e 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 few cents
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.

III. Geometry: Finished cylinders; now doing cones.

IV. English: Studying exposition. My style improves daily in
clearness and brevity.

V. Physiology: Reached the digestive system. Bile and the pancreas
next time. Yours, on the way to being educated,

Jerusha Abbott

PS. I hope you never touch alcohol, Daddy? It does dreadful things to
your liver.

Wednesday

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

I've changed my name.

I'm still 'Jerusha' in the catalogue, but I'm 'Judy' everywhere else.
It's really too bad, isn't it, to have to give yourself the only pet
name you ever had? I didn't quite make up the Judy though. That's
what Freddy Pe