Early December, 1893 — Morris Returns to a Godforsaken Town

Dear Ethel:

Received your letter about five minutes ago, I have just come down from “the hill” where I have been taking a very trying exam in mathematics. I also have another this after-noon at three. How is that? Two math exams in one day, finals too. My head is all swimming now, and I am in fine condition to take another exam or even write a letter for that matter, so you will please excuse anything in this letter. I have only three exams to take; the two today, and then none till Tuesday. The worst part of it is that I have to hang around this Godforsaken town for four days (!)

It is nice and sloppy here now, the slush is about four inches deep on most of the sidewalks. The average number of falls per block is three. As I look out of the window now I see that it has begun to rain, verily Ithaca weather is a great and wondrous thing.

When a person sits down and fills up writing paper with a weather report, it usually means that he has not much to write about. That is my case. If I should give you some of the news of the week it would read like the little boy’s diary: Got up, got washed, went to school, came home, ate supper, went to bed, etc. I have several things to be thankful for though one is that I get out of this town on Tues, at 12:05 PM. You can direct the answer to this to Park Ave Hotel, N.Y. In this answer it might be as well to state where you are going to be for a few days after Xmas. You ignore my questions to this effect, in your letter just received.

I must do some studying for that exam so,

Good bye

Morris Benton

This letter finds Morris back in Ithaca, deep in final examinations. Two math exams in one day. Slush four inches deep. Four more days in a Godforsaken town before he can leave.

Between this letter and the one before it lies a brief silence in the record. Morris traveled east for the holiday. For a few days, there was no need to write.

When the correspondence resumes, something has shifted. The restless edge has softened. Whatever passed during those December days, it appears to have steadied them both.

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Image: Archives Picture Collection, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

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[TLC-1893-47]