From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
February 28, 1912:
Sancha is here. She looks like a mouse, all mousy brown hair, furry, with spindly legs. When Grandmother brought her into my room, I put my hand out politely, the way Alma taught me to do, and said, “I am very glad to know you.” She said “Ich verstehen kein Englisch.” I was so mad because I knew that it was a lie so I said “Leide, ich vestehe kein Deutsch.” Grandmother screeched, the way she always does, “Why! Hilda, how can you say such things?” Of course, I suppose I told a lie too. Then she said that Sancha and I would have dinner in my room so the two of us could get to know each other and I should show her all my books and toys and do everything she told me to or I would be severely punished. Of course I am not afraid of being punished because Grandfather never lets anyone really punish me. So Sancha and I had dinner together in German.
February 29, 1912:
Sancha doesn’t know how to play make believe like Alma does. This afternoon it was raining, so she brought out a big basket of stockings and said that I was old enough to learn to darn my own. So I said, “Let’s pretend I’m a princess locked up in a tower and I have to have all these stockings darned by five o’clock or I’ll be put in a dark dungeon.” She said that I was silly, that I wasn’t a princess and I wasn’t in a tower and there is no dungeon and I didn’t have to finish the stockings by any time at all. So then the fun was gone, like magic, and only the stockings stayed.