judy Abbott
15th Feb.
May it please Your Most Excellent Majesty:
This morning I did eat my breakfast upon a cold turkey pie and a goose,
and I did send for a cup of tee (a china drink) of which I had never
drank before.
Don't be nervous, Daddy--I haven't lost my mind; I'm merely quoting
Sam'l Pepys. We're reading him in connection with English History,
original sources. Sallie and Julia and I converse now in the language
of 1660. Listen to this:
'I went to Charing Cross to see Major Harrison hanged, drawn and
quartered: he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that
condition.' And this: 'Dined with my lady who is in handsome mourning
for her brother who died yesterday of spotted fever.'
Seems a little early to commence entertaining, doesn't it? A friend of
Pepys devised a very cunning manner whereby the king might pay his
debts out of the sale to poor people of old decayed provisions. What
do you, a reformer, think of that? I don't believe we're so bad today
as the newspapers make out.
Samuel was as excited about his clothes as any girl; he spent five
times as much on dress as his wife--that appears to have been the
Golden Age of husbands. Isn't this a touching entry? You see he
really was honest. 'Today came home my fine Camlett cloak with gold
buttons, which cost me much money, and I pray God to make me able to
pay for it.'
Excuse me for being so full of Pepys; I'm writing a special topic on
him.
What do you think, Daddy? The Self-Government Association has
abolished the ten o'clock rule. We can keep our lights all night if we
choose, the only requirement being that we do not disturb others--we
are not supposed to entertain on a large scale. The result is a
beautiful commentary on human nature. Now that we may stay up as long
as we choose, we no longer choose. Our heads begin to nod at nine
o'clock, and by nine-thirty the pen drops from our nerveless grasp.
It's nine-thirty now. Good night.