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 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.