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Stanford Univ., California
Jan. 20th '98

Dear Mabel:-

I am ashamed of myself for not acknowledging your beautiful present
before this, but I did not know but that I should hear from you, and then
I would acknowledge it, and write you a letter at the same time.

The calendar is a beauty and I have it hanging up in a conspicuous
place on a curtain at my right. I thank you very very much for your
thoughtfulness.

I am anticipating a good deal of pleasure from your mother's letter
when I receive it.

I am kind of sorry for Dorothy Chancellor, for her birthday and
Christmas will come both the same time.

Since I last wrote you I have joined an eating club. At present there
are only two young ladies and four boys but two more young ladies are going
to come in day after tomorrow on the first, and make a nice number, eight.

The principal object is sociability. Ever since I have been away
from home I have avoided the other sex, and did not know more than two or
three girls in California even enough to take my hat off to them. It has
made life different from what it should be, and I think that this will be a
welcomed change. Another reason for changing is that I have not known my
professors as I should. From merely a class room acquaintance one can form
very little conception of a man. Now I am situated so that I can invite
any of my professors or friends to a meal and we can have a nice sociable
time together. Last Thursday the President of the University and his wife
din ed with us and we had a very nice time. After dinner one of us always
reads a story. Words that happen to be mispronounced by any of us are always
discussed and looked up and we finally settle upon what is correct. So in
many ways I expect to get a great deal of benefit from this new club.

I am getting along very nicely in my work. I have taken up more than
I had to, and I expect to be as busy as I was last term.

I have heard bad news about Ida's eyes. Have they improved lately?
When does your mother and father expect to move to Webster?

Some time ago I sent for a Wellesley Catalouge; I received it a short
time ago, it gives the courses of study and several other interesting things.

I must close now.

Your loving cousin,

Walter.