Saturday afternoonDear Mamma:-
Grace and I are sitting in a pasture that makes me think of Miss Gates' at Shelburne, only we see small mountains, not the big ones. It is on the side of Sunday Mountain, a half mile or so from the Silver Maple Farm where we are staying. Do you remember that huge poplar tree by Miss Gates'? This house has two - they aren't maples at all. There are very few people at the house, and they are not attractive, but we had nice squash, carrots and cucumbers for dinner!
I hope you have gotten my postcards all right. I have sent them every day, but shall probably not be able to get mail off every day after this, so don't expect to hear regularly. I'll go back now to tell you a little more of what has happened.
Wednesday morning I met an alumna in Holyoke who was taking the same train, so I had her company to Bellows Falls. One man told me my train there would not be running, another said it would - and it did. The ride through Vermont is pretty though the day was very hazy, and the boat trip across Lake Champlain was lovely. The people I was to see met me at the boat with a car, and took me to a pleasant boarding house with a beautiful view across the Lake, as we saw in the morning. We talked several hours about the subject of public health nursing and I hope I may have further connection with the matter, but shall not know before October. I left Thursday morning at about 11:30 by train.
I decided, since I couldn't get anywhere in particular that night, to stop off at Chester where Miss Holbrook had spoken of a hotel run by the same people who run the Mount Holyoke House. But on the way down I have some hours to dispose of in waiting for trains. I managed to see Fort Ticonderoga which is very interesting, though by now [sic] means equal to Crown Point. I picked up a few scraps to eat at a little
luncstore, for there was no lunch room, and was glad I had two sandwiches left over from the day before. From there I got a mixed train across to the road Chester is on - and took almost two hours to go less than fifteen miles. There was a good deal of exercise about the trip - like riding horse-back. Then at Leicester Junc. I tried to call up Edith Redman, but she is away, so I bought another batch of crackers at another grocery store and sat around some more time. It rained a bit now and then, but very little, and all that region needs rain very much. They have a plague of grasshoppers. The train was late, but we got to Chester at nine o'clock, and the hotel folks made me a bed in the parlor, for they were full. There are a lot of Frenchmen over buying a million cattle to help restore the French herds, and just now some of them are at Chester talking with Vermont men and buying many.Friday I got up early and came down to Bellows Falls to get the train for Hanover. I had four hours there, so I took a trolley trip out to Saxton's River, thinking Carrie Holt might be home, but she wasn't. So I called on Dr. Clapp's cousins in Bellows Falls with whom we stayed last year. They are such nice people. The son is home from France. He turned out to be a Dartmouth boy and told me a lot about places up here.
Then I met Grace on the train at White River and we went around Dartmouth in the afternoon, under the guidance of an alumna whom Grace knew well, and I a little. She told me a new vegetable to raise next year - summer asparagus. The vines look like squash, but the fruit doesn't. Dartmouth is lovely. I had no idea they had so much of elegance there - such beautiful rooms in the buildings and so many fine buildings. It was fine to see it so well. They have assembly places of all possible sizes, it seemed to me. We stayed at a little Inn in Norwich, which is across the river from Hanover, a charming little town itself, and the inn was delightful - the kind we ought to have in South Hadley, for we had enough to eat even though it was very daintily served. I guess the boys go there for waffles, &c.
This morning we took a 7:40 train and on it met a Mt. H- alumna with a woman who is head of a big girls' camp in Thetford. A crowd of her girls got on the train and their counsellor told us some more about the region, so we have about all the information we need. We walked about a mile in Fairlee where we left the train to see Lake Morey, which has girls' camps all around it as well as a stylish hotel and some cottages. Then we came over to Orford, which has a beautiful village street, and walked out here about four miles to this place. The view here is beautiful. I wish it were clear enough to take pictures, but it isn't.
My shoes came safely to Hanover, so I hope the other packages will be o.k. We spent all last evening packing over and I sent my box this morning, or rather left it to be sent. I left money for postage. The boy was to put insurance receipts and change in stamps into
a letteran envelope I addressed to Miss Safford. If the box does not turn up by next Wed. I wish she would investigate. There would be two slips, the other for a small box I sent on to North Woodstock. I don't want to lose my suit & shoes! I presume it will be all right. I'm sorry to bother her with so many things. The package was sent special delivery for it was heavy.It is nearly time to go down to supper, so I'll stop now. I hope you have gotten on all right. The paper spoke about heavy rains near Boston - I hope my garden didn't suffer again. We had very little where I was, though Chester had been drenched.
Please remember me to Miss Safford.
Lovingly,
Abby