1st October
Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
I love college and I love you for sending me — I'm very, very happy, and so excited every moment of the time that I can scarcely1 sleep. You can't imagine how different it is from the John Grier Home. I never dreamed there was such a place in the world. I'm feeling sorry for everybody who isn't a girl and who can't come here; I am sure the college you attended when you were a boy couldn't have been so nice.
My room is up in a tower. There are three other girls on the same floor of the tower — a senior2 who wears spectacles3 and is always asking us please to be a little more quiet, and two freshmen named Sallie McBride and Julia Rutledge Pendleton. Sallie has red hair and a turn-up nose and is quite friendly; Julia comes from one of the first families in New York and hasn't noticed me yet. They room together and the senior and I have singles. My room is on the northwest corner with two windows and a view. After you've lived in a ward for eighteen years with twenty roommates, it is restful to be alone. This is the first chance I've ever had to get acquainted with4 Jerusha Abbott. I think I'm going to like her.
Do you think you are?
Tuesday
10th October
Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
Did you ever hear of Michael Angelo?
He was a famous artist who lived in Italy in the Middle Ages. Everybody in English Literature seemed to know about him, and the whole class laughed because I thought he was an angel. He sounds like an archangel5, doesn't he? The trouble with college is that you are expected to know such a lot of things you've never learned. It's very embarrassing6 at times. But now, when the girls talk about things that I never heard of, I just keep still and look them up in the encyclopedia7.
I made an awful mistake the first day. Somebody mentioned Maurice Maeterlinck8, and I asked if she was a Freshman. That joke has gone all over college. But anyway, I'm just as bright, in class as any of the others—and brighter than some of them!
...
Sallie is the most entertaining person in the world — and Julia Rutledge Pendleton the least so. It's queer what a mixture the registrar9 can make in the matter of room-mates. Sallie thinks everything is funny even flunking10 and Julia is bored at everything. She never makes the slightest effort to be amiable11. She believes that if you are a Pendleton, that fact alone admits you to heaven without any further examination. Julia and I were born to be enemies.
Jerusha Abbott
PS. I hope you never touch alcohol, Daddy! It does dreadful things to your liver.
Wednesday
10月1日
亲爱的长腿叔叔：
我喜欢大学，也喜欢送我来这儿的您——我真的非常非常快乐，每时每刻都兴奋得睡不着。您无法想像这里跟约翰·格利尔孤儿院多么不同。我从不知道世上还有这么好的地方。我深深地为那些不是女孩、不能来上大学的人感到难过。我相信您以前读的大学一定没有这么好。
我的房间在塔楼的顶层。这层楼还有另外3个女孩子——一个戴眼镜的高年级女生，她老是要人家安静一点；还有两个新生，莎莉·麦克白与茱莉亚·平莱顿。莎莉一头红发还有一个翘鼻子，人很和气。茱莉亚出身纽约名门，还没注意到我。她们俩同屋，高年级女生跟我住单人房。我的房间在西北角，有两扇窗，窗外景色宜人。和20个人在同一间宿舍住了18年，如今单独拥有一间屋子，我感到很轻松。我想，这是一个重新认识乔若莎·艾伯特的良机。我想我会喜欢她的。
您呢？
星期二
10月10日
亲爱的长腿叔叔：
您听说过米开朗琪罗吗?
他是中世纪意大利著名画家，上英国文学课的人好像都知道他。我说他是个天使，惹得全班哄堂大笑。可那名字听上去很像天使，您说是吗?糟糕的是在大学里，大家都认为你应该懂得一些你根本没学过的东西。有时真的让人很尴尬，不过现在只要女孩们提到我不懂的事，我就闭口不言，而是回去查百科全书。
上学第一天我闹了一个大笑话，有人提到麦特林克，我就问她是不是大一新生。这个笑话传遍了校园。还好，我在课堂上表现比谁都不笨，甚至比某些人还要好。
……
莎莉可以说是全世界最逗的人了——茱莉亚·平莱顿则相反。注册处的人将她们安排在一起，可真够古怪的。莎莉觉得每件事，甚至连考试不及格都很有趣。而茱莉亚则不然，事事都让她觉得乏味，对人从未有过友好的表示。也许她认为，只要是平莱顿家族的，无庸置疑一定可以上天堂——茱莉亚跟我是天生的冤家。
乔若莎·艾伯特
又及：
我希望您滴酒不沾，长腿叔叔。酒对肝脏有致命的伤害。
星期三
1. scarcely adv. 几乎不
2. senior adj. 年长的
3. spectacles n. 眼镜
4. get acquainted with 开始了解
5. archangel n. 大天使
6. embarrassing adj. 尴尬的
7. encyclopedia n. 百科全书
8. Maurice Maeterlinck, (1862-1949) 比利时著名戏剧家。1911年获诺贝尔文学奖。
9. registrar n. 登记员
10. flunk v. 不及格
11. amiable adj. 亲切的