Sunday morning.
Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Dearest Mamie
Dad’s letter came all right with the ten dollars, and so did yours. I am just as sorry as anything that you have such a cold -- let us hope there will be a Swift recovery! I was awfully glad you liked my verses to Miss Mann.
I have done nothing much but work this week


and that isn’t very interesting to tell about, but I’ve had two experiences that weren’t so bad.
1.( I’ve gotten so in the habit of dividing things into sections for the sake of clearness, that I can’t stop). Last Sunday afternoon on returning home from a lovely week, Rudge and Betty and I decided to make tea chez moi. The kettle was singing merrily when Rudge looked out of the window


and saw two freshmen about to enter Lathrop. One of them was Ethel Underhill, a charming cousin of Ruth’s, the other was Ethel’s roommate Willis Lawrence. Rudge hailed them and we told them to come up which they did. I had never seen Miss Lawrence before. She is rather large with a fresh complexion and a composed tropical manner -- a southern girl of course. She was very quiet for the first fifteen minutes; other girls kept coming in and I was busy as could be making and serving tea. All at once as I was standing at the tea table and the other girls were taking a blue streak, I heard a soft voice at my side saying “Miss Shipp,” and there was Miss Lawrence. “Miss Shipp,” she said, “I wish I were a man……. a…. Harvard graduate.” “Why?” said I. “Oh… why… don’t you know… I’d like to make love to you. Only


Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
if I were a man I couldn’t be here and see you serve tea so charmingly” (Pause in which I laugh and Willis grows a little red) Then she went on “I haven’t even got a brother either” Then I brought the conversation back to earth by telling her that I hadn’t either etc -- but wasn’t it funny! And anything more perfectly naive and composed than the


child’s manner I never saw! What should you suppose to be the mental make-up of a girl who would do anything so startling? The girls nearly died when I told them about it.
2. My second experience is simply that tired of work and college fare, I went with Rudge down to Smiths to dinner, for the first time this year, last night. For forty-five cents I had three


perfectly good lamb croquettes with tomatoe sauce and peas, hashed brown potatoes, bread and butter, and five wheat cakes with maple syrup! And we had a jolly good time talking beside.
I went to bed at twenty-five minutes after nine last night and did not hear the bell that rang ten minutes later. I slept soundly until eight this morning, and now I’ve got to go to work on debate and fifty eleven other things beside. I can safely say that I was never so busy in my life before, but neither did I ever feel so well. I always walk from five till six, and my lessons in fancy dancing begin next week. I hope your cold is gone by now and that dad is well
Oodles of love
Peg.


18
Queer experiences
Food at Smiths’
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY NOV 1 6PM 1903
Miss May Louise Shipp
1010 North Delaware Street
Indianapolis
Indiana