第6章

10月10日

亲爱的长腿叔叔：

大学里真正麻烦的，是大家都认为你应该懂得一些你根本没学过的东西。有时真是挺让人烦恼的，不过现在只要女孩们提到我不懂的事，我就不说话，回去查查字典。

我在第一天就犯了个严重的错误，有人提到麦特林克，而我问她是不是个新生。这个笑话传遍了整所大学。还好，我在课堂上表现得跟大家一样聪明，甚至比一些人还要好。

莎丽·麦克白帮我在高年级生举办的拍卖会上挑了几件家具。她从小到大都在家住，对于家具摆饰颇有见地。如果您这辈子从没拥有超过5毛钱，您是很难体会那种购物的乐趣的——用一张真的5元钞票去买东西，还能找些零钱回来！我向您保证，亲爱的叔叔，我对您给的零用钱真的心存感激。

莎丽算是全世界最好的人了，而茱莉亚·平莱顿则相反。注册组安排的室友组合真是奇怪透了。莎丽觉得每件事都很有趣，连考试不及格也包括在内。而茱莉亚则觉得每件事都很烦人，她从未试着友善一些。她相信如果您是平莱顿家族的人，您毋庸置疑一定可以上天堂的。茱莉亚跟我是天生的敌人。

现在您一定等不及要听听我修了哪些课吧？

拉丁文：第二次迦太基战争。昨晚，汉尼拔和他的部队在特捡西米诺湖驻扎。他们在罗马人周围布下埋伏。凌晨4点，他们打了一仗，罗马人撤退了。

法文：读了24页的《三个火枪手》，学了第三组不规则动词的变化。

几何学：圆柱体学完了，正在学圆锥体。

英文：学习表达。我的表达日渐清晰、简洁。

生理学：进行到消化系统，下次学胆和胰。

您正在受教育的，乔若莎·亚伯特

10 th October

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

The trouble with college is that you are expected to know such a lot of things you've never learned. It's very embarrassing 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 encyclopedia.

I made an awful mistake the first day. Somebody mentioned Maurice Maeterlinck, 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 McBride helped me choose the things at the Senior auction. She has lived in a house all her life and knows about furnishing.You can't imagine what fun it is to shop and pay with a real five-dollar bill and get some change-when you've never had more than a few cents in your life.I assure you, Daddy dear, I do appreciate that allowance.

Sallie is the most entertaining person in the world-and Julia Rutledge Pendleton the least so. It's queer what a mixture the registrar can make in the matter of room-mates.Sallie thinks everything is funny-even flunking-and Julia is bored at everything.She never makes the slightest effort to be amiable.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.

And now I suppose you've been waiting very impatiently to hear what I am learning?

I. Latin:Second Punic War.Hannibal and his forces pitched camp at Lake Trasimenus last night.They prepared an ambuscade for the Romans, and a battle took place at the fourth watch this morning.Romans in retreat.

II. French:24 pages of the Three Musketeers and third conjugation, irregular verbs.

III. Geometry:Finished cylinders;now doing cones.

IV. English:Studying exposition.My style improves daily in clearness and brevity.

V. Physiology:Reached the digestive system.Bile and the pancreas next time.

Yours, on the way to being educated, Jerusha Abbott