11月15日

親愛的長腿叔叔：

您還沒聽說過我的衣服，是嗎？6件洋裝，全部都是又新又漂亮的，而且是專門為我買的——不是大孩子留下來給我的。也許您無法理解這在一個孤兒的生命中，是怎樣的一個轉折點。是您將這些送給了我，我非常非常的感激。可以受教育是件好事，不過沒有什么事比擁有6件新衣更讓人快樂的了。參訪團的普查德小姐替我挑的，感謝上帝不是李皮太太。一件是裝飾著粉布的絲綢晚禮服（我穿上很漂亮），一件藍色禮拜服，還有兩件餐服：一件紅紗面料，裝飾著東方特色的花邊（穿上它我像個吉卜賽人）；另一件是玫紅色的印花布料，一套日常穿的灰色套服，還有一件每天上課時可以穿的。對于茱莉亞·平萊頓來說，這些大概不算什么，但對茱蒂·亞伯特來說——天哪，太驚人了！

我猜您現(xiàn)在一定這樣想——她是這樣一個不知羞恥，而又愚蠢的女孩子啊！讓這樣一個女孩子受教育真是浪費錢！

不過叔叔，如果您這輩子一直都穿得很破爛，您會明白我的感受的。當我剛上高中，我就進入了另一個比以前穿破衣還要更糟的階段。

可怕的救濟箱。

您無法想象我多害怕要穿那可怕的救濟衣服出現(xiàn)在學校。就是這么巧，我注定要被安排坐在我衣服的原主人的隔壁，而她會偷偷地將此告訴別人，又說又笑并對我指指點點。身穿著仇人不要的衣服，這種痛深深地啃蝕著我的靈魂。即使我今后一輩子都能穿著絲襪，我也無法抹去這個傷痕。

您虛榮的朋友，J.亞伯特

又及：我知道我不該奢望任何的回信，而我也被告誡過不要拿問題來打擾您，不過，叔叔，就這一次——您是很老還是只有一點老？您頭上有一些頭發(fā)還是半根都沒了？我從沒見過您，而要想象您的樣子，真是像掌握幾何定理一樣困難。

據說您是高高的，恨女人的有錢人，不過對一個魯莽的女孩子卻非常寬容，您到底是什么樣子？

請回復。

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.