GAMBIER, February 7, 1842.

  MY DEAR SISTER:-

I feel a good deal "stuck up" today, for I have got my hair cut, my peaked-toed boots blacked, and my t'other new brindle-colored pants on. And, what is still more surprising, I have my face washed and a clean collar on. It is a hard matter for me to "slick up" here for everybody notices it.

It's an unusual thing for me. The bell-ringer, a first rate fellow he is, too, says I am the only fellow in college who has dressed as poor as him this winter. He feels grateful to me, for he says whenever the common loafers ridicule him he could always point to one who was worse off than him. I have worn my sorrel overcoat every day. You know how gracefully its folds wind about my form when I have no other coat on. My cowhide boots, not having been greased often, gradually acquire a yellow hue from sympathy with the coat.  As for my old pants, they have been put on such a marvellous short allowance of buttons that it seems quite miraculous that they should be induced to stay on.

I need not go into any particulars about the total absence of shirt buttons and whole stockings, for enough has been said to show you that in the present condition of my wardrobe it is something of an undertaking to put on my "tothers," and of course should not be attempted without some powerful causes are in operation.

                             Your brother,

  MRS. W. A. PLATT.                               R. B. HAYES.