Record-breaking cold. Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Sunday, Dec. 30, 1917 [Sunday 30, 1917] Wea [Weather]
-16 [degrees] + 2 [degrees] Coldest weather on record here. Fine.
Brilliantly clear with light northerly
wind. C. [Caroline Brewster] read her thermometer, outside
dressing room window (2nd story facing E [east])
-16 [degrees] at day break. Mine on lower
back piazza (open to N. [north]) had registered
exactly the same but when I first saw
it about 8.30 A.M. was at -10 [degrees].
The highest point it reached all day was
+2 [degrees] at 1.30 P.M. I cannot
remember that the temperature has
ever before within my time fallen
lower than -13º & that record dates
back far into the past. Although
Percy has kept most of our house
comfortable by faithful attention to the
furnace (we are using only the larger one
this winter) & the open wood fires, we
had water pipes frozen in four 
places this morning.
  Garden birds. 2 Chickadees coming
to suet; 2 Starlings eating P. apples [Parkman apples];
several House Sparrows; one Crow.
  Wrote letters in forenoon. Miss Allyn
& the Cobb-Fullers at dinner. After it
C. joined us by hall fire & spent two
hours there while E.R.S. [Elizabeth R. Simmons] read aloud.

Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Monday, Dec. 31, 1917 [December 31, 1917] Wea [Weather]
-9 [degrees] +6 [degrees] Fine
Although the sun shone bright from
a cloudless sky fully through almost
perfectly windless air the rays did
not avail to raise the temperature
more than six degrees about zero mark
Our water pipes froze again in
several places last night and
in the china closet a lead pipe
cracked open when thawed this
morning. Similar damage has
occurred throughout Cambridge, tis said.
The ground continues thinly but
uniformly covered with icy snow
or snowy ice.
  Garden birds. 6 Chickadees visiting
suet and flitting through Jungle;
2 Starlings in Parkman apple tree;
a dozen or more House Sparrows.
White throat [White-throated Sparrow] back again & chirping
loudly in the lilacs.
  Spent day in Museum working on
short article - for Bird Lore perhaps)
C. [Caroline Brewster] spent evening with us in lower hall
where we had a Victrola concert. I went early
to bed, so missed hearing midnight clamor.