[The author didn't address the letter formally, but it was written to Abby Turner.]Monday night
We have been having thunderstorms all the afternoon and it's cool enough to write a letter. A good many of the days lately have been too hot to do much more than sit around after the day's work is over. It's really not half as bad as I expected though and no night yet has been too hot to sleep in. I am a bit disturbed about sleeping tonight though for a bug ran out of my bed as I made it this AM. I caught it and killed it, but Miss Newell has been engaged in practical entomology every night for weeks and I don't care to begin. She rises each night at 4 and slays little and big - what ever is in sight. Sometimes there is nothing for as much as two successive nights!
Yesterday was a poor Sunday. Several things came down Saturday which required attention after 24 hrs. I got to the hospital about 10:30 and a "post" came unexpectedly at 11:15. It was after 2 when I got through dinner - and I wasn't as hungry as usual. "Posts" immedicately before meals do take away the keen edge of my appetite. It took about an hour to get the cultures cleared up and then Dr. Graves wanted to go over the "post" literature. We had a nice time but it was supper time when we finished so all the day from 10:30 to 6 was passed in the hospital. I was sorry to lose a half day for doing up odds and ends and taking things quietly, and I feel rather weary today but I don't see anything peaceful a head until next Sunday, which isn't as hopeful as they used to be. I suppose I'll always have to cook more or less in them. People should be considerate and not be sick or die Saturday or Sunday.
About 7 o'clock we thought we'd cool off on a trooley ride so we waited for half an hour for a car going to Jeffersonville. It didn't come so we finally started to Prospect, a little village 14 miles from Louisville. The country was lovely all the way except a few stock yards which we had to go through on the edge of the city. They were very unpleasant.
I don't know what Eva is doing in addition to her 47th street restaurant. I wasn't surprised when she decided not to go to Italy or France and yet I wish she had. Seems as if some of her ideas would change if she could run up against people who are doing things in the war zones. I surely can't follow her reasoning along a good many lines yet, even though I respect the honesty with which she feels about them. Some, however, are too far fetched to stand for. I sometimes wonder if Jimmy's departures from the straight and narrow way have led Eva to build up her principles in somewhat unconventional lines. Dorothea didn't go to Hanover. The man, whose course she wanted particularly was called away for war service & no one was going to take his place.
Oh, the medical school has been asked to send to the government the names of those [who] are indispensable for the school. Miss Newell's name and mine have gone down so if we aren't really in the war, we are on record as being of service, which is rather nice.
I'll take this out to mail now for there is an 11 o'clock collection.
Much love to you,
Beryl.