My dear Mary,
It was a Saturday evening,
Poor Susie's work was done,
And she before her charmed desk
Was writing just for fun.
Your letter mailed Friday reached me just now (Sat. evening) and as I have been studying and working nearly all day I feel like doing something else. I have been sorry ever since Friday morning that I did n't get my letter started off in time for you to get it Friday.
This morning I had a postal from Harvey in Boston asking me if I would be ready for an early morning call next Wed. I immediately responded, addressing him "International Council" Tremont Temple, saying that I would meet him at the depot however early he came, and repeating Mrs. Packard's invitation to come here to dinner. He can get here at 7.15 or 7.25 and we can have an hour before school, then he must visit some of my classes. I do not know when he will think he must leave in order to get back to unite that couple. But it will not take long to show him all of Mansfield, at least that part with which I am familiar.
Now to answer the few things you want to know.
1. Population of Mansfield 3700+
2. Not so "tony" as Southbridge. I move in the best society.
3. Mrs. P. has a colored girl, Etta, nineteen years old, and a Swede woman to do her washing.
4. No bathroom. Strange, for they built the house themselves, and have steam heat and city water.
5. Breakfast 7.00 Dinner 12.15 Supper 6.00
6. Knew Jennie Copeland. Miss Kinne knows the Halls. Packards know Bertha Hathaway.
7. 70 pupils in the school.
8. High School building nice, but not an extremely elegant one. My room is in the addition and so is very nice. It is a very large building, having the primary and grammar grade of the Center district down stairs, and the High School on the second floor. The lab. is upon the third floor.
9. Have not heard Mr. Swartz yet. Went to prayer meeting Thus. night, sat on the front seat just in front of Mr. and Mrs. Fitts and giggled once. One of the deacons led, Mr. S. being in Boston.
10. The school is about as far from home here as our school is from our house. But it is a level road and good concrete sidewalk. Mansfield is very level, it is high above sea-level, but is so flat that the drainage is not good. There is a new house going up not far from here, and one corner of it actually sets in the edge of a pond hole. I am glad our house is to be green.
11. I was so homesick the first night that I did not know what to do with myself. I slept hardly at all. The choo-choo cars that immense piano, a room-mate, and a feather folding bed that would not fold up, coming on me all at once was enough to make me want to turn tail and flee back to Union. But no demons have troubled me since then, and when things do not go to suit me, I try to take them simply as a matter of course. A more refined room-mate would suit my tastes better.
My desk came Friday and great was my joy upon beholding it. The freight was sixty cents and it cost me forty to get it from the depot here. I have a new yellow blotter and am as happy as a bug in a rug. It came nicely only it has another scar on the front to match the one it got coming from South Hadley.
I had a letter from Ida partly in response to an appeal for George's star maps. George has been very busy and has purchased another horse, rejoicing in a pedigree, a three-minute record and the name Kittie C. I hope father is down there tonight, listening to the katydids. They do not live in Mansfield any more than they do in Union.
We had duck for dinner today. Mrs. Packard has a few hens and had three ducks. They, at least the one we ate was not so fat and did not look so much like a little pig, as ours did last Christmas.
Send my congratulations to Mrs. Howlett if you ever have any chance to do so.
Miss Kinne is correcting some of her children's papers. The following are the ways in which pumpkin is spelled.
pupkin pumpkin punkin pownpkin tumken pinklpin pump pukin pumpin
I would like to shake Miss Curtis up. The children in Union go to school so little that every term ought to count. I have heard that I am making my pupils here work harder than they have before. I guess that is right too for last week I gave an examination to a girl who did not pass her final & examination in Algebra last year. I gave what seemed an easy examination, much easier than a college entrance one, and she did not attempt four out of the six questions. The mark for the paper was 10 instead of 100. Book-keeping is swimming along nicely. I have to study Geometry and Chemistry a good deal. The Algebra is fun and the dear little Freshmen are taking hold of it nicely.
The high school has Oct. 6 as a holiday to attend the Brockton Fair. Maybe I shall go to Providence to the last day of the Board meeting, if there are any good addresses on that day, and if Harvey is to be there. Miss Tallman's home is in Fair Haven. If I go to New Bedford to stay over some Sunday I can have her company; she expects to go home frequently.
Sunday afternoon.
I enclose a calendar of the church services today. Mr. Swartz has red hair and speaks very rapidly. The singing is very good. I could not see much of a Congregation, because the Packard's sit away up on the next to the front seat. The platform is high, and I can't look at the minister or choir with any comfort. Mr. Swartz is not married. There were two hundred and thirteen in Sunday School today.
Sunday evening.
The service this evening was very pleasant. Several of the hymns were those set to the music of Beethoven, and there was a violin solo of his composition. The hymn book used is the Laudes Domini, which just suits me. I have joined the C.E. The society is large and does not have the right spirit according to my idea. Mr. Fitts son is the president of it.
Miss Copeland tells me that there are two hundred and thirty Freshmen in the entering class at Mt. Holyoke. Mr. Fitts has a niece in that class.
When this letter will get to you I do not know, probably not till Friday, but I'll send it on so you will be sure to have one then anyway.
With love,
Susie
Mansfield, Mass.
Sept. 24. 1899.