Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Sunday, Dec. 16, 1917 [December 16, 1917] Wea [Weather]
5 [degrees] Fine
Clear, cold, windless. Typical
mid-winter day. Streets encased in
smooth, hard-packed snow of
spotless white.
  Garden birds. 5 Starlings & a Gray Squirrel
in Parkman apple tree. 2 Blue Jays
screaming in Jungle & lilacs. About
30 House Sparrows tugging at bread
crusts in clothes yard. The cawing 
of a distant Crow heard faintly.
  Worked on Introduction & wrote
letters in forenoon. We had at
dinner Alice Stone & Evaline Purdie [Evelyn A. Purdie].
The latter reminded me that it was
her brother Henry's birth-day.
I left them at 3 P.M. to call at
the Fairchilds & there spent upwards
of an hour with mother & daughter.
Called at the Almays later to find 
only Mrs. A. & her grand-son, John
Biddle, at home. Half-hour talk
with C. [Caroline Brewster] after supper & after that
reading or the "Vicar" [The Vicar of Bullhampton], in hall.
Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Monday, Dec. 17, 1917 [December 17, 1917] Wea [Weather]
24 [degrees] max. Fair
Partly sunny, mostly cloudy. Scattered
snow flakes falling every now & then.
Continued frost.
  Garden birds. 12 Starlings & a White-throat
Sparrow [White-throated Sparrow] in Parkman's apple: Downy W. [Downy Woodpecker]
and Blue Jay in Jungle; Gold crest
heard just outside my study window.
  Thus far I have been trying to add
some fresh matter to Umbagog Preface
& Introduction. To-day was devoted
to revising sheets written six or eight
years ago. This proved an easier
task for comparatively few changes
are required. I am also encouraged
to find the literary quality of the
M.S. rather better than I had remembered
it. My inclination now is to have
it published soon if this can be
arranged for in these ominous times.
  Nuttall Club meeting which I 
attended. Only 3 others came. The rest
presumably at Boston Society listening to
Mc.Millan. We put through some routine
matters & had a pleasant talk.