Also I have been chosen for the spring dramatics—­As You Like It out of doors.  I am going to be Celia, own cousin to Rosalind.

And lastly:  Julia and Sallie and I are going to New York next Friday to do some spring shopping and stay all night and go to the theatre the next day with `Master Jervie.’  He invited us.  Julia is going to stay at home with her family, but Sallie and I are going to stop at the Martha Washington Hotel.  Did you ever hear of anything so exciting?  I’ve never been in a hotel in my life, nor in a theatre; except once when the Catholic Church had a festival and invited the orphans, but that wasn’t a real play and it doesn’t count.

And what do you think we’re going to see?  Hamlet.  Think of that!  We studied it for four weeks in Shakespeare class and I know it by heart.

I am so excited over all these prospects that I can scarcely sleep.

Goodbye, Daddy.

This is a very entertaining world. 
                                       Yours ever,
          
                                             Judy

PS.  I’ve just looked at the calendar.  It’s the 28th.

Another postscript.

I saw a street car conductor today with one brown eye and one blue. 
Wouldn’t he make a nice villain for a detective story?

7th April Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

Mercy!  Isn’t New York big?  Worcester is nothing to it.  Do you mean to tell me that you actually live in all that confusion?  I don’t believe that I shall recover for months from the bewildering effect of two days of it.  I can’t begin to tell you all the amazing things I’ve seen; I suppose you know, though, since you live there yourself.

But aren’t the streets entertaining?  And the people?  And the shops?  I never saw such lovely things as there are in the windows.  It makes you want to devote your life to wearing clothes.

Sallie and Julia and I went shopping together Saturday morning.  Julia went into the very most gorgeous place I ever saw, white and gold walls and blue carpets and blue silk curtains and gilt chairs.  A perfectly beautiful lady with yellow hair and a long black silk trailing gown came to meet us with a welcoming smile.  I thought we were paying a social call, and started to shake hands, but it seems we were only buying hats—­at least Julia was.  She sat down in front of a mirror and tried on a dozen, each lovelier than the last, and bought the two loveliest of all.

I can’t imagine any joy in life greater than sitting down in front of a mirror and buying any hat you choose without having first to consider the price!  There’s no doubt about it, Daddy; New York would rapidly undermine this fine stoical character which the John Grier Home so patiently built up.

And after we’d finished our shopping, we met Master Jervie at Sherry’s.  I suppose you’ve been in Sherry’s?  Picture that, then picture the dining-room of the John Grier Home with its oilcloth-covered tables, and white crockery that you can’t break, and wooden-handled knives and forks; and fancy the way I felt!