Relatively Speaking

March 1872

My dear Mother,

I have been copying poetry and drawing maps all day and now I am going to write a few lines to my mother as I am tired and I know this will rest me as much as anything.

It seems so good after being busy all week, to have a little time to call your own. I am glad we do not have school Saturday. I never should have anytime for writing if they did. The lessons are not very hard to learn, but they are hard to recite and it takes me all the time to think what I shall say and how I shall say it when I get up in the class and then I very often forget and say something wrong.

We have been having review in Geography all this week. I asked Mrs Stoneman yesterday how many failures I had made. She said I had not made any, but my recitation on Tuesday was not very good. She gave me Mr. Parish’s ? to recite from and I could not tell what it was and consequently failed to recite. I was afraid she marked it a failure, but she did not.

I think this school is very good for those who intend to teach. But I think we could learn more in one year at Monticello Academy, than one can here in two. We would go over more studies we might perhaps not be able to explain them as well to children. I am going over now now what ought to have been taught me at school just as soon as I commenced studying grammar, geography, arithmetic, etc. I don’t believe a fourth of the teachers in Sullivan County or any other county for that matter, are qualified to teach.

The girls in our class are just as dumb as they can be which is a great advantage to me. I have this consolation, if I don’t pass out of this class, no one of them will.

Since I commenced this, Mrs. Wright has given me a letter from you and one from Mary Darling. It is the first time I have heard from her. Miss Shoonmaker has not answered my letter yet. Mary seemed quite surprised that I am here and advised me to go to the observatory should I be up for a flirtation and graduate in matrimony, instead of spending my time in the schoolroom. She did not give me anymore information in regard to her getting married from spite. I told her to give me an invitation to the wedding or save me a piece of the cake.

You say you have not heard from me yet. I think it is very strange. I wrote to you and Ida last Saturday and to Maria and Lon so that I thought that they would leave the letters last Friday and you would hear from me Monday, twice last week. I do not know why you have not received my letters. I began to think you would not write me this week, and I was just as lonesome as could be when your letter came.

[Maria and Lon are her brother and sister, probably Ida is her sister Aida.]

I feel considerably better now. I hope you will write me as often as you can. You do not know how much good your letters do me. But I do not want to be too selfish and I know you do not have much time for writing so. I will try and be contented with whatever letter you may send.

I heard from home three times last week and it made this week seem all the longer. You must not be afraid to send me as many compositions as you are a mind to. I write just as often and will correct them all—sometime, but shall not return them.

I wish Mr. B had sent a valentine or something so I could have written. It would seem kind of good to hear from him again…Please burn this letter won’t you. I am almost afraid to send this information for fear you will not get it… [Emma]

Albany, March 1872

Dear Mother,

Friday once more as I have leisure to write to you and Ida and correct that composition. I have been very busy this week so that I have not had time to think of writing, and it seems so good to be at liberty to talk to you for a few minutes even if I can only talk with pen and ink on a little piece of paper that will not contain one half I want to say.

I received a letter from Ida Monday and one from you Tuesday, so that I have been quite favored in hearing from home this week. 

The composition was very good. I don’t think I could have done better myself as Addie says. Perhaps I will try sometime and I will let you know the result. I did not see any fault in the connection of the sentences. I am not as observing or particular as someone else. I made some changes in the last verse, the last two lines.

“You will think of a Mother’s love

And not forget your home.”

I changed to:

You’ll not forget a mother’s love

Or cease to think of home.”

because I liked the way it rhymed better.

Since writing this, I have stopped and ironed my clothes. I always iron Friday. Mrs. Wright does my washing and I think she ought to. We pay enough for board though we get ours much cheaper than some of the girls. If I stay another term, I shall board myself. It is much cheaper and I should like it better. I am as careful of my money as I can be and have not lost any yet. 

You need not worry about anything that you think I have not got. You did put in something in my trunk and I shall get along enough. I wish I could see you this afternoon instead of waiting. I have so much to say and I do not feel like writing.

I get along very well in school, at least the teachers tell me my standing is good whenever I ask them.

I have not dared to ask Miss Stoneman yet. She is my teacher in map drawing and penmanship and I am afraid I shall never be able to draw maps correctly anyway. It takes more time than anything else and I do not see any particular use in it. And then if we do not speak loud enough in our recitation, she marks us the same as for missing. She always tells me to talk louder until I forget what I am going to say, so I suppose my standing in that is not very good though it can not be very low or she would tell me. 

Grammar is very easy and I get along quite well in that Miss McClelland gave us sentences to write and analyze the other day. She found quite a good deal of fault with the most of them, and when I got about half way through with mine, she said “Stop.” “Miss Austin that was done beautifully, jut the way I wanted it.”

I thought it was quite a compliment, but did not appreciate it very much at the time for I was so busy…when she spoke out so quick. I thought I had said something wrong and I was so frightened that I did not get over it all day and I would rather she had kept still and marked me 10, without saying anything about it.

The girls laughed as hard as they could because I jumped so when he spoke. Miss Rutland, our teacher in Arithmetic, gave us an invitation the other day to call on her. Her mother and she live here…[Emma]

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Austin/Leavenworth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.