Vassar,
Nov. 27, 1873.
My dear Carrie,
Thanksgiving morning has at last arrived. Breakfast being at
eight, I have Just time to start this letter before the bell rings. No letter
has come from any of you this week, and I have beer, hoping that my
Thanksgiving would be made brighter by receiving one. Now, however,
the day is over and none has come. It is a long, long time since I have
written to you, Carrie, and you must think me negligent indeed, while you
have been more than usually punctual in writing. One week I had been told
that I must read my essay In class the next Monday, and of course I felt
very little in the mood for writing} by the way X have never told you about
reading that essay, have I? It was perfectly terrible! X was the first one
appointed to read; Em Rice read the same day after me. I had te stand
in front of the class ard read and then came the criticisms! The latter
were not very hard to bear: the girls said they had none to give, aad
Prof. Backus said there was very little chance fer any. He liked my
analysis, but, thought I had left out one thought which would have made my
essay more effective; and found energy in some ef the short sentences,
called for my unit sentence and then all was over. The girls all tell me
they liked my essay very well, but they would tell anyone set Just se much
do I believe in school-girl protestations. Since the reading ef mine two
very fine essays have been read one by Emma Clark, en "Webster as an
Orator" and one by Miss White en "Doubt." The other essays read have not amounted to very much.
Well, alter reading, I felt very little like letter writing, and so I
have allowed so much time to pass without sending you one ol my miser-
able scrawls.
Yesterday morning, Thanksgiving, I did not go to church, but Idled
around in library and parlor j dinner was served at lour oclock, we remained
there for over two hours and then adjourned to the Parlors where there was
singing and playing. At eight o'clock we met In the Chapel and the Prex.
read; this reading is becoming an institution In the College, aad a very
pleasant one. He read selections this year. One ol Mrs. Stowes "Old Town
Fireside stories, some passages from Othello, a lay of Macauley's and the
never tiresome "Lend me the ? of a ? ," were the pieces selec-
ted. A little more eating had to be done In the shape of Icecream and cake,
Miss Terry must be shaken hands with all round, and then the Thanksgiving
of seventy five was gone, nevermore to come again. It has been twite a
pleasant one, but to me not so much so as previous ones, perhaps, because
the novelty is wearing away.
It is so wintry here, the ground being covered with snow and all the
leaves gone from the trees and It is bitter cold. You, X suppose, are also
shivering over the cold, but Wood-Lawn even In winter does not look very
dreary. I am glad Jack and George still visit you, otherwise you must be
rather lonesome sometimes. Mamma wrote that you had been cleaning your
room, so I presume your blinds are finished. How do you like them? and
how does your room look? Area»t your pincushion, be nearly faded out,
so that I can make you a set? and do you a till prefer pink? Mamma seems
always so anxious about my eyes, which are indeed perfectly well. And
there are many times when it is much pleasantsr for me to have a little
fancy work to do. So far, however have had none.
I dreamt, the other night that I was home, and it was, oh, so alee!
It made me almost homesick.
I must now end this atupld letter with very much love to all.
Your loving little aiater.
Julia M. Pease, '75