[Some paragraph marks added for ease of reading.]Templeton, Mass
Jan. 21, 1906.Dear Lucy:-
I am waiting in fear & trembling lest Lucius should come. Uncle has just been down cellar & I do hope that he came then for the rest of us wouldn't hear him as we are all upstairs. He is a nuisance. I wore my new suit. Mama sewed on the last loop about quarter of eleven so you see it was not done very much ahead of time
s. I don't know when she did go to bed last night, I am sure. Auntie has retrimmed my hat. She rolled up the sides a little and put a big bow on front. I have a yard & a quarter of ribbon for a hair ribbon. The skirt is just perfect & the coat is most as good. I look very big & very grown up in it.Auntie & I went to church. The walking was just dreadful & I got some mud on my skirt. We had a new minister. Mr. Nichols couldn't come & he couldn't get the young fellow we had before, so he sent this one. I didn't like him very well. His mouth had a very soft look. He acted as if he thought we ought to feel honored to have him come up here. Someone said that he had never preached before. If that is so he did very well for a little boy. Lucius said that he started to study for something else first & got sick of it.
School is going pretty well. I get pretty tired but I have all my work but my Eng. ready to make up. I have made up my Hist to Mr. B-. He talked [to] himself most of the time. Carrie has tonsilitis. She has been sick for over a week. Friday she was going to sit up to have her dinner so you see she has been pretty sick. Mildred Thrasher has the measles so I feel consoled to think I am not the only "infant" in '06 who had not had them.
As editor I have not had to do much as yet. I had to read eight or ten original stories but that was just fun. We haven't but two or three good ones yet. We have brought down the subscription price to $.45 to all who subscribe before Feb. 15. Lucius has given me the money for a subscription & Marion said she would bring hers next Sunday.
I did not speak in Rhetoricals Wed. simply because I didn't want to. I told Miss Clark that I had so much to make up I had rather wait. For the first time since we had them Bent did not shake when he spoke. Cowee did fine until he came to the last words, "They come, they come." By the time he got through he was half way down the platform steps. He always starts too soon but this was the limit. Ida thought he should have said, "They come, I go."
When I went into the office to pay my tuition Mr. B- wanted to know which I had had mumps or measles. I told him. "Well," he said, "you ought to have had those long ago." Then he went on to tell how he had the mumps after he begun to teach. I ought to have told him he ought to have had them before. I have heard that the one who is to take Mr. Morse's place is a woman & that Mr. McNamara is to be sub master. Won't he feel big?
Bessie had a funny experience in the library. She was squatting down on the floor with an encyclopaedia in her lap. She didn't hear Mr. B- come in. Suddenly she heard him say right over her, "Can't you find what you want, Miss Tufts?" She jumped & sat square down on his feet. He must have thought that something had struck him.
In Eng., current events day, Bessie gave as an item that in a town in Vermont an epidemic had broken out among the dogs and the town officers had issued a decree that all the dogs in the town should be killed. As she finished Cowee said, "Sausages."
Lucius told me that Roger had been fired from the road. He said that some of the motor-men had been teaching some of the young fellows to run the car, without
the knowleMr. Hamilton's knowing it. One night Roger & Shep were running & they changed places. Roger was motor-man & Shep conductor. Some one reported them & Roger was fired & Shep laid off for two weeks. Another young fellow who had been doing the same thing was fired. I won't swear that this is straight but it's what I understood Lucius to say. Probably some of the older men put the boys up to it & are really more to blame. I am awfully sorry for Roger.Nellie is sick again. She went to school one day but was sick & had to come home. They didn't know what ailed her for some time but the Doctor has finally said that she had rheumatism in the bowels. For a while they thought perhaps she was going to have the measles. She is getting a little better.
Here is something to console you when your boys act so in evening meeting. In Christian Endeavor at the Congo. last Sunday night a lot of the boys - Tandy, Drake Pierce Wood, Wilder, and a number more, all brought up in good homes - acted so badly that the minister had to speak to them. They were as good as kittens after he did. Now your boys are not brought up as any of those are. You see that boys are a good deal alike every where.
We had a class meeting Tuesday night. Among other things we talked about class hats. At first Curtis was the only one who wanted them
but& so we gave it up. Just as we were about to adjournheCowee arose & spoke something like this, "Mr. Moderator, I think we ought to have class hats. I don't know about the rest of the class but I need a new hat. We don't want caps for we are to[o] old for them but we do need hats." When Roger said we wouldn't have long enough to wear them to pay for getting them Cowee said that we could wear them thru the summer & then stick them up in our rooms. There is a committee appointed to look the matter up with Cowee as chair man. Isn't it fine?My warts have all gone with the measles. They don't act as if they are coming back. I do miss them so. Lusius hasn't come so I
haveam living in hopes.x x x x x With love x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x Molly x x x x xP.S. Mama says that as long as I have written so much
thshe will write later in the week. She was too busy working on my suit to write last week. Auntie sends her love. How are the measles. Mine still show a little on my arms. MollyP.S. I suddenly thought I hadn't told you that Mama has not the measles. I kept them all to myself.