Wellesley College - Legenda Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

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By the way, please send me some money. Pillar dodging parties are expensive. Give my love to the people who ask about nie. Affectionately, Makc.uekitr. Dear Mama: June lo. This is the day of Mater Alma ' s second big garden party. This one is for Rosie. Of course, the attention of e erybody must be turned toward her to-day. I began early to do my share. I had heard that about the first thing for which Rosie had expressed a preference after she got well settled here and began to take notice, was that rather peculiar combination of colors, pink and red. So as a delicate compliment to her I wore those colors down to breakfast. But bless you, so far from liking it, it ruffled her, to put it mildly ; she seemed to think she had the exclusive right to wear those colors. I must do something to appease the child, but just now I must go to see about my gown for this afternoon. Later. I forgot all about doing anything for Rosie, because I had my hands pretty full with Carrie Nation. She has actually seemed to be shrinking in size ever since I knew her, but her idea of her own importance develops in an inverse proportion to her size, as Miss Math would say. She is still a good deal of a child, and last evening she thought she would have a bonfire all by herself, and not let any one else even see it. So she sneaked off after dinner, alone. Of course I found it out and followed ; it wasn ' t hard to get off, because Mater Alma doesn ' t look after me as closely as she did, now that she has Rosie to take care of. Maybe Carrie wasn ' t angry when she saw me. She was just ready to set the match to her bonfire, but she left that and turned on me like a tigress. I had had all the fun I wanted, by following her and spoiling her pretty little plan, so I let her think that she was getting the best of me. She tied me down, I pretending to resist, and then she made .some marks on my forehead. They came off without any trouble, so that was all right. But it was that little affair which was responsible for to-day ' s trouble. She abducted, spirited away, Stole (I can ' t think of any words bad enough) my most beloved and trusted maid, one we call Frances the Huge — I suppose that is the reason Carrie had to take three of the biggest girls she could muster, to do the deed. Well, there was no use talking about it, I couldn ' t and wouldn ' t go to the garden party without her help, and I didn ' t know what I v, ' as going to do. But luckily Frances has a brain as big as her name ; she outwitted Carrie Nation and got back to me safe and sound. As soon then as I couid get ready I went to the garden party. I was somewhat late and a little excited, but the look of helpless surprise on Carrie Nation ' s face when i6

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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

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she saw her erstwhile captive, more than compensated for my anxiety earlier, and I could watch with undivided interest the coming out of little Rosie. She is really a nice child, with a proper sense of her own unwortbiness. As ever your loving daughter. Marguerite. Sept. Well, mother dear, here I am again at Mater Alma ' s, wishing my week with yon had been longer. But if anything could console me, it would be the fact that Mater Alma has said that I shall keep the silver cup that she gave me awhile ago. All the girls, even a little newcomer named Violet Nyntynfor, tried to get it from me, but Mater Alma says that I am the most ath- letic girl here, and that I shall keep it. But, alas ! this is offset by the fact — would you believe it — another English lady, a sister of the last one, is visiting Mater Alma, and of course, making my life miserable. She devotes her- self almost exclusively to me, although she is occasionally patronizing enough to listen to long arguments from Carrie Nation. That is her fad, argumentation, and one other queer one, bread and cakes ; or at least so I suppose, for she told me early in my acquaintance with her that I must, by all means, read Baker ' s Principles and be well up in them. Would that she would stick to that hobby and let me alone, blissful in my ignorance. But no, she involves nie in long arguments, makes me do nearly all the arguing, and finally ends by not agreeing with anything I say. To relieve my mind, I ' ve gone in for dramatics a good deal. I am getting up a play, The Amazons, which is so good that I think I shall invite little Violet to see it. I had al most forgotten to tell you about her. She is the latest arrival, larger and not nearly so meek as Rosie was. Christine A ' Soshashun, who always tells the new girls things you know, says she is learn- ing a great deal from Violet. vSlie is a good looking child, however, and when she gets the corners rubbed off, will be all right. I intend to take her under my wing. Everybody says she is a good deal like me, so of course I know that my attention won ' t be wasted. By the way, I heard the other day that Carrie Nation, and in fact everybody around here, considers me con- ceited. Carrie relieved her mind by writing out her opinion of me. She called it a Legexda and circulated it among the guests here. I cannot understand why they think so. To be sure, I have always gone away ahead of the rest of them in study, in athletics, and in a social way, but I am sure that I have always been modest about it. I think perhaps Carrie was only trying to pay me back, because not long ago, in all innocence, I asked her if she had anj ' relatives in Kansas. I don ' t see why that should make her angry, but it did. Vours lovingly. Marguerite. 17