From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
Something awful happened today but no one will tell me what. Grandfather didn’t come home for lunch and Grandmother stayed in her room and Aunt Tillie came to the table just to correct my table manners, because it was Alma’s day off. Aunt Tillie wouldn’t eat, thought I didn’t know why. I was glad to go back to school in the afternoon. The house felt so dreary, just like a picture I once saw of a tired old horse dragging a buggy through a dark street on a rainy day. Aunt Tillie called for me at school at three o’clock and took me to the park and let me ride on a very sweet donkey and she even let me go around three times. When we came home Grandfather was still not there and Grandmother was still in her room and I brought Sherry up to mine. Sometimes I love Sherry more than anyone in the world. At six o’clock I heard Grandfather come in the door and then the dinner gong rang. It was a horrible dinner, even with lamb chops and potatoes which I really love but there was such a silence in the room. Uncle Harry was there too but everyone’s eyes were looking at their plates and no one even attempted to talk. After dinner I went right up to my room and I went right to bed but I couldn’t sleep. I wondered for a long while, what had happened but I couldn’t imagine and so I got up, and I looked around the room. I found Alma’s squirrel tippet and I took it to bed with me and it made me feel comfortable and warm and I closed my eyes.
According to Wikipedia, “a tippet is is often any scarf-like wrap, usually made of fur.” We met Sherry (aka Scheherazade) the kitten in January diary entries. Although I don’t have a photo of Hilda on a donkey, we can imagine her in this photo from the same era from OpenSFHistory:
OpenSFHistory / wnp27.0373