Cambridge.
Ther [Thermometer] Saturday, Feb. 3, 1917 [February 3, 1917] Wea [Weather]
0 [degrees], 8 [degrees] Rupture with Germany. Fine
Clear & cold. Strong northerly wind.
Altogether the bitterest winter day
thus far.
  Garden birds so few in number &
variety that all I noted were a
White-throated Sparrow & half a dozen
House sparrows seen & a Jay heard
screaming.
  It has come at last - the long
anticipated, prudently delayed, rupture 
of diplomatic relations with Germany.
Her ambassador, von Bernstoff, was
handed his passports to-day & our
President explained why in an address
to the House of R [U.S. House of Representatives] at 2 P.M. News of
this did not reach us until the
Transcript came this evening but the
morning papers foreshadowed it.
I spent part of the forenoon reading
them & afterwards worked on Goose &
Guinea-hen story. Reading aloud of the
Transcript by E. [Elizabeth R. Simmons] occupied most of our
evening.

Cambridge.
Ther [Thermometer] Sunday, Feb. 4, 1917 [February 4, 1917] Wea [Weather]
Fine
Brilliantly clear with crisp, dry air,
gradually rising temperature, moderate
northerly wind - just such a day, in
fact, as so often ends a "cold snap", 
to be followed by compatively [comparatively] mild
weather and commonly by snow or rain,
also.
  Garden birds. A Downy Woodpecker ([male])
in birch grove, a Crow heard cawing
and a Jay screaming. Perhaps a few
House Sparrows but I do not remember
seeing any.
  Walked down Brattle St. with C. [Caroline Brewster] just
after breakfast leaving her at Mrs. Sawyer's.
Stopped for a few minutes to see Lizzy Fuller
on way back. Next absorbed for an hour or
more in Sunday papers. Then wrote a long 
letter to Ruthven Deane. Barely finished it
in for dinner. Our guests Alice Allyn,
Mrs. Mc.Daniel & Miss Wood. A Victrola concert
promised them but I could not give it because
of acute neuralgia which forced me to spend
afternoon in darkened chamber thereby missing
seeing Mr. Leverett & Dick Dana [Richard H. Dana] whom C. [Caroline Brewster]
entertained. Usual evening reading by E.R.S. [Elizabeth R. Simmons].