304 Dupont St.
Toronto, Ont.Dear "Aunt":-
Just a week ago to-day that beautiful silver spoon arrived safely and unmolested by the custom's officials. It certainly is a beauty! You know this babe of ours will get the wrong impression of its parents circumstances because of these lovely gifts. I tell Wilbert it will keep us hustling if she(?) is to go through life the way she's to start out. I'm so glad you did send a spoon too, since you wanted to send something, because sacques, bonnets, sockets, et cetera, number in the eights and tens. I am just as happy as I can be to have the spoon - thank you a whole lot! I've put it away, but if the months to come, go as quickly as this past year has, I'll be getting it out again in the twinkling of an eye. I never knew time to go so fast! Dear me, if I could only talk to you. I have so many, many things I'd like to tell you about.
Of course this babe is the most important thing at present. Thursday is the day but I guess they never arrive exactly on time. My suit-case has been packed for over a week so I'm ready when the call comes, and you know I'm not uneasy or wishing it to come right away. This has been such a wonderfully beautiful experience I hate to have it come to an end, but of course actually having the babe to take care of will be just so much nicer I suppose. After those first weeks of nausea were over, I was and have been unusually well. You would hardly know me - pink all the time and so round in the face, double chin, big arms, etc. Everybody who has seen me lately has said I look better now than ever before - And I feel so well too! Oh I wish you knew my doctor. Probably Ann told you he
wasis a specialist (it's a circus to go to his office and "eye" the ladies there) and he's the kindliest, most sympathetic man you can imagine. He's the sort who takes you into his back yard to see his garden when the first spring flowers come. He is about 55 years old I imagine. I can't conceive of anybody being afraid or uneasy when he takes care of them. The last day when I went down for my final instructions, he told me I had an unusually good record, not a single complication little or big. I think he is quite proud of me, and of course I'm tickled to think I've kept so well. He is guessing by a quick heart beat that babe is a girl - "Ann Morgan Clemens" - that sounds well together doesn't it? If it should be a boy it will be "Alvin Beattie" - my father's given name and Wilbert's mother's maiden name. I don't care which this first one is - in some ways it would be nice to have the oldest one in the family a boy but at other times I'm crazy for "little Ann" so either will be equally well loved. We have talked about "him" a good deal but Wilbert has insisted for weeks that it was a girl because she is so lively - such a kicker. He's so full of mischief - it has been a perfect revelation to me to see him carry on. Of course I knew he had "a spark" but I had no idea how big it was. I can't keep even with him!I can't give you any idea, I'm afraid, of this year that has gone, much as I would like to. It has been so full of new things, interesting and absorbing, and I've had Wilbert's biology too so that the old things have had a place as well. It is the only year, which I can remember since I have been grown up, that discontent and uneasiness haven't gripped me at times. I hope it doesn't mean loss of striving ahead and I don't think it does, to say I have found real peace and happiness. I have had a good deal of time for thinking as I've been doing house-work and cooking, and I feel so much more settled in my mind about a Something outside myself and although I can't reason certain things I feel them, and look into the future unafraid. Of course we have thrashed out a good many things to-gether which has drawn us even closer together. With the babe coming we have naturally turned to those things time and again. But Aunt, how orthodox all the churches are here. I haven't recovered from my surprise yet. That's what makes it difficult for us, we couldn't accept everything in any denomination and yet we would like to be "in the church." It is hard to know what to do!
I could write you pages & pages about biology as taught here, but most of it I'll have to tell you some day. By the way do you know that Wilbert has his assistant professorship for next year? I'm so proud of him because it has come much sooner than they usually do. He deserves it though. He works harder than anybody in the department. Prof. Bensley is head you know, and such an autocrat. I've "cussed" about him and his methods more than once this year, but after pushing Wilbert ahead, I'm going to keep quiet. But, I'm mighty fond of Mrs. Bensley and she has been so nice to me. She's a Bostonian, her father is chaplain of the state senate, I believe - "Horton" - Aunt Lou writes me about seeing his name in the paper every now and then. She was head of the University Red Cross and such a capable efficient person as she is. I admire her tremendously. All the university wives have been very friendly and cordial. It wasn't what I expected from tales I had heard of Canadian reserve. They make me feel at home in no time.
Oh and there's such an opportunity to do something for the girls in the university! There are not many of them and they are mor or less down-trodden and not getting much besides the pure academic of college. Wilbert was honorary president of a couple of the student biological clubs last winter and I saw more or less of the girls and men. It seemed so natural to be listening to their trials and tribulations. In general, the faculty wives show no interest in the students, not even their husband's assistants and graduate students. That
'swas a queer notion to me, and I began to have them at the house right away and I intend to do so always. If the days were about twice as long I could more nearly approach what I'd like to do. It's pick and choose all the time. And after "babin" is with us, there will be even more of that.Wilbert says I ought to go to bed, and I suppose he's right, and these days I never leave unfinished ends for morning [smile face], so I'll end this letter off although I haven't said half that I want to. More another time. When do you get away for a vacation?
Thank you again for the spoon and much love to you and your mother.
Lou -
Monday
[Lucy's baby turned out to be a boy, Alvin Beattie. She named her second child Ann Morgan in 1922.]