30th May

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

Did you ever see this campus? (That is merely a rhetorical question.
Don't let it annoy you.) It is a heavenly spot in May. All the
shrubs are in blossom and the trees are the loveliest young green--
even the old pines look fresh and new. The grass is dotted with yellow
dandelions and hundreds of girls in blue and white and pink dresses.
Everybody is joyous and carefree, for vacation's coming, and with
that to look forward to, examinations don't count.

Isn't that a happy frame of mind to be in? And oh, Daddy!
I'm the happiest of all! Because I'm not in the asylum any more;
and I'm not anybody's nursemaid or typewriter or bookkeeper (I
should have been, you know, except for you).

I'm sorry now for all my past badnesses.

I'm sorry I was ever impertinent to Mrs. Lippett.

I'm sorry I ever slapped Freddie Perkins.

I'm sorry I ever filled the sugar bowl with salt.

I'm sorry I ever made faces behind the Trustees' backs.

I'm going to be good and sweet and kind to everybody because I'm
so happy. And this summer I'm going to write and write and write
and begin to be a great author. Isn't that an exalted stand
to take? Oh, I'm developing a beautiful character! It droops
a bit under cold and frost, but it does grow fast when the sun shines.

That's the way with everybody. I don't agree with the theory that
adversity and sorrow and disappointment develop moral strength.
The happy people are the ones who are bubbling over with kindliness.
I have no faith in misanthropes. (Fine word! Just learned it.)
You are not a misanthrope are you, Daddy?

I started to tell you about the campus. I wish you'd come
for a little visit and let me walk you about and say:

`That is the library. This is the gas plant, Daddy dear.
The Gothic building on your left is the gymnasium, and the Tudor
Romanesque beside it is the new infirmary.'

Oh, I'm fine at showing people about. I've done it all my life at
the asylum, and I've been doing it all day here. I have honestly.

And a Man, too!

That's a great experience. I never talked to a man before (except
occasional Trustees, and they don't count). Pardon, Daddy, I don't
mean to hurt your feelings when I abuse Trustees. I don't consider
that you really belong among them. You just tumbled on to the Board
by chance. The Trustee, as such, is fat and pompous and benevolent.
He pats one on the head and wears a gold watch chain.

That looks like a June bug, but is meant to be a portrait of any
Trustee except you.

However--to resume:

I have been walking and talking and having tea with a man.
And with a very superior man--with Mr. Jervis Pendleton of the House
of Julia; her uncle, in short (in long, perhaps I ought to say;
he's as tall as you.) Being in town on business, he decided to run
out to the college and call on his niece. He's her father's
youngest brother, but she doesn't know him very intimately. It seems
he glanced at her when she was a baby, decided he didn't like her,
and has never noticed her since.

Anyway, there he was, sitting in the reception room very proper
with his hat and stick and gloves beside him; and Julia and Sallie
with seventh-hour recitations that they couldn't cut. So Julia
dashed into my room and begged me to walk him about the campus
and then deliver him to her when the seventh hour was over.
I said I would, obligingly but unenthusiastically, because I don't
care much for Pendletons.

But he turned out to be a sweet lamb. He's a real human being--
not a Pendleton at all. We had a beautiful time; I've longed
for an uncle ever since. Do you mind pretending you're my uncle?
I believe they're superior to grandmothers.

Mr. Pendleton reminded me a little of you, Daddy, as you were twenty
years ago. You see I know you intimately, even if we haven't
ever met!

He's tall and thinnish with a dark face all over lines, and the
funniest underneath smile that never quite comes through but just
wrinkles up the corners of his mouth. And he has a way of making
you feel right off as though you'd known him a long time.
He's very companionable.

We walked all over the campus from the quadrangle to the athletic grounds;
then he said he felt weak and must have some tea. He proposed that
we go to College Inn--it's just off the campus by the pine walk.
I said we ought to go back for Julia and Sallie, but he said he didn't
like to have his nieces drink too much tea; it made them nervous.
So we just ran away and had tea and muffins and marmalade and
ice-cream and cake at a nice little table out on the balcony.
The inn was quite conveniently empty, this being the end of the month
and allowances low.

We had the jolliest time! But he had to run for his train
the minute he got back and he barely saw Julia at all. She was
furious with me for taking him off; it seems he's an unusually rich
and desirable uncle. It relieved my mind to find he was rich,
for the tea and things cost sixty cents apiece.

This morning (it's Monday now) three boxes of chocolates came by
express for Julia and Sallie and me. What do you think of that?
To be getting candy from a man!

I begin to feel like a girl instead of a foundling.

I wish you'd come and have tea some day and let me see if I like you.
But wouldn't it be dreadful if I didn't? However, I know I should.

Bien! I make you my compliments.
`Jamais je ne t'oublierai.'
Judy


PS. I looked in the glass this morning and found a perfectly
new dimple that I'd never seen before. It's very curious.
Where do you suppose it came from?