[Enclosed with a short note:My dear Mrs. Giddings: -
This is the first word that I have received from Abby. The first letter is so long in coming. Do not return this but keep it for her. Isn't this weather awful? I am so tired of sticking to everything.
Yours with love,
S. E. Smith.][Some paragraph breaks added for ease of reading.]
DET FORENEDE DAMPSKIBS-SELSKAB
AKTIESELSKAB
SKANDINAVIEN-AMERIKA LINIENS. S. United States
June 27, 1928Honey dear:-
It seems a long time since I mailed the letter for Kristianssand, but it really isn't. We are now on the Skagarrack (sp?). The Cattegat has been as sleek as Ruddie, but the Skg. is ruffling up every minute and I may have to quit writing. But it'll not be long, for we reach Helsingøo (Elsinore) by 5 o'clock, and I don't think that can be rough, it's so narrow. We've had a wonderful fine passage, and no really rough seas, though there has not been much smooth sea.
For Kristianssand we rose at 5 a.m. to see the fjord - not a dee one, but with "skerries" in numbers (those little rocky islets). The harbor is good, but with no big docks. A tender came out with a few folks and we left a few, but only the local residents, for the railroads don't go through anywhere, just a few miles. Then we went almost out of sight of land on the loop around to Oslo. We entered the fiord there about one and did not get to the city until about 5:30 - such a lovely entrance. It made me think of Penobscot Bay with many more islands and more Camdens! One charming thing was the fragrance of the pines and spruces - really strong - for an hour or more. A Norwegian doctor on board sniffed it with great glee. There are many little settlements with red-tiled houses among the trees, a big suburb devoted to the Navy and an aeroplane field. We passed by the park Bygdø where one of the Viking ships is and where both and their relics are to be. But alas, it was too late for museums, so Alice could see nothing.
The dinner bell rang just as we docked so we decided to eat on board while those who had to tend to things blocked the passages! We were about half through when a Norwegian home ec. person came in! She had been shown around by Alice in Boston - Miss Leegaard - and Alice wrote to her to ask about those Viking ships along in the winter - and she came at the time mentioned - "the Americans carry out their plans," she said. She stayed with us for dessert - no charge from the ship, very polite steward - and then took us through the town in a taxi and out, maybe as far as to So. Had. from Holyoke, to Stabbek (sp?) Stabok to a government home ec. school where the director, Miss Torp, was prepared for us.
The school is so different from ours! They have a real farm, though only a small one, but each girl learns to care for all the animals - cows, pigs, horses, hens, geese, turkeys &c. We went all over the place, didn't omit a room! They have about 120 girls, all in residence during the year, now only enough for garden, animals and babies, for they also teach the care of little babies, state youngsters. They had about ten of these, I should say, and they were cunning enough asleep in their baskets. (Note: there sure is a howling wind in the rigging and a few drops of spray get to this deck, the first time on the voyage, but the waves are choppy ones and the motion isn't bad - yet!) - They have a big new fireproof building, altogether too much space! But I suppose they hope to grow! The girls stay one or two years only, but they cover a multitude of practical subjects. (No - I'm told this is the Cat - and his temper poor!). The big building has bakeovens and griddles where they do flatbred as well as ordinary styles, it has a slaughtering room, where they get experience in caring for recently killed big things and themselves kill poultry, little pigs &c. They had some dozens of broilers all laid out picked and dressed. The barn has a small farm house, where four girls live two (four?) weeks with a teacher - I should say a typical small house. There were little pigs, and cheese and a little cart full of green hay - oh, it surely was fun to see it - but I can't imagine our girls from the country doing it! The babies were in a little house, too, and most clean & attractive. The dormitory wing wasn't unlike ours in sizes of rooms, though each had a bedstead and a narrow but long sofa or couch effect, and one side of a floor would have one style of drapery & couch cushion, the opposite another. All rooms with running cold water, hot water in the hall - nice baths &c. We went thoroughly over this place for more than an hour and then landed in what I guess may have been the principal's sitting room[.]
July 28 - Copenhagen
It got rougher then, and also there were things to see - and now we're here in Pension Berg and going out in a few minutes. We have just settled up our finances for the first - but not the last time. Very few extras - we got to the house for $2.00, everything included.
Crowds on the pier! Grand voyage.
But I'll write more tonight. We go out now to see the town.
Lots of love -
AbbyYou might send this to Jessee -
54 Concord St., Nashua, N.H.