親愛的長腿叔叔：

 

    昨天我在拐角的雜貨店裹，用秣麵粉的秤量了體重。我胖了九磅！(約四公斤)我要向大家推薦到洛克威洛來休養身體。

 

你的朱蒂

9月15日

 

 

 

September 15th

　

Dear Daddy,

　

    I was weighed yesterday on the flour scales in the general store at the Corners.  I’ve gained nine pounds!  Let me recommend Lock Willow as a health resort.

 

 

Yours ever,

Judy

　

親愛的長腿叔叔：

 

    你瞧，我是大學二件年級學生了！上星期五返校，真不想離開洛克威洛。不過，回到學校還是高興。回到自己熟識的地方，有種愉悅的感覺，我開始習慣了大學生活，能應付自如了。事實上，我也己經習慣了社會，好像我本來就屬於它的，而不是半路悄悄溜進來的。

 

    我要說的，你可能根本就不了解。一位可以當理事的大人物，是無法體會一個卑微的棄兒的。

 

    現在，請聽我說。你知道我和誰住在一起嗎？莎莉˙麥克布萊德和朱麗雅˙彭德爾頓。這是真的，我們有三間臥室和一間書房。請看下圖：

 

 

 

    春天的時候，我和莎莉就決定住在一起。不知道為什麼，朱麗雅還是決定要和莎莉住在一起，她們兩個全無半點共同之處。彭德爾頓家的人一向保守，因循守舊(好詞!)。總之，我們住在一起了。試想，原格利爾之家的潔魯莎˙艾博特，與彭德爾頓家族的一員住在一起。真是個民主國家！

 

    莎莉正在競選班主席，她會當選的，除非一切跡象都搞錯了。如此這般神秘氣氛―我們都像政治家了。對了，叔叔，一旦我們婦女嬴得權利後，你們男人就得加倍小心維護你們的權利了。下星期六選舉，不管誰勝誰負，晚上將舉行火炬遊行。

    我開始學化學這門最特別的學科，以前從未見過這樣的科學。現在接觸的是分子和原子，下個月我就能講得更具體些。

 

    我也在學辯論和邏輯學。

    還有世界歷史。

    還有莎士比亞的戲劇。

    還有法文。

 

    像這樣持續幾年，我必定學識淵博。

 

    我本來想選修經濟學，而不是法文，但我不敢。我若不繼續選修法文，我怕教授會把我當掉。六月份的考試我低空掠過，不過我應該說，是我高中的根基沒有打穩。

 

    班上有位同學法文說得和英文一樣流利。她小時侯隨父母出國，在教會學校讀了三年。你可以想像，她在我們中間有多麼出色，不規則動詞對她來說簡直形同兒戲。真希望我小時候父母把我丟到法國修道院，而不是什麼孤兒院。噢，不對，我不是這個意思！果真那樣，我就不會認識你了。我寧願認識你，哪怕不會法文。

   

    再見，長腿叔叔。我現在要去找哈里埃•馬丁討論化學，順便聊一下我對下屆班長的看法。

 

   

參與政治的朱蒂•艾博特

  

 

September 25th

 

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

 

     Behold me ―a sophomore!  I came up last Friday, sorry to leave Lock Willow, but glad to see the campus again.  It is a pleasant sensation to come back to something familiar.  I am beginning to feel at home in college, and in command of the situation; I am beginning, in fact, to fell at home in the world―as though I really belonged in it and had not just crept in on sufferance.

     I don’t suppose you understand in the least what I am trying to say.  A person important enough to be a trustee can’t appreciate the feelings of a person unimportant enough to be a foundling.

     And now, Daddy, listen to this.  Whom do you think I am rooming with?  Sallie McBride and Julia Rutledge Pendleton.  It’s the truth.  We have a study and three little bedrooms―voila[法語]這就是。]!

     Sallie and I decided last spring that we should like to room together, and Julia made up her mind to stay with Sallie―why, I can’t imagine, for they are not a bit alike; but the Pendletons are naturally conservative and inimical (fine word!) to change.  Anyway, here we are.  Think of Jerusha Abbott, late of the John Grier Home for Orphans, rooming with a Pendleton.  This is a democratic country.

     Sallie is running for class president, and unless all signs fail, she is going to be elected.  Such an atmosphere of intrigue―you should see what politicians we are!  Oh, I tell you, Daddy, when we women get our rights, you men will have to look alive[當心，留心。] in order to keep yours.  Election comes next Saturday, and we’re going to heave a torchlight procession in the evening, no matter who wins.

     I am beginning chemistry, a most unusual study.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  Molecules and atoms are the material employed, but I’ll be in a position to discuss them more definitely next month.

     I am also taking argumentation and logic.

     Also history of the whole world.

     Also plays of William Shakespeare.

     Also French.

     If this keeps up many years longer, I shall come quite intelligent.

     I should rather have elected economics than French, but I didn’t dare, because I was afraid that unless I reelected French, the professor would not let me pass―as it was, I just managed to squeeze through the June examination.  But I will say that my high-school preparation was not very adequate.

     There’s one girl in the class who chatters away in French as fast as she does in English.  She went abroad with her parents when she was a child, and spent three years in a convent school.  You can imagine how bright she is compared with the rest of us―irregular verbs are mere playthings.  I wish my parents had chucked me into a French convent when I was little instead of a foundling asylum.  Oh, no, I don’t either!  Because then maybe I should never have known you.  I’d rather know you than French.

     Good-bye, Daddy.  I must call on Harriet Martin now, and, having discussed the chemical situation, casually drop a few thoughts the subject of our next president.

 

 

Yours in politics,

J. Abbott