ence entertaining, doesn't it? A friend of
Pepys devised a very cunning manner whereby the king might pay his
debts out of the sale to poor people of old decayed provisions. What
do you, a reformer, think of that? I don't believe we're so bad today
as the newspapers make out.

Samuel was as excited about his clothes as any girl; he spent five
times as much on dress as his wife--that appears to have been the
Golden Age of husbands. Isn't this a touching entry? You see he
really was honest. 'Today came home my fine Camlett cloak with gold
buttons, which cost me much money, and I pray God to make me able to
pay for it.'

Excuse me for being so full of Pepys; I'm writing a special topic on
him.

What do you think, Daddy? The Self-Government Association has
abolished the ten o'clock rule. We can keep our lights all night if we
choose, the only requirement being that we do not disturb others--we
are not supposed to entertain on a large scale. The result is a
beautiful commentary on human nature. Now that we may stay up as long
as we choose, we no longer choose. Our heads begin to nod at nine
o'clock, and by nine-thirty the pen drops from our nerveless grasp.
It's nine-thirty now. Good night.

Sunday

Just back from church--preacher from Georgia. We must take care, he
says, not to develop our intellects at the expense of our emotional
natures--but methought it was a poor, dry sermon (Pepys again). It
doesn't matter what part of the United States or Canada they come from,
or what denomination they are, we always get the same sermon. Why on
earth don't they go to men's colleges and urge the students not to
allow their manly natures to be crushed out by too much mental
application?

It's a beautiful day--frozen and icy and clear. As soon as dinner is
over, Sallie and Julia and Marty Keene and Eleanor Pratt (friends of
mine, but you don't know them) and I are going to put on short skirts
and walk 'cross country to Crystal Spring Farm and have a fried chicken
and waffle supper, and then have Mr. Crystal Spring drive us home in
his buckboard. We are supposed to be inside the campus at seven, but
we are going to stretch a point tonight and make it eight.

Farewell, kind Sir.

I have the honour of subscribing myself,
Your most loyall, dutifull, faithfull and obedient servant,
J. Abbott