Templeton, Mass.
Nov. 9, 1902.
Dear Lucy:-
Now that Ella has gone I hope that I shall have a little more time. She went Thursday morning with a very scanty wardrobe. However I think that she can get along until Thanksgiving. I shouldn't have thought that you could sleep a bit after feeling of those pieces of Timothy Tubbs. I will tell you in full about our Hallowe'en celebration. In the first place the walkup to the house was lighted by Jack-o-Lanterns. Afterwards Mrs. Taylor put one in the window to greet all that came. When all had arrived Mrs. T. rang a little bell and we quieted down and furnished adjectives for an adjective story which she read to us. Then we went into the kitchen. There was a long string of paper-bags hanging there and in nearly everyone was a fortune. We were blind-folded and had to strick [sic] at a bag and break it. My fortune said, "You will have a legacy left you." Won't that be nice?)
Then we tried to bob apples. I didn't try my luck at it. Before that we had a pan of sawdust that we had to dig in until we found our fortune. I found a small brass thimble and my fortune said that I would met [sic] my future husband that night. After we had bobbed apples we had some cake, cookies, candy, chestnuts and corn-balls. Then we had some slips of paper with our fortunes written in illegible ink. Mine said that I would be a book-keeper to my great sorrow. And I guess that it would be. Mama came for me just as we were starting to play clap in and clap out.
I have a new tam-o-shanter. It is dark brown with long white hairs and a white tassel. I have been to Baldwinville three times within four days. Didn't I do well? Linnie is carrying apples down to Cousin Louis' store. We went Wednesday night, Friday night, and Saturday morning. I didn't expect her Saturday morning and was making a cake when she came. Wed. we came home through Otter River and she stopped to see Marion.
Linnie is having serious trouble about her "love affairs" as she calls them. Mildred Ames wants to bust up Linnie and Gene. Gene has found it out and the first of the week he told Linnie that he was going to have some fun with Mildred. He told Linnie to be sure not to get mad, and kept telling her so. She asked him what she might expect and he said he didn't know yet. Tues. night he went home with her from the rehearsal for Egypta and Wed. night from the Institute. Linnie didn't know what was going to happen and finally she asked him if he was coming up Sun. He said he would, if she wanted him to. Thurs. night the Soph. class had a reception under another name at South Gardner. Mildred and Gene both went and he didn't dance with her but once and that was ladies' choice and she choiced him and he didn't go home with her. Sometime the last part of the week Linnie asked him again if he was going to come up Sun. He told her that she wouldn't want him to [come] by Sun. and she told him she would so he said that he would come. I don't know whether he did or not. She went to foot-ball yesterday between G.H.S. and Keene but I haven't seen her yet to speak to but she looked quite happy in Sunday School. Gardners won so Beulah said. Linnie and Bates and making up. [sic] He is very pleasant towards her. Friday the fifth period Miss Allen was out of the room. Bates and Linnie sat side by side. Bates was leaning over talking to her when his hand slipped and he went down at her feet. Wasn't that charming? Only about two weeks more before Thanksgiving.
With lots of love
Mary
P.S. Don't tell anybody about Linnie and Gene for she don't want it to get around.
[A note folded into Mary's letter]
Dear Lucy
I haven't been felling [sic] very well for the last few days. I guess that I have got cold. It is awfully cold weather that we are havin [sic] now. The ground was white with frost this morning.
With love
Amber