第10章

11月15日

亲爱的长腿叔叔：

您还没听说过我的衣服，是吗？6件洋装，全部都是又新又漂亮的，而且是专门为我买的——不是大孩子留下来给我的。也许您无法理解这在一个孤儿的生命中，是怎样的一个转折点。是您将这些送给了我，我非常非常的感激。可以受教育是件好事，不过没有什么事比拥有6件新衣更让人快乐的了。参访团的普查德小姐替我挑的，感谢上帝不是李皮太太。一件是装饰着粉布的丝绸晚礼服（我穿上很漂亮），一件蓝色礼拜服，还有两件餐服：一件红纱面料，装饰着东方特色的花边（穿上它我像个吉卜赛人）；另一件是玫红色的印花布料，一套日常穿的灰色套服，还有一件每天上课时可以穿的。对于茱莉亚·平莱顿来说，这些大概不算什么，但对茱蒂·亚伯特来说——天哪，太惊人了！

我猜您现在一定这样想——她是这样一个不知羞耻，而又愚蠢的女孩子啊！让这样一个女孩子受教育真是浪费钱！

不过叔叔，如果您这辈子一直都穿得很破烂，您会明白我的感受的。当我刚上高中，我就进入了另一个比以前穿破衣还要更糟的阶段。

可怕的救济箱。

您无法想象我多害怕要穿那可怕的救济衣服出现在学校。就是这么巧，我注定要被安排坐在我衣服的原主人的隔壁，而她会偷偷地将此告诉别人，又说又笑并对我指指点点。身穿着仇人不要的衣服，这种痛深深地啃蚀着我的灵魂。即使我今后一辈子都能穿着丝袜，我也无法抹去这个伤痕。

您虚荣的朋友，J.亚伯特

又及：我知道我不该奢望任何的回信，而我也被告诫过不要拿问题来打扰您，不过，叔叔，就这一次——您是很老还是只有一点老？您头上有一些头发还是半根都没了？我从没见过您，而要想象您的样子，真是像掌握几何定理一样困难。

据说您是高高的，恨女人的有钱人，不过对一个鲁莽的女孩子却非常宽容，您到底是什么样子？

请回复。

15

th

November

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

You've never heard about my clothes, have you, Daddy?Six dresses, all new and beautiful and bought for me-not handed down from somebody bigger. Perhaps you don't realize what a climax that marks in the career of an orphan?You gave them to me, and I am very, very, VERY much obliged.It's a fine thing to be educated-but nothing compared to the dizzying experience of owning six new dresses.Miss Pritchard, who is on the visiting committee, picked them out-not Mrs.Lippett, thank goodness.I have an evening dress, pink mull over silk(I'm perfectly beautiful in that),and a blue church dress, and a dinner dress of red veiling with Oriental trimming(makes me look like a Gipsy),and another of rose-coloured challis, and a grey street suit, and an every-day dress for classes.That wouldn't be an awfully big wardrobe for Julia Rutledge Pendleton, perhaps, but for Jerusha Abbott-Oh, my!

I suppose you're thinking now what a frivolous, shallow little beast she is, and what a waste of money to educate a girl?

But, Daddy, if you'd been dressed in checked ginghams all your life, you'd appreciate how I feel. And when I started to the high school, I entered upon another period even worse than the checked ginghams.

The poor box.

You can't know how I dreaded appearing in school in those miserable poor-box dresses. I was perfectly sure to be put down in class next to the girl who first owned my dress, and she would whisper and giggle and point it out to the others.The bitterness of wearing your enemies'cast-off clothes eats into your soul.If I wore silk stockings for the rest of my life, I don't believe I could obliterate the scar.

yours vaingly friend, J. Abbott

PS. I know I'm not to expect any letters in return, and I've been warned not to bother you with questions, but tell me, Daddy, just this once-are you awfully old or just a little old?And are you perfectly bald or just a little bald?It is very diffcult thinking about you in the abstract like a theorem in geometry.

Given a tall rich man who hates girls, but is very generous to one quite impertinent girl, what does he look like?

R. S.V.P.