South Hadley, Mass.
June 25, 1919.Dear Miss Ball,
Thank you very much for your comforting letter. I only wish the explanation you suggest might have been the right one. But, alas!, "Joanna" was discussed before I moved down here. I don't remember seeing the little glasses myself, but Margaret Clark saw them intact on the Saturday noon before their destruction. And so the mystery is still a mystery. But nothing else has happened, I'm happy to report, and I'm hoping not to depreciate your property any more during my tenantry.
I'm finding South Hadley very still and very hot these days, and just now the thesis-work seems all lag-ends and dead-ends, but I suppose that is a necessary stage. I haven't even definite enough problems to put before Miss Stevens for advice. Lately I've stumbled on one or two quaint old discourses about sermon-writing that discussed unity in somewhat the same way as modern text-books do. Wouldn't it be funny if that should turn out to be my field of research? "Blood will tell."
That reminds me to tell you that my father slept in your bed last Saturday night! He stopped off to see me, on his way to a Convention in Ohio and we had a fine day together on Sunday, exploring Mount Tom and making the trolley circuit through Northampton and Amherst. Miss Titcomb had gone home over the week-end so that I could use her bed in Room 16.
Miss Turner had returned your gown duly and I have wrapped the sheet around it and left it hanging. You were very kind to offer me the use of your desk-drawers, and I have tucked away a few things in them. I keep most of my equipment in the library, however, since I do practically all my work there.
I can imagine how busy you are with the examination-reading. Shall hope to hear how interesting you found it, if you come to "visit" me on your return.
Affectionately yours, Martha Cramer.
P.S. Your book-shelves are a constant temptation to me and I fall frequently.