BR TO CÉLESTE KOHLER, 12 MAY 1930
BRACERS 1833. TL(CAR). McMaster
Proofread by K. Blackwell

12th May    0.1

Dear Celeste,

Thank you for your letter of May 6th. I gather that Betty is quite willing to take charge of Jackie during the summer in any Continent that suits your fancy at the moment. She is, as I think you know, not coming back here next term.

I am rather stumped trying to think of some child to spend the summer with Jackie. The one that she would like is Billy, but I think it is pretty certain that his father will want him, and he certainly will want his father if he can go to him, as he is passionately devoted to him. The only alternative is Judith, who is much younger than Jackie and rather of the doll type, very pleasant to elderly gentlemen the first time they see her, but less so to women who see her every day. I do not know whether her mother would be prepared to do without her next holidays, and I am pretty sure that Jackie would lead her a hell of a life. Philanthropy towards the weak is perhaps not Jackie’s strongest point.

With regard to faults of honour, cheating at cards, and so forth, I am as puzzled as you are. I find the children almost without exception totally destitute of any sense of honour. I have tried to cultivate a sense of the sacredness of promises by carefully selected stories in history, such as that of Regulus. I have tried also to explain that it is inconvenient not to be believed, which inevitablya happens if one tells lies, and I have tried to make this inconvenience visible in some practical emergency. But I think that at some stage or another it is necessary to have a serious talk, the sort of thing that when I was a boy myself I called a “pie jaw”. I think in the case of Jackie and games of cards, I should, if I were you, refuse to play with her if she cheats, but I quite agree that the whole question is very difficult.

There is no reason why she should not come back here as soon as she is no longer infectious. I assume that on June 7th she will be free from infection. If that is so, we shall hope to have you arrive with her here a day or two after that.

We have no objection whatever to having a puppy added to our live stock here. If he is of2 a breed that will go for rabbits, he will even be useful.

Sorry you are being disappointed about South America. Everything here is running as smoothly as clockwork, which is fortunate as I have been ill ever since the beginning of term.

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