Chapter I: From Miss Elizabeth Stockton to Miss Carolyn Sawyer

_Lowell, Mass., Sept. 10, 189-._

MY DEAREST CAROL: The thing we have both wished so much has happened! Papa has finally consented to let me go to college! It has taken a long time and a _great deal_ of persuasion, and Mamma never cared _anything_ about it, you know, herself. But I laid it before her in a way that I really am ashamed of! I never thought I'd do anything like it! But I _had_ to, it seemed to me. I told her that she had often spoken of what a mistake Mrs. Hall made in letting Marjory come out so soon, and that I should _certainly_ be unwilling to stay at Mrs. Meade's another year. I'm doing advanced work now, and I'm _terribly_ bored. The girls all seem so very young, somehow! And I said that I couldn't come out till I was twenty-two, if I went to college. I teased so that she gave way, but we had a _terrible_ siege with Papa. He is the _dearest_ man in the world, but just a little _tiny_ bit prejudiced, you know. He wants me to finish at Mrs. Meade's and then go abroad for a year or two. He wants me to do something with my music. But I told him of the _fine_ Music School there was at Smith, and how much _harder_ I should work there, _naturally_. He talked a good deal about the art advantages and travel and French--you know what I think about the _terrible narrowness_ of a boarding-school education! It is _shameful_, that an intellectual girl of this century should be tied down to _French_ and _Music_! And how can the scrappy little bit of gallery sight-seeing that I should do _possibly_ equal four years of earnest, intelligent, _regular_ college work? He said something about marriage--oh, dear! It is _horrible_ that one should have to think of that! I told him, with a great deal of dignity and rather coldly, I'm afraid, that _my_ life would be, I hoped, _something more_ than the mere _evanescent glitter_ of a _social butterfly_! I think it really impressed him. He said, "Oh, very well--very well!" So I'm coming, dearest, and you must write me all about what books I'd better get and just what I'd better know of the college customs. I'm _so_ glad you're on the campus. You know Uncle Wendell knows the President very well indeed--he was in college with him--and, somehow or other, I've got a room in the Lawrence, though we didn't expect it so soon! I feel inspired already when I think of the chapel and the big Science Building and that _beautiful_ library! I've laid out a course of work that Miss Beverly--that's the literature teacher--thinks very ambitious, but I am afraid she doesn't realize the intention of a _college_, which is a little different, I suppose, from a _boarding-school_(!) I have planned to take sixteen hours for the four years. I must say I think it's rather absurd to limit a girl to that who _really_ is _perfectly_ able to do more. Perhaps you could see the Register--if that's what it is--and tell him I could just as well take eighteen, and then I could do that other Literature. I must go to try on something--really, it's very hard to convince Mamma that Smith isn't a _summer resort_! Good-by, dearest, we shall have such _beautiful_ times together--I'm sure you'll be as excited as I am. We shall _for once_ see as much of each other as we want to--I wish I could study with you! I'm coming up on the 8.20 Wednesday morning.

Devotedly yours,
ELIZABETH.