The Holbrook news., 1922-06-09
IeIIer to Jerry. And them

DelleNe HOW lilut IT Nuit tiil I've finished writing this. I'll feel better then. My mind will be clearer. I'll know more what to say. Just the effort of writing it down
 Of course. if Jerry and hadn't
 But this is no way to begin. Like the little Mary Marie of long ago am in danger of starting my dinner with ice-cream instead of soup! And so l must begin where left off, Of course. And that was at the wedding. remember that wedding hs If it were yesterday. I can see now, with Mary Marie's manuscript before me, why it made so great an impression upon me. It was q very quiet wed ding, of course-just the members or the family present. But l shall never forget the fine, sweet lovelinesS ot Mothers face, nor the splendid strength and tenderness of Fathers. And the way he drew her into his arms and kissed her, after 1t was all over well, remember distinctly that even Aunt Hattie choked up and had to turn her back to wipe her eyes. They went away at once, first to New York for day or two, then to Andersonville. to prepare for the real wedding trip to the other side of the world. 1 stayed in Boston at school. In the spring. when Father and Mother returned, and we all went back to An1ersOnville. there followed q long period of just happy girlhood, and l suspect l was too satisfied and happy to think of writing. After all, I've no- ticed it's when we're sad or troubled over something that we have that tin gllng to cover perfectly good white paper with confessions and "StorieS of my life" As witness right now what I'm doing.
 had just passed my sixteenth birth day when We all came back to live In Andersonyille. For the first few months l suspect that just the glory and the wonder and joy of living In the old home. with Father and Mother happy together. was enough to fill all my thoughts. Then. as school began ill ilt lUli. I 'diiN h'Ni t' tiVA hih' 'A' ing again, and became a girl-just growing girl in her teens.
 How patient Mother was, and Fatll- CT, too. can see how gently and tactfully they helped me over the stones and stumbling-blocks that strew the pathway of every sixteen-year-old girl who thinks. because she has turned down her dresses and turned up her hair, that she is grown up. and can do and think and talk as she pleases.
 It was that winter that 1 went through the morbid period. Like our clhldhOOds measles and whaopinS cough, it seems to come to most Of us-us women children. l wonder why? Certainly it came to me. True to type cried by the hour over fan cied sights from my schOOlmates. and brooded days at time because Faith CT or Mother didn't understand" l questioned everything in the earth beneath and the heavens above; and in my dark despair over an averted glance from my most intimate friend, I meditated on whether life was, or was not, worth the living. with a pre- ponderance toward the latter.
 Mother-dear mother .-lOoked on aghast She feared, I think for my life; certainly for my sanity and morals.
 It was Father who came to the res o,,n IT,, lIotbar's faarS. said it was indigestion that ailed me or that I was growing too fast; or per haps I didn't get enough sleep. or needed. maybe, a good tonic. He took me out of school. and made it point to accompany me on long walks. He talked with me-not to me-about the birds and the trees and the sunsets and then about the deeper things of life. until. before realized 1t, I was sane and sensible once more, serene and happy in the simple faith of my childhood.
 Twas seventeen, If remember right ly, when I became worried, not over my heavenly estate now, but my earth ly one. I must have career, of course No namby-pamby everyday liv- Ing of dishes and dusting and meals and babies for me. It was all very well. of course. for some people. Such things had to be- But for me
 could write. of course, but I was not sure but that I preferred the stage. At the same time there was within me q deep stirring as of call to go out and enlighten the world. especially that portion of 1t in darkest Africa or deadliest India. would be a mission ary.
 Before l was eighteen. however. I had abandoned all this. Father put his foot down hard on the missionary nroiect, and Mother put hers down on the stage idea. I didn't mind so much, thcugh, as l remember, for on further study and consideration. I found that flowers and applause were not all of an actors life. and that Africa and India were not entirely desirable as a place of residence for a young woman alone Besides, I had decided by then that could enliehten the world just as effectually (and much more com fortably) by writing stories at home and getting them printed.
 So wrote stories-but did not get any of them printed in spite of my earn est efforts. In time, therefore. that idea, also, was abandoned; and with 1T. re- cretfully. the idea 0f enlightening the world at all.
 Besides, had just then (again If remember rightfully) fallen in love.
 Not that It was the first time. Oh