Letters from Skye Read Online Free PDF Page B

and mortarboard. That proud sapling next to me is Paulie. Both the tree and I have (amazingly!) made it through the year!
    Isle of Skye
    7 July 1913
    Dear David,
    You look so exuberant! I don’t know who looks prouder or straighter—you or the tree. I’m glad things are going so well for you.
    Your niece sounds delightful, and you are lucky to be able to see her as often as you do. My brother Alasdair died several years ago, and his widow moved to Edinburgh with their children. I haven’t seen Chrissie or my niece or nephews since then. My two other brothers, Finlay and Willie, are still living at home, so no children forthcoming there (at least, Màthair hopes not!), although Finlay has a girl I think he’s quite serious about, so it may not be long. Kate’s a sweet thing; we are all crossing our fingers.
    Now that you aren’t going on to medical school, what are you doing to fill your time? Have you joined up with the Ballets Russes yet? Learned to play the cornet? Started writing the Great American Novel?
    I’m sure it’s much easier to have a sweetheart now that your evenings aren’t full of studying. You say that Lara attends university. Is that usual for American women? All of the girls I went to school with thought of nothing more than getting married, picking out curtains, and basically emptying their heads of ten or twelve years’ worth of lessons. They thought I was as mad as a March hare for even wanting to read a book not on the suggested school curriculum, let alone wanting to attend university.
       Elspeth
    Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
    July 27, 1913
    Dear Sue,
    No, I haven’t joined the Ballet Russes. To be honest, I’m not sure what to do next. I suppose there was something very neat and reassuring about having my future planned out by my father. I’ve been looking in the newspaper at the jobs available, wondering what it is I might want to do. I’m not even sure which direction to take. My mother thinks it is very undignified for me to be looking to the newspaper for career options and has been discreetly asking at her bridge parties to see if anything “respectable” comes up.
    No, I don’t think it is very usual for women to go to college. There were female students at the University of Illinois but not many of them, especially not in biology. Even though they were attending college, they seemed to limit themselves to feminine courses of study, like modern languages, literature, home economics. Not a geologist among them, I’m afraid!
       David
    Isle of Skye
    14 August 1913
    Dear boy,
    Why is it that things such as languages and literatures are “feminine” courses of study? No censure to you, David. I know you were repeating a universal truth—albeit a questionable one.We are in an age where women work in professions previously prohibited. Although there still aren’t many, women have proven themselves competent as doctors, scientists, businesswomen. Now that the doors are open, why aren’t more women rushing to gain entrance? Instead, they are settling down, saying, “Who wants to win the Nobel Prize like Marie Curie? It will be much more satisfying to learn how to dress a roast chicken.” Of course, everyone is welcome to their interests, and perhaps there are women who truly desire to learn nothing more than chicken-dressing or home economics. But why is a woman who has studied chemistry or geology less fit as a helpmeet than a woman who has studied literature? I’m not a suffragette, but when it comes to the topic of women and education, I do get irate.
       Elspeth
    Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
    September 4, 1913
    Dear Sue,
    At long last, I am gainfully employed! I’ve got myself a job teaching biology and chemistry at a private school right here in Chicago. Lara says that, before the term is out, all of the girls will be in love with me and all of the boys will want to be my pals.
    I don’t have a good answer as to why some areas of study are designated as