NEW YEAR’S EVE!

We all stayed up late and played parlour games – Prussian Exercises; He Said, She Said; The Learned Pig &c &c – then Papa made a big bowl of punch and we drank a toast. Frederick demanded to have more punch, even though he is a mere infant, and Mama denounced him for his prodigious and unnatural appetite. We danced, after a fashion – for there is hardly any room, even with the furniture dragged to one side – with Fanny playing all sorts of jolly and lively stuff on the piano. Papa, yet again, attempted to teach Harriet how to waltz; and both ended up in a heap on the floor.

When the church bells finally struck midnight, Pa kissed Mama – on the lips! – and there was a great deal of whooping outside as a group of lively young fellows came running down the street, rapping on all the knockers, shouting ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR’ and singing the chorus to ‘Sally is my Sweetheart’ (‘Sally is my Sweetheart, Sall-oo, Sall-ee, Sall-ay!’). 

What larks!

One o’clock a.m.

I hope those fellows will go away quite soon or, at least, learn another song. 

Half past one o’clock a.m.

“SALL-OO! SALL-EE! SALL-AY!”