It's December, 1880

Dec. 1, 1880

Well you may know that I was anxious for Cousin Florence to go to the party, as I consented to keep the record for her. After the usual proceedings Lucy played (while the girls sang) "Beyond the ___?_ and the Weeping". Lucy played it very badly but, the girls sung it very sweetly. Nannie read a very sweet piece called "A Dream." Then Loulie played with much expression "Shepherd Boy." It's a very sweet piece, but the old lady became quite ?palsaic" before she got through, this however didn't destroy the beauty of the piece. Lou read "The Force of Examples." The substance of the piece is this: An old lobster gives her young daughter a scold for walking backwards whereupon she says, "Why mother it would be quite presumptuous for me to change the fashion which my "Great Grand Mammy" & even down to my Mammy. To illustrate this I will use a quotation from the first part of the book. viz: "Put yourself in the place of anyone whose work you wish to criticize and you will find that it is very much easier to say how a thing ought to be done than how to do it." Mattie repeated a piece called "Gentle Words and Loving Fondly." I wish our tongues would roll off some of these oftener as Sister Blount said the other day that her head was about to roll off & I think we had better roll out some gentle words than she should lose her "pretty" head. Cousin Lou read "Counsels for TheYoung," which if we would practice them we would be so happy and everything would be all right. Then as usual we reserved the best for the last, which was a beautiful piece called "The Music of the Sea" by Mattie Kate. She did full justice to the piece. Cousin Lou then marched us out to walk which of course ended a pleasant evening.

B