Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
March Fifth
Dear Mr. Trustee,
Tomorrow is the first Wednesday in the month--a weary day for the JohnGrier Home. How relieved they'll be when five o'clock comes and youpat them on the head and take yourselves off! Did you (individually)ever pat me on the head, Daddy? I don't believe so--my memory seems tobe concerned only with fat Trustees.
Give the Home my love, please--my TRULY love. I have quite a feelingof tenderness for it as I look back through a haze of four years. WhenI first came to college I felt quite resentful because I'd been robbedof the normal kind of childhood that the other girls had had; but now,I don't feel that way in the least. I regard it as a very unusualadventure. It gives me a sort of vantage point from which to standaside and look at life. Emerging full grown, I get a perspective onthe world, that other people who have been brought up in the thick ofthings entirely lack.
I know lots of girls (Julia, for instance) who never know that they arehappy. They are so accustomed to the feeling that their senses aredeadened to it; but as for me--I am perfectly sure every moment of mylife that I am happy. And I'm going to keep on being, no matter whatunpleasant things turn up. I'm going to regard them (even toothaches)as interesting experiences, and be glad to know what they feel like.'Whatever sky's above me, I've a heart for any fate.'
However, Daddy, don't take this new affection for the J.G.H. tooliterally. If I have five children, like Rousseau, I shan't leave themon the steps of a foundling asylum in order to insure their beingbrought up simply.
Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Lippett (that, I think, is truthful;love would be a little strong) and don't forget to tell her what abeautiful nature I've developed.
Affectionately, Judy
Dear Mr. Trustee,
Tomorrow is the first Wednesday in the month--a weary day for the JohnGrier Home. How relieved they'll be when five o'clock comes and youpat them on the head and take yourselves off! Did you (individually)ever pat me on the head, Daddy? I don't believe so--my memory seems tobe concerned only with fat Trustees.
Give the Home my love, please--my TRULY love. I have quite a feelingof tenderness for it as I look back through a haze of four years. WhenI first came to college I felt quite resentful because I'd been robbedof the normal kind of childhood that the other girls had had; but now,I don't feel that way in the least. I regard it as a very unusualadventure. It gives me a sort of vantage point from which to standaside and look at life. Emerging full grown, I get a perspective onthe world, that other people who have been brought up in the thick ofthings entirely lack.
I know lots of girls (Julia, for instance) who never know that they arehappy. They are so accustomed to the feeling that their senses aredeadened to it; but as for me--I am perfectly sure every moment of mylife that I am happy. And I'm going to keep on being, no matter whatunpleasant things turn up. I'm going to regard them (even toothaches)as interesting experiences, and be glad to know what they feel like.'Whatever sky's above me, I've a heart for any fate.'
However, Daddy, don't take this new affection for the J.G.H. tooliterally. If I have five children, like Rousseau, I shan't leave themon the steps of a foundling asylum in order to insure their beingbrought up simply.
Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Lippett (that, I think, is truthful;love would be a little strong) and don't forget to tell her what abeautiful nature I've developed.
Affectionately, Judy