Badsey
Evesham
Nov 14th/99
My dear Kathleen
You had not told me that General White was a relation of Miss White, I was very much interested to hear it, do you know what relation? I suppose Miss White is very eager about the war. I hope you will get up a good subscription for the relief fund. We had a very successful meeting here on Monday, they have appointed a committee of 20 to collect from house to house in the three parishes. I am on it also Mrs Wood & Mrs Savory, the rest are men. Mr Price & Father of course & such men as Elijah Crisp, Joe Agg, George Jones etc. I hope we shall get a good sum.
I went to Evesham yesterday & got Jack a rather nice little silver match-box it was 7/-. I told them to put his initials on it, I don’t know how much extra they will charge, but not much I don’t suppose. I must get Baby some little thing tomorrow, I think I will try & get her a little wooden tea-set or if I can’t get that perhaps a doll.
I feel rather frantic at present on the subject of my pupils, I cannot think what has taken Maggie & Lily this term, especially Lily. Wednesday is always a bad day, I don’t think we have had a single Wednesday morning’s lessons this term without one of them in the sulks at the end of it. Lily seems to be in a general state of feud with the rest of mankind, formerly I think I used to be regarded with more favour than others. But now she includes me in the common herd! If she doesn’t like a lesson she sulks & won’t try & what is more tells me she doesn’t intend to try, she is often positively rude, though I think sometimes she does not mean to be so rude but does not quite know what is rudeness. On the other hand she can be quite her ordinary self & generally is at the beginning of the morning, but I usually offend her in some way during the morning & after that she is as I have described. Sometimes it is Maggie & Cyril who offends her, but we all suffer for it just the same. I am at my wits end to know what has taken the child, the only explanation I can think of is that she is letting her laziness get the better of her & does not want to go in for this exam & is angry with me for wanting her to. I have told her straight that if she doesn’t work better she won’t be able to go in for it, but that she will have to work up for it just the same of course, she will find that not very interesting when the time comes. I have punished her when she did anything too awful, & I have reasoned with her seriously, but the latter seems worse than useless, she only says she doesn’t care & doesn’t want to get on with her lessons nor to try & be better etc. Of course that is all rubbish but how are you to reason with a child like that? You can imagine what it is with Lily like that, but when Maggie tries it on too, it’s like two pigs squeaking under a gate instead of one! Fortunately for my sanity of mind that doesn’t happen often, Maggie really works very well & usually only gets cross over Latin class which is on Wednesday. Cyril is tiresome sometimes of course, but he is not hopeless by any means, I don’t mean to say that Lily is, I take in large supplies of hope & a good many other things every morning on her account. I hope this long nightmare won’t tire you, I hope it is not unfair on Lily to write such a character of her but really I felt so exasperated that I had to let you know something of the lively times I have been having.
I hope you will win the Salthill match.
Much love to you both from
May E Sladden
P.S. My birthday is on a Wednesday! I expect it will be a lively one!
