You cannot but know the honor and respect with which the teachers look up to you, and how we are trying to reach something like the high standard which you have attained; but I wonder if you realize the love which your pupils have for you. Some of them come into my room every day at the close of school for an hour's uninterrupted study and I am going to tell you some of the things which they have said to me about you. "Mr. Putney is such a lovable man." "I thought I should be afraid of him, but he makes us feel he is interested in us and I don't feel one bit afraid even though he does know so much." "He is full of fun too. There is no one in the class who sees anything funny quicker than he." "I am so glad he is in the school while I am here. I shall always feel it to have been a great privilege to have had him for a teacher."
And I want to say that I, too, feel it to be a great privilege to be in the school with you and to have felt your quiet presence and to have known your ready sympathy and interest. May the coming year be a happy one.
Very sincerely yours,
Harriet Towne.
One of the "Boys of Seventy-Six"
He's just a Boy, a Lively Boy,
Who notes no years, I ween;
He might be six and seventy, or
He might be "sweet sixteen."