Monday, February 9, 1863.
up here for some time on a Sunday evening very fine day Nellie was up this afternoon an staid untill i went to school no teacher yet or any Prospects
Tuesday 10
of any John an Sue has make up again i have bin sick all day did not go to meeting Poor lizzie is sick Nellie was here i wrote to read
Wednesday 11
ing [Reading] very Pleasent this morning Mary was up to see me Father is not well Nell and Sue stoped it has bin snowing
Annotation 1
The regularity of Emilie’s references to being sick or feeling ill suggests that the diarist might be referring to her menstrual cycle. “Some Victorian adolescents made brief comments in their diaries to being ‘unwell’ or they repeated a pattern of cryptic marks, such as X’s, every twenty-eight to thirty days,” historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg found in her extensive study of girls’ diaries, “but most said nothing at all.” Brumberg, The Body Project, xxvii.