Thursday, August 2.My Dear Nellie;-
I was ever so glad to get your letter & hear all about your visit to Alice. How delightful it all was! I am glad you could go.
I think the Round Robin must be lost, or else some one must be carelessly keeping it, for I heard from Edith nearly a month ago that she had sent it on. I wrote to Abbie after getting your letter & told her your had not received the Round Robin and advised her to send a "tracer" after it. I hope it will turn up for I have been looking forward to receiving it, though I've heard from lots of the girls. I can scarcely realize that August is actually here - July went so quickly - and that South Hadley is beginning to look near. Mattie is at home but I've not seen her yet.
Dont forget the key and write Miss Edson a good sassy letter, then I'll look her up the first thing and we'll try to have a carpet (for once) down before Sunday.
I hope that cod-fish you caught was served in a more appetizing fashion that South Hadley fish are. I should quite envy you all those sea-side experiences, only our Lake is so lovely that I am always content to stay in J- [Jamestown NY] all summer. Middleborough must be pretty enough now to cause one to enjoy staying "quietly" there. Oh, by-the-way, do you know a Miss Robinson, (Gertrude, I think) a Wellesley graduate of some years ago - a rather tall blonde? She used to run a girl's school here & is the chum of one of our High School teachers another Wellesley blonde & I never knew till the other day that her home was in Middleborough.
I've some new stories about Mabel Bird. Nora Switzer is at Chautauqua and as usual is down here half the time & while chattering together I found out that a friend of hers knows Mabel Bird. This is a little country after all. Kate Switzer enters Monticello in the Fall; Nora goes there to get her settled because Kate knows no one there. I told her of your cousin & lo & behold the same girl that knows Mabel Bird is quite a chum of Miss Perkins. Her first name is Bernice & she used to live in Ottawa before she moved to Chicago.
I enjoy seeing Nora so much though she is very un-idead [sic], at present, as all fiancées are! For nearly four weeks one of my Elmira cousins has been with us. She came just before Auntie went back to Elmira. She has been more or less of an invalid - she has curvature of the spine - for five years and so she is just as much of a child as she was at thirteen, - one would never dream that she is eighteen. She is very naïve and amuses Mamma & me with her droll sayings & odd ways. One minute she says "Lucy & her friends are very elevating"! and in the next breath "How can you girls laugh so much at little or nothing?" We were sitting out on the verandah one afternoon when Mamma called from within "What makes you girls so still?" "Oh," answered Elizabeth, "I never think of talking when I'm alone with Lucy!" She goes home the first of next week. We shall miss her - our family will be so small - only four of us!
No, I am doing no work in German. When I get back I shall talk to Fräulein Sihler about it & see just what I'd better do about passing up some German.
I've been at Chautauqua but once and may go once more to visit some of the girls, but scarcely expect to now. On account of hard times very few papers sent correspondents to Chautauqua this year & Mr. Clary found nothing for me. I didn't care for Mamma didn't want me to go and I felt more like staying at home than going myself. Lena was disappointed for she's studying up there and had been counting on me to help her "appreciate things".
I've had some pleasant times on the Lake and hope to have some more. I stayed part of a week at Celorar chaperoning (!) several dear little sixteen-year-old girls. I enjoyed it all so much that I sighed to be "sweet sixteen" again and wear my gown to my ankles, made with guimpes, & my hair in curls down my back. Our last good time was yesterday - six of us were down to Sue's to tea. It was as informal and hilarious as a College spread. The next thing on foot is a picnic Saturday. About ten of us girls are going to take the 1 o'clock boat for Long Pt. which alone boasts neither hotels nor cottages only some bathing-houses and lunch-pavilions. We are going in bathing and fling all dignity and propriety aside - Helen is going too for the first time since last August - and have just a jolly good time.
How are all of your family and chums?
Write to me again soon I've been so often interrupted in this that I fear it is anything but interesting.
Very Affectionately
Lucy F. Baker.Sydney sends his love.