North Andover Depot, Mass.
Saturday, March230, 1895My dear Nellie;-
If I dared, I'd accept Doctor's invitation and go to Middleborough and see if you couldn't cure me of the homesickness that has been making me wretched ever since I left College, but I really don't see quite how I can manage it, so I might as well stick it out. But if this nostalgia continues, I shall be rightly glad to get back to work again. Positively I am as homesick as was ever a Freshman, I who say that I am always happy wherever I am and who laugh at the homesick fits of some of The Family. I don't know what ails me, but it's just been getting worse since Tuesday night and it seems as thought I never could stand it until June and certainly not till April 10! I suppose it is largely because I feel as though I should have gone home to help Mamma, but she utterly forbade my doing so, so what could I do? And yet I know she needs me and wants me and I feel as though I should have said nothing but have gone right home. Now, I know you think me a perfect baby - I do myself - but I tell you it's no fun to feel so and to have no one to confide in (because it isn't exactly polite to tell the people who are entertaining you that you are pining for your own home and fireside) and to be obliged to smile and smile! There, not that I have unburdened my soul I feel better.
Edith & I worked on the Llamarada as we expected to. Elizabeth reached home "comfortably" (that word made me smile, it was so "neat["] & non-committal) and sat down immediately to send us a joke that happened to a Freshman on the train. Wasn't that just like her?
I had a fine four-mile tramp one afternoon with Edith, Bertha & Arthur and that is about all we did except sit around a wood-fire and read and talk.
I had a good time yesterday in Cambridge. Edith entertained me beautifully. I met a chum of hers who was very agreeable. In the morning we went to the museums. I was particularly interested in a collection of glass flowers which would set Abbie & Elizabeth into ecstasies and a stuffed gorilla that "markedly" resembles "Paul". Sir James called after lunch and took [us] through some of the other university buildings, we went through Radcliffe's sole building & decided we wouldn't swap for any thing, saw the Longfellow house, then met some of Edith's friends and went to a Lenten service which of course I enjoyed then had tea at Edith's grandmother's (I wish I knew what was the trouble between Edith & her step-mother - I think it's awfully funny) Edith & her chum took me in to Boston & put me on the North Andover train.
We went across to Lawrence this morning to do some shopping - it was great fun after three months at South Hadley.
Gertrude & Edith Walton beat the Dutch!
Gertrude sends love - write to me. I go to Abbie's (4 Crown St.) Thursday.
Lovingly
Lucy.