DIY History | Transcribe | World War I Diaries and Letters | Robert Morriss Browning correspondence to Mabel C. Williams, January-March 1918 | 1918-02-08 Robert M. Browning to Dr. Mabel C. Williams Page 1

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Robert Morriss Browning correspondence to Mabel C. Williams, January-March 1918

1918-02-08 Robert M. Browning to Dr. Mabel C. Williams Page 1

February 8, 1918
Dear Miss Williams,
I used to hope that someday I'd grow up. For a while I had almost kidded myself into thinking it had been accomplished. But it seems that it is at least an open question.
When you offered to lend me your binoculars, some childish pride or fierce feeling of independence made me dislike the thought of accepting them. After thinking about it a while I began to wish I had been less hasty in my decision. I know how you must feel about the glasses. They are something needed in the field and the government has already asked people to lend their glasses. Naturally you want to know who so to have charge of yours. And I can see how you would prefer them to be taken care of by someone you know rather than by an unknown person who might turn out to be some sort of a doggone hero who would take the glasses into places where they might be broken.
In case of captures, of course, one suffered to break glasses before murdering (?), if there's time, but that is a possibility few of us seriously consider.

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February 8, 1918 Dear Miss Williams, I used to hope that someday I'd grow up. For a while I had almost kidded myself into thinking it had been accomplished. But it seems that it is at least an open question. When you offered to lend me your binoculars, some childish pride or fierce feeling of independence made me dislike the thought of accepting them. After thinking about it a while I began to wish I had been less hasty in my decision. I know how you must feel about the glasses. They are something needed in the field and the government has already asked people to lend their glasses. Naturally you want to know who so to have charge of yours. And I can see how you would prefer them to be taken care of by someone you know rather than by an unknown person who might turn out to be some sort of a doggone hero who would take the glasses into places where they might be broken. In case of captures, of course, one suffered to break glasses before murdering (?), if there's time, but that is a possibility few of us seriously consider.