Hillsgrove,
Jan. 21, '07.My dear Carrie:-
You remember our plan was to write in rotation so your turn would be after Mary's. I have been waiting for her to answer so I could write you but concluded if I waited much longer I shouldn't need further experience at The Moorland to make me a good waiter.
I dare say you have had many experiences since I last saw you and Mary is waiting for just one more before she begins "to compile." I must not be too severe for I remember her letters are always worth waiting for.
School has been running in good earnest for nearly four weeks and I have been trying to make out a permanent program for my spare time.
I have begun to take music lessons and practise [sic] an hour every day after school. My lesson comes Saturday from 3 to 4. Mrs. Curry has an organ so I hire the use of my teacher's piano. Monday and Wednesday evening I give Mr. Curry a French lesson, and Tuesday evening my French class meets. I have to prepare for that. It takes from 1/2 hour to an hour for preparation. THursday evening - prayer meeting and Friday evenings the Bible class meets. Saturday evening is my recreation night. Besides that I study Spanish twice a week - an hour each time, Latin, 2 hrs. a week, Greek 2 hrs. a week, Pedagogy from 2 hrs. upwards a week and Medieval History when I have nothing else to do. I am reading Thatcher & Schwill's "Europe in the Middle Ages" and find it very interesting. I am with the crusade just now and wish they would hurry up and get through.
While in Boston I invested fifty cents in a Spanish book - Picon's "La Prudente." It goes quite well.
I have bought me a blank book and in it I write the name of every book I read and its author with a short criticism on the book and what impressed me most. By that way I hope to remember better what I read.
Jan. 22. Good-morning. A cold and gray morning it is, too.
We have breakfast here about seven o'clock so I have time to turn around before school begins. It is such a relief not to feel that I must get a car morning and night. The other teachers all live away from the village.
I had a letter from Lucy Hunt last evening. She is well and working hard. She mentioned that Lester Russell has "hung out his shingle." I should like to play a joke on him. Can't your fertile brain suggest something?
What has happened to the class letter? Isn't it about time it has made its appearance again? Perhaps someone else is holding it back for the same reason that Ada did.
I suppose you see all the P. A. [Pinkerton Academy] news in the Critic.
How are you these days? I suppose you are making rapid progress in your music. Wouldn't mind running in once in a while to hear you play.
I haven't fully decided yet what I shall do next summer. If I can make it work and can find the place I want I may attend a summer college.
Mr. Curry wants me to go to Ohio Wesleyan University next year but I can't and help Margaret too. I don't think I should feel easy if I couldn't look forward to receiving my check every month.
If you see a lucrative grammar or high school position running around loose let me know. I have concluded that mother nature intended me to take up my "abode of cheerful and happy piety farther inland."
Write when you can.
With love to all,
Jennie