Gardner, Mass.,
Dec. 12, 1902.Dear Lucy:
Will now try and answer your letter which I received some time ago. You may be sure I was delighted to hear from you, but have been so busy since, that I could not find a moment to write letters, so please forgive me this time and I will endeavor to be more prompt in the future.
Well, we did get to Gardner after a while, but I had begun to think we should not, this winter. We waited for that tenement that I told you about on Elm St., but at the very last minute Mr. Drenning got around to tell mamma that he had had applications from other parties to whom he would prefer to rent the house. (As far as I was concerned I was rather glad that he entertained this preference) We are now residing on Woodland Ave., and are all perfectly satisfied with the tenement. It is a double-tenement house that Mr. Wheelen, the contractor, built this fall, so it is all new and finished up lovely that is: it will be when it is done.
There have been carpenters, plummers, [sic] and I don't know what, at work here ever since we came. They have been piping for steam heat this week, and I shall be glad when they get it done for then I hope we will have no more trouble with the water-pipes freezing.
We have five rooms besides the bath on the first floor and two on the third. With the other tenement there are the same number of rooms on the second floor and three on the third, but as yet it is unoccupied, although I expect that Mr. Wheelen intends to move in either to-morrow or the first part of next week. We moved the 8th of last month, so our Thanksgiving this year was spent in Gardner.
I hoped to have seen you before you returned to school that week. I looked for you to visit Gardner High, Wednesday, but was disappointed in not seeing you. Helen Whitney came in. I hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving vacation, but wasn't it a dreadful stormy week, and especially Thanksgiving Day? Nevertheless the Football Team of G.H.S. in spite of the weather, played against the T.A.C.'s, and won. The boys secured a score of 5-0. The G.H.S. Team are to have a banquet at the Town Hall. Monday evening, Dec. 15. Supt. Wood and Mr. Preble are going to give them a Turkey Supper at the Commercial House before long, (I do not know what date.) so I think they are coming in for their share of the good times. Don't you?
I handed in my third Library Story to-day. It was an abstract of "Treasure Island" and consisted of fifteen pages which it took me all the week to write at odd times. Before Monday morning I shall have to prepare an essay for declamation, write out an editorial for our Paper, write a Christmas story and design a cover for it, copy up a whole set in Book-keeping, prepare for an examination in Shorthand, and get my other lessons for Monday. I believe that is all, unless I happen to feel disposed to read a book for January.
Oh, speaking about Papers, - perhaps it will be necessary to give a little explanation. - Our class expect to publish a monthly paper, which, I have no doubt, will be one of the most elaborate things that ever was invented in the Town of Gardner. Perhaps you will want a copy when we get them out?
How are you progressing at College? I can imagine you coming into class every day with a perfect lesson, as you always were accustomed to do. Oh dear! How I do wish I wasn't so stupid. I should like to have a perfect recitation for once just to see how it would seem.
I suppose you are enjoying your gymnasium work? It doesn't seem to me that I should like it. It is on a much larger scale, of course, but apparently, on the same principle as calisthenics, which I can't say that I enjoyed. I am now taking mental arithmetic as a substitute.
Yes, it does seem rather strange to think of Lena Piper as a teacher. To be sure I knew very little about her standing in school but what little I did know did not impress me very favorably with regard to her scholarship.
Well, I don't mind the daily change in the program, now, since I have it all by heart. At first it bothered me a little to remember which studies came on which day and in what periods, but now I can almost go through the whole routine, beginning at 8.30 Monday morning and ending at half past one Friday afternoon in my dreams, without a single mistake[.]
It is now the custom at the High School that an entertainment be given under the auspices of the Senior class every Friday afternoon. These entertainments consist of Declamations from different members of the class each week and are given in Assembly Hall, with free admission tickets to all who wish to come. Miss Bates has suggested that to put on the finishing touches it would be well to have a little music both vocal and instrumental, so when we do that I should not be surprised if we have posters along the streets, just as they do to advertise plays at Music Hall. Well I suppose it doesn't look well for me to be criticizing my own class work, and to be truthful about it, I know I shall derive a great deal of benefit from it, but it does require such an amount of exertion on my part to stand before the whole school and control my voice and nerves sufficiently to recite an essay[.]
As my paper seems to be nearly covered with scribbling which I do not believe you will ever be able to read, I will close wishing you many times a merry Christmas, I am, as ever,
Your true friend
Chessie D. Whitney