Here I am! I travelled yesterday for four hours in a train. It's afunny sensation, isn't it? I never rode in one before.
College is the biggest, most bewildering place--I get lost whenever Ileave my room. I will write you a description later when I'm feelingless muddled; also I will tell you about my lessons. Classes don'tbegin until Monday morning, and this is Saturday night. But I wantedto write a letter first just to get acquainted.
It seems queer to be writing letters to somebody you don't know. Itseems queer for me to be writing letters at all--I've never writtenmore than three or four in my life, so please overlook it if these arenot a model kind.
Before leaving yesterday morning, Mrs. Lippett and I had a very serioustalk. She told me how to behave all the rest of my life, andespecially how to behave towards the kind gentleman who is doing somuch for me. I must take care to be Very Respectful.
But how can one be very respectful to a person who wishes to be calledJohn Smith? Why couldn't you have picked out a name with a littlepersonality? I might as well write letters to Dear Hitching-Post orDear Clothes-Prop.
I have been thinking about you a great deal this summer; havingsomebody take an interest in me after all these years makes me feel asthough I had found a sort of family. It seems as though I belonged tosomebody now, and it's a very comfortable sensation. I must say,however, that when I think about you, my imagination has very little towork upon. There are just three things that I know:
I. You are tall.
II. You are rich.
III. You hate girls.
I suppose I might call you Dear Mr. Girl-Hater. Only that's ratherinsulting to me. Or Dear Mr. Rich-Man, but that's insulting to you, asthough money were the only important thing about you. Besides, beingrich is such a very external quality. Maybe you won't stay rich allyour life; lots of very clever men get smashed up in Wall Street. Butat least you will stay tall all your life! So I've decided to call youDear Daddy-Long-Legs. I hope you won't mind. It's just a private petname we won't tell Mrs. Lippett.
The ten o'clock bell is going to ring in two minutes. Our day isdivided into sections by bells. We eat and sleep and study by bells.It's very enlivening; I feel like a fire horse all of the time. Thereit goes! Lights out. Good night.
Observe with what precision I obey rules--due to my training in theJohn Grier Home.