Daddy Long Legs

'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.

Sunday Just back from church--preacher from Georgia. We must take care, he

says, not to develop our intellects at the expense of our emotional

natures--but methought it was a poor, dry sermon (Pepys again). It

doesn't matter what part of the United States or Canada they come from,

or what denomination they are, we always get the same sermon. Why on

earth don't they go to men's colleges and urge the students not to

allow their manly natures to be crushed out by too much mental

application?