[A few paragraph marks were added for ease of reading]Templeton, Mass.,
Jan. 20, 1907.Dear Sister:-
Just as I have reached a very interesting place in my book I feel it is my duty to write to you. I haven't much to write about, but I guess I can string in out. [sic]
The most exciting thing happened Wed. night. Mr. Parker asked me to go to the Institute with him! Mrs. Parker couldn't go so he wanted to know if I wouldn't like to take a trip to the North Pole. Auntie was mad because he didn't ask her but probably he thought that folks would talk & so he would do the next best thing. If you remember Wed night was a freezing cold night. It was a fitting night for the lecture. It was up in the Town Hall which made it worse. The subject was a "Trip to the North Pole" (or in that direction) and the speaker was a man who had had command I think of a ship which had been up there. He read his little speech but otherwise than that I liked him very much. It was an illustrated lecture and the pictures were fine. He had a kind of picture part of the time, the like of which I had never seen before. One was the unloading of the dogs & horses from the ship and you could see the men take the animals off the ship and see the dogs & horses run around. They were nice but it was hard to look at them. The man told about one man who fell into the water one time when they were going along. He had to change all his clothing, standing on a cake of ice. Luckily it was not very cold, only four below zero. He said that bear steaks made one think of beaf [sic] steak if there was none of the latter around to compare it too [sic] but to his mind walrus steaks were the most like automobile tires of anything he could think off. [sic] I think some of the steak which Walter Aiken brings in must be walrus steak.
We just missed the ten o'clock car. Then when the Baldwinville car came the conductor didn't know whether he had better let us on & transfer us at E. Templeton or not but finally we persuaded him to. We reached E. Templeton & then we didn't know but that we should have to stand out there for half an hour but finally we were put in a coolish car & sent home. I was a little chilly when I arrived home for a trip to the North Pole is not the warmest thing possible. Mirabile dictu!
If I had known something & dared to do it I should have had a dandy excuse to write Roger for not wanting to go to the Athletic Ball. My hen died this week & I could have written to Roger than an old friend of the family was very sick & that I couldn't go. Wouldn't that have been great?
Friday night I went down to Cousin Minnie's. Ida has been helping her for a week so that she could rest. Gladys grows every day & is just the dearest little piece. Russell was in the house all of the time. Ida said that that A.M. she asked him something & he answered. Then she asked him again & he didn't answer. She asked why he didn't answer & he said that "he was saving his breath." Cousin Minnie may go to Worcester for a day or two this week if it isn't too cold.
At church this A.M. Rob had to have a lamp lighted on each side of the organ it was so dark. Mr Skerrye made the announcement that he wanted more money. He didn't want any more salary but he wanted money for some racks to put up in the entry of the church. He said that they are always sending out sermons pamphlets & the like from the headquarters of the Unitarian Society in Boston to any church that wanted them and of course he said we wanted them. Then when we had heard an unusually poor sermon in the A.M. we could take a good sermon and go home & read it. It seems that such racks have been spoken of before & Mrs. Bourn had told her husband that they ought to get the new racks up before the new minister came.
Mrs. Skerrye has not yet arrived. Dorothy told me that he wrote to his wife that he would meet the train that she would be likely to come on but he hoped he wouldn't come. He is afraid that she will be homesick & he wants every thing fixed before she gets here.
Mr. McNamara nearly finished a part of his chem. class Friday. He was a little cranky Mon. at the beginning of the period. He told us that it was neither ladylike nor gentlemanly to sit with one's legs crossed in the presence of ladies & gentlemen. We kept our feet on the floor the rest of the period. Mr. Brainard came in during the period & much to our amusement sat down & crossed his legs. Friday Mr. McN. sent us to the board, one row at a time. The second row was at the board & he was sitting in one of the seats in that row. We had been having considerable fun about crossing our feet for it is impossible to remember what he said all the time. We happened to look at him & there he sat as big as life with his legs crossed. It was almost too much for us. If he had asked us what we were laughing at I guess there would have been an explosion[.]
I have learned another highly instructive verse, this time from the Christian Register. Sometime I think that I shall recite some that I have learned to Mr. Skerrye. & tell him that it the good [sic] which I get from that paper.
"The rain it falleth, day by day
Upon the just & unjust feller;
And more it falls upon the just
Because the unjust takes the just's umbrella."I had a letter from Linnie Tues. Her birthday is this week Tuesday & she expected to have Guy out to spend to-day with her. She wrote that Lucy Hadley & Mr. Hadley a xmas card.
Mama says that she is almost as good as new.
With love,
Molly.