Wellesley College - Legenda Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

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she still wore chiefly black, but it was relieved, as the society reporters would say, with spangled, butterfly-like liberty silk. I shall be so sorry wheu Narcissus leaves ; she says she must go soon. And Mater Alma, although she seems fond of her, makes no effort to keep her longer. I spoke of that to Iris, but she says that ii Mater Alma ' s way of showing her approval of the girls. Isn ' t that strange? Your loving daughter, Margy. Dear Mama : June 20. You know, after the garden party I was to be delivered from Miss Math, also from my seances with the English lady, and I was jubilant. But this happy condition of afi airs was only to be brought about by good work for Miss Math and careful attention to my remarks to the English lady. Well, I may have a shred of brain left, but I am inclined to think not. I stuffed my head so full of formulae that I think I squeezed out the brain. Also I had to spend part of the check you sent me to buy my hat with, for coffee. Mater Alma never seemed to think to send it to me, no matter how late I stayed up. Probably she did not expect me to stay up late, but she must have thought I could work Trig, problems automatically, for she filled up my daytime with matters not worth while. (Result of association with English lady.) I have spent nearly all of every afteruoon on the lake. At the end of the month Mater Alma says she expects to ask about a thousand people out to float. I hope they all know how, for Mr. Parkins, he ' s Mater Alma ' s best friend, could never save them all if they took it into their heads to drown. My coffee is boiled now, so I must drink it and demolish that last shred of brain with some more sines and cosines. Your desperate daughter, M.VRGUERITE. P. S. — I will write to you as soon as I find whether or not I get rid of the dragons. Dearest A fain a : Sept. 26. History repeats itself. Who would have thought that when I was once delivered from the English lady, that another one would arrive just in time to take her place ! I suppose you will think I ought to be happy at getting rid of Miss Math; and so I was, for a season, but Mater Alma says now that I do uot have Miss Math I can spend just twice as much time with her 14

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Dear Mama : June 6. I haven ' t time to write a long letter, and there isn ' t much to tell ; we just have been doing the same things that we always do. That is, except yesterday. Then Mater Alma told us that we were not to do a thing all day but play out in the open air, that we were to have a regular field day. And she said that the one of us who made the best record in the games should have a silver cup. Of course I got it. You know I told you once before that I would get even with Carrie Nation. I should think I did : I made her look like thirty cents. Excuse me, I did not mean to use that expression ; I can imagine you holding up your hands and wondering if that is what I am getting out of my visit to Mater Alma. I didn ' t learn it from Mater Alma or the English lady. By the way, I must go immediately and hand in to that same lady Uiv impressions of Mater Alma ' s back yard. Love to papa and the children. With love, Marguerite. Diairst .1 ai ia : June 9. This has been a long, hard day, but for all that, I have had a better time to-day than any time since I have been here. I got ud very early this morning. That little Carrie Nation woke me by running about under my window making all manner of fun of a tree that I had had planted for Mater Alma. You know that Mater Alma has been kinder to me since I have been here (all except making me have that goxcrnessj than anybody except you, mama dear, could possibly be, so that I have been anxious for some opportunity to do something for her. Well, I noticed that she needed a tree over by the dining room, so I bought one with my own money — a beautiful cut leaf weeping birch — and had it planted there as a surprise to Mater Alma. In fact I didn ' t tell anyone for I wanted to surprise the Mater to-day, the day of her big garden party. But of course that busybody Carrie Nation found it out and, as I said, was jeering at it. Of course I did not like that, and in my anger I picked up one of her most dearly prized posses- sions, called the Ready Orator, and almost threw it out the window at her ; but something within me told me to keep myself a lady whatever she did, so I put it back where I got it. Wasn ' t that a victory ? But Carrie Nation was so angry that she wouldn ' t pass me the sugar at breakfast. Well, I know you want to hear about the garden party. It was a sort of coming out party for me, although I am to keep right on with the governess, etc. I wore my new French dress and everybody said I looked very pretty and behaved nicely. Narcissus was beautiful :

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English guest. Sometimes I think Mater Ahna must be a corporation ; there are some matters in which she seems to have no soul. At any rate, it isn ' t one of mercy. To return to the English lady. She is worse than the other one. The first one, as I probably told you, was of a wonderfully imaginative turn of mind ; bvit her curiosity was satis- fied with descriptions of the places we go in the summers, or with descriptions of how I used to feel when I was a little girl and dropped my piece of bread and butter, while this one asks ray opinion on every conceivable thing — asks me to discourse at length upon the advantages and disadvantages of a girl ' s living on an allowance, and whether or not the Boers are justified in the war. There is a new girl here now. She is very new indeed ; in Biblical language, she knows not how to come in and go out. But she has learned that she must come in when Miss Math has need of her. She has been visiting a lady named Mrs. Prep Schule, who is a person of a good deal of importance, I believe, which may account for Mater Alma ' s treating her young charge with such extreme kindness. I suppose from the fact that the new girl, little Rosie, has been with Mrs. Prep Schule so long, that she has no mother ; she certainly acts as if, like Topsy, she had just growed. And as the gardener would say, she seems to have run principally to top — green and spreading, but without nuich root. Mater Alma told all of us old girls when she first came, a few days ago, that we were to look out for her and do all we could to help her. ' Well, one of the very first things I noticed about her was a tendency to gluttony. I never saw but one evidence of it, and I think my prompt action cured her. Not content with the food at Mater Alma ' s table, she bought a big feast — olives and cake and all sorts of good things — and locked it in her room during dinner, intending, selfishly, to eat it all alone in the evening. Of course, I knew that it would make her ill and unable to work for Miss Math for a week. I knew how that would ruffle Miss Math, so I determined to save little Rosie from future trouble, at whatever cost to myself. So I quietly removed the feast ; I had to climb in through the transom to get it, and otherwise inconvenience myself, but I didn ' t mind, for it was for Rosie ' s good — I started to write goods, but of course I did not mean that. When I had gotten possession of the feast I did not know where to put it, and as I did not wish to let it spoil, I was obliged to eat it. Of course, Rosie was very angry when she found it out ; she came and demanded her food very vociferously, I only smiled indulgentl3% remembering my own childhood days, and when she had calmed down a little, I asked her in to have a cup of tea with me. Soon, so that no one can say that Carrie Nation treated me better than I treat Rosie, I must get up a pillar dodging party for her. No, that is not the same as a pillow fight ; I suppose Rosie will call it a dance. 15