Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Thursday, Dec. 20, 1917 [December 20, 1917] Wea [Weather]
38 [degrees] max. Fair
Forenoon cloudy, afternoon sunny.
Calm & warm all day, the snow
melting rapidly.
  Garden birds. A Chickadee and
about a dozen House Sparrows
were all I noticed. The Starlings
must have been thoroughly 
frightened by the stuffed Cat for
not one of them has been seen
about the place since we put
her in the Parkman apple tree,
for only an hour or so yesterday
afternoon.
  Worked from 10.30 A.M.
to past noon and from 2.30 to
6 P.M., on my Introduction. It
continues to hang fire depressingly.
Walking up Brattle Street at 12.30 I
overtook Miss Kate Horsford. Together we
kept on as far as Elmwood & thence
back to Sparks Street. She had much of
interest to tell me, especially concerning
her sisters & their children.
C. [Caroline Brewster] spent evening in lower hall, listening
to reading of the Vicar [The Vicar of Bullhampton].

Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Friday, Dec. 21, 1917 [December 21, 1917] Wea [Weather]
Fair
Partly sunny, mostly cloudy. Very mild.
No wind whatever.
  Garden birds. 3 Chickadees at suet;
a White-throat [White-throated Sparrow] among rhododendrons;
a Crow heard cawing & a Jay screaming.
3 Purple Finches, a handsome red male
and two birds in pl. [female plumage], eating berries
of Parkman apple or rather the seeds
which they contain; House Sparrows,
to the number of a dozen or more,
flitting to & fro in the lilacs carrying
fragments of bread crusts.
  Spent most of day in Museum
working on Introduction & making some
progress. The large Azalea bush in
front window there put out one blossom
yesterday & three to-day. I must have been
had it no less than ten years.
  The annual Christmas exercises at
Miss Thompson's school to-day. We could
not go but she & her chorus serenaded us
to-night with Christmas carols as is their
delightful custom. 18 of them came up the
driveway under the window of the Peace
Room where C. [Caroline Brewster] & I listened as they sang thrice. We had a row of lighted candles there.