Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Monday, Dec. 16, 1918 [December 16, 1918] Wea [Weather]
Dull.
For six consecutive days including
this there has been no ray of
sunlight, however dim & fleeting.
But even beneath such ever-lowering
skies it is good to see green grass
again and to feel no piercing cold.
Garden birds: Crows cawing not far off.
A Sparrow that looked like a Tree Sparrow,
but could not certainly be identified as
one because I had no glass at hand,
was eating seed thrown out in our
clothes yard.
To day has been passed like all
the rest of late i.e. in reading, writing
letters & napping by an open fire
in the Den. Gilbert [Robert A. Gilbert] motored to
Concord, bringing back 4 Christmas
pines for our front hall & the Cobb-Fullers
& 5 fresh-laid hen eggs - our first; also
bags of rye, cracked corn & corn meal.
Miss Balsh dined with us. E.R.S. [Elizabeth R. Simmons]
read to me from Transcript after supper
Messengers from office with cheques for me to sign.

Cambridge
Ther [Thermometer] Tuesday, Dec. 17, 1918 [December 17, 1918] Wea [Weather]
36 [degrees] max. Mixed
After continuing obscured by heavy
clouds all the forenoon the sun
reappeared, for the first time in upwards
of six days, and shone brightly through
most of the afternoon. A light, cool
northerly wind.
  Garden birds. 3 Crows perched in 
Hubbard Park, 3 Chickadees flitting
together through our old lilacs just 
before sunset.
  This day spent by me like so many
of those proceeding it, ie in the house
Den, writing letters, reading the
newspaper etc. More than this could
not well be accomplished for the cold
still lingers distressingly & my eyes
are so troublesome that they will not
serve me continuously for more than
an hour or two at any one time.
E.R.S. busy getting off Christmas
things. She read to me as usual this eve.
I offered a dozen wreaths made by George
to Mrs. Weston for St. Johns & am to [?]
them there on Monday.