Mansfield Mass.
Oct. 1. 1899.
Dear family.
Well, that is just the way they do things at Union "with murmurings and disputings." How is Miss Curtiss getting along?
We have enjoyed the picture of Mr. Fogg very much. He ornaments my disk. The Packards are interested in my tales about "Mr Kyte and Mr. Kyle/Mr. Pike and Mr. Pile." Mr. Rand ought to go to Abington that would settle up tings nicely. Has any one heard from Mr. Rward in his mythical school?
Yesterday I sent off by money order what I could spare of my first fifty dollars, $7.50 to Dr. Silva, and $16.22 to George to pay the fifteen dollar note and its interest. After I had mailed the two, I called for my mail and what should I receive but my bill from Dr. Silva. It had been remailed from Union. Now was this merely coincidence or influence of mind over mind?
In the afternoon I went by electrics to Brockton and bought myself a couple of all-wool vests. one makes me feel comfortable this morning. There was a heavy frost last night.
Miss Kinne is at Stoughton spending Sat. and Sun. with her Westfield friend, Miss Britton, who teaches in No. Stoughton. I invited Elizabeth over to stay but she had already made her plans to go to Concord on her wheel.
Miss Copeland spent Friday evening with me; she brought her Song Book and Llamarada, also all the letters she has received from the college girls this year, so we had a real Holyoke evening. She lives a little ways out of town on a farm but on the car line. I am going to call on her some evening this week. She is real nice, tho' wealthy and fat.
Letter from Flora Hall this week. Her pullets are laying.
We heard, as you see from the calendar enclosed, a real live missionary from South Africa [Rev. J. C. Dorward of Amanzimtote, South Africa]; he truly was alive, but not lively. He was of the same type as Mr. Rand, good and devoted, but so dry.
Mrs. Packard is going to give us a "hen" pie for dinner, made out of an old bantam rooster. I wish she would hurry it up. for the real live missionary made me hungry, if nothing more.
Wed. night.
We have just returned from the Institute at Medfield, and such a try time as I had. It was harder than teaching, too; tomorrow I shall go back to school with just the feeling we have when we put on our wrappers and go to work after we have been away somewhere. I sent you a program last week; the only thing that did me any good was the Mathematics. Mr. McDonald is one of the progressive teachers who uses no textbook to teach Geometry, but just gives the students the theorems and lets them work out their own proofs. He so impressed me that I think I should like to try the plan if it is my lot to teach the subject next year.
What do I do evenings? Study, study, study. I have to have my lessons so clearly in my mind that I do not have to refer to the text book at all, unless it is for examples. I have spent a good deal of time on these last bright evenings star gazing. I play the piano a little now and then, when there is no body around to hear me. Last Sunday a girl sang "when the mists have rolled away" as it is in my book of solos.
They have a Univ. Extension Club here, which I should not join if I had an invitation, which has not as yet been tendered me. No socials as yet. There is a public library, open Tue. and Sat. evenings, also Sat. afternoon. It is not a particularly good one.
The popular fall hat seems to be gray or brown felt, wide, turn up brim, trimmed with one extremely long quill on the left side, and folds of white silk like D's wedding dress around the crown. They make such hats at the straw shops here, and people who have pulls can get them cheap.
Miss Kinne is teaching her pupils the geog. of Mansfield. I enclose the first three pages of it, so you can have accurate knowledge of the place.
Love -
Susie.
Position:-
Mansfield is in Bristol County in the southeastern part of Massachusetts.
Size:-
It is 7 miles long, 3 1/2 miles wide, the longest side being at the north.
Boundary:-
Mansfield is bounded on the northy by Wrentham, Foxboro', and Sharon; on the east by Easton; on the south by Norton; on the west by Attleboro' and North Attleboro'.
Surface:-
The Surface is very level having no mountains and but one or two low hills. Stearns Hill is in East Mansfield and Jewel Hill is in West Mansfield.
Soil:-
The soil is not very good for farming being very gravelly, but some parts are made fertile by hard work.
Productions:-
In Mansfield are raised some corn, wheat, oats, and rye. Vegetables are raised for home use. (Name them.) Pears, apples, grapes, plums, and such fruits, are raised only in quantities large enough to be used at home.
Ponds and Streams:-
Mansfield is well watered by three rivers. Through the eastern part flows the Canoe River which rises in Sharon and flows into a pond in Norton, (Winneconnet) through the western part flows the Wading River, which rises in Shepard's Pond in Wrentham, and flows into a stream in Norton; through the center flows the Rumford or Ten-Mile River. This also rises in Sharon, flows through Mansfield and into the Three-Mile River in Norton.
In Mansfield the Rumford widens into the following ponds. Card's Fulton's Kingman's Cabot's and Fisher's. These furnish water-power and ice.