417 West 118th Street,
New York City.
5 October 1921Abby Dear:
I will write just a little letter before I tackle the pile of exams. I do a few of those along the path, not enough to hurt, but they do dwindle if I can keep my mind to a few each evening.
Your letter was dear and I would like to hear more about your girls who came of a Sunday. In what capacity are you adopting one? And oh, I could listen to a lot of information about both!
Dr. Hopkins has not said anything definite about the cough except that I do it as if it was perfectly natural an accomplishment. He said he was quite sure that the temperature I run irregularly must come from the lungs, that it might be something brewing or a warning, and he gave me a lot of little items which I can not remember, to watch over and report on. I do not think I have had any of the symptoms, for instance, he said if I began to cough more in the morning to come to him at once. And if I felt any new sensations in coughing, or unusual feelings of any sort, to come. The temperature was not much, and not serious. He said it was just enough to be abnormal and to be watched closely. I did not have it every day, but two or three times a week and other days it was correspondingly subnormal. As he expressed it, the kind of temperature that wallops around! The rectal record was in perfect accord with the week I had it taken by mouth, so he said that making the proper rate of exchange or whatever it is does does [sic] to make the comparison, there was no doubt but that I was running more or less regular temperature all along. However, I do not take it any more, and he merely warned me to let him know if the lassitude incr[e]ased or I felt any more weaknes or anything which might indicate increase in the tendency toward temperature.
So that is all of that, and I go to him next week, I suppose, and hne [sic] will find me a well woman! I have gained in weight I am sure, and I can not believe that the exercise at Farview did any damage. It was the sort of tired that recovered as quickly as a Christian Scientist could desire, and please, Dear, the two barrels of nuts were not garnered in one swell foop! We fetched in at intervals along the weeks, and the girls did all the carrying anyhow. When Jean was there, she would drive the car as near the trees as possible and then she and Dorothea toted the baskets to the car and from the car to the house. While Anne was there, she and Dorothea did all the toting, so I meandered about picking up the nuts, or mostly sat removing the outer shucks while they gathered. And it was fun anyhow.
But I will set me to work for an hour, and call it enough for one evening. Oh, I have anice [sic] letter from Grace Rotzel, and Charlotte had one earlier, both indicating that she is keenly enthusiastic over her job at Fairhope, Alabama, and she raves over the country and the trees and all the novelty. She is quite inflamed with the idea of the Organic School and interested in the Single Tax settlement and altogether, it promises to be an exciting winter for her.
I, too, feel sorry for Mrs. Paige, and it must be awfully hard for Beryl. I am sure she does not have companionship enough and that she gets desperately lonesome, and with the anxiety, it is harder still.
I forget that I am using abrreviated [sic] paper, and keep running along on the roller instead of your letter, so it may be a sign to stop.
Dorothea seems to have settled on staying at home until January, planning to come over to South Hadley in November for a visit and in the meantime she is taking a temporary position in the Y.M.A. library in Albany, so she will not have so much idle time on her hands. It will be an excellent experience for her, and help her build up a little sense of r[e]sponsibility toward a job, with regular hours and independent economic feeling to a small degree. She is just filling in until they can find a permanent person in the place. Also it gives her more time in which to think out what she may want to attempt in January.
And I am loving you, Dear.
Eva
Wednesday.