June 13, 1936-
     Last evening, Joseph Gilbert a boy of 15 from E. Aurora to visit me, an evening arranged by his officious mama, who thinks he has artistic talent! She being a member of Rev. Neeb’s other church, I could think of no loophole of escape. The prospects of being alone with a boy that age simply paralyzed me, and it’s a feeling I don’t quite understand. I can talk readily to small boys, under 10, and also think to these youths on my side of 20, but the adolescents! I am panic-stricken & tongue-tied. And they are with me, too. He was brought by a friend who was going to spend the evening in Buffalo, and when he said his friend would be quite late, I raged inwardly, and wondered, aghast, how we could put in the evening together. After I had showed him a picture or two I invented an excuse to go into the house, so I could confide lay the dilemma before Bertha. She offered the solution of inviting [Madylyn] over and getting up a little impromptu party, which plan was carried out. We spent the evening in cards & games, and the children at least had an (sic) hilarious time. The “friend” however did not show up until 2 o’clock, by which time we were not only tired & frazzled, but in a rage over the imposition
  Up late, and feeling nervous & irritable. A letter from F.K.M.R. to read which was like warming my hands at a cheerful fire-place.
     P.M. With W.W. to a bog he had told me about to find pitcher-plants. A rarely beautiful place, a new experience for me. The thick heavy moss was like springs under the