Post three

We three girls were left alone at these times. That is in the care of a Negress who was the cook at Uncle George’s. We had never seen a Negro before and were fascinated by her. She was so immaculate in everything she did and we loved to watch her walk down the street in her “dress-up clothes”. She was tall and slender and looked wonderful, we thought.

But one day Edna and I thought we would help in the house. Uncle George had a conservatory on the third floor, where he and Auntie Bertha grew all sorts of plants, so Edna and I decided to clean it and so we hosed and hosed it. It did look better, but we didn’t look downstairs where all the water was dripping. We dreaded to have Uncle George come home, but he was very compassionate. Anyway, I always remember.

In England, at school we had to memorize poetry, and the one I memorized was” The Piped Piper of Hamlin”. Now Auntie Bertha had 6 or 7 brothers and sisters, and they all lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and, of course, went calling back and forth, and on these occasions, we all had to do something to entertain the company, and I had to recite the “Pied Piper”. Uncle George spent a great deal of time teaching Edna two poems in  
the Lancashire dialect. Of course, we were never allowed to know such things in England, but finally, we managed them. Edna is much better than I, and so we added to our repertoire.

One of Auntie Bertha’s brothers was a bachelor and seemed to take a fancy to us, and would take us out to Willow Grove Park, and after, when we were installed at home in Amsterdam, would write us nice, long letters, illustrated with drawings he made. He took us, also, to Constitution Hall, and we saw the Liberty Bell, which had just got back from St. Louis where it graced the World’s Fair. Auntie Bertha rode with it on the train with her brother-in-law and sister.

Uncle George had a beautiful house and carriage, which Auntie Bertha drove. We loved to go with her in Fairmont Park and drive the beautiful drives there. Charlie, the horse, was a fast horse and used to race with the other horses in the Park, which we thought was fun.  But one Sunday, Auntie Bertha prevailed on Mother to go with her. Mother thought is was not right to go riding for pleasure on Sunday, and it took quite a little persuasion on Auntie Bertha’s part to coax her to go. But, finally, she went, and with disasterous results. As I said, Charlie was a fast runner, and he got into a race and somehow upset the carriage and Mother was hurt and badly bruised. Of course, she felt is was because she had gone riding for pleasure on a Sunday.

The time flew by, and in spite of the good times we had, school was at hand for us all and we had to go. Our house was ready, a new one on Guy Park Avenue, and we were very happy to be there at last, in spite of the jolly, happy times in Philadelphia.

School was waiting for us, and we started. I was in sixth grade with Eleanor and Edna was in fourth. Father didn’t have any difficulty with us girls, but with Oliver he had trouble with the School Superintendent, who was an Englishman, but a well-educated one like my Father. Oliver, as I said had been to the Bootham School in York and was almost ready to enter the Sophomore Class in High School, but my father was indignant and insisted that he should take just one year and then take the exams for the U. of Pennsylvania. I remember how disgusted Father was with the Superintendent.

Our days passed happily in school and out with long walks on the weekends in summer and skating in winter. How we loved to skate. The skating rink was a part of the Erie Canal, and they put a large barge across the end to provide a warming house. It was a big rink and could be righted when Spring came to open the canal.

We were allowed 15 cents on Saturday, provided we had done our work which we always  did with alacrity. I remember it was about 2.5 miles to the rink and it cost 10 cents to skate but as often as not, we used the extra 5 cents to go to the drug store and have an  ice cream so walked home. We were tired but happy. After all we walked two miles to school every day and came home for lunch, so we were used to it. Of course, we were not supposed to have boys walking home with us, at any time, so I remember telling my escort he had better leave me at the corner for fear I should be seen. But it was such fun skating alone or with a partner, playing “snap the whip” or whatever. Of course, we never had such skating in England, maybe a day or two during the winter, but never such sport as this.