first day we met, and always shall. Do you blame me because I
write so freely? I should be unworthy of you if I did not tell
you the whole truth. Oh, Laura, can you love me in return?
I am sure I shall not be able to bear it if your answer is
unfavorable. I will study your every wish if you will give
me the right to do so. May I hope? Send just one kind word to
your sincere friend.

HARRY SMITH.

_13.--A Lover's Good-bye Before Starting on a Journey._

Pearl St., New York, March 11th, 1894.

My Dearest Nellie: I am off to-morrow, and yet not altogether,
for I leave my heart behind in your gentle keeping. You need
not place a guard over it, however, for it is as impossible
that it should stay away, as for a bit of steel to rush from a
magnet. The simile is eminently correct for you, my dear girl,
are a magnet, and my heart is as true to you as steel. I shall
make my absence as brief as possible. Not a day, not an hour,
not a minute, shall I waste either in going or returning. Oh,
this business; but I wont complain, for we must have something
for our hive besides honey--something that rhymes with it--and
that we must have it, I must bestir myself. You will find me
a faithful correspondent. Like the spider, I shall drop a line
by (almost) every post; and mind, you must give me letter for
letter. I can't give you credit. Your returns must be prompt
and punctual.

Passionately yours,
LEWIS SHUMAN.

To Miss Nellie Carter,
No. -- Fifth Avenue, New York.

_14.--From an Absent Lover._

Chicago, Ill., Sept. 10, 1915

My Dearest Kate: This sheet of paper, though I should cover
it with loving words, could never tell you truly how I long
to see you again. Time does not run on with me now at the
same pace as with other people; the hours seem days, the days
weeks, while I am absent from you, and I have no faith in the
accuracy of clocks and almanacs. Ah! if there were truth in
clairvoyance, wouldn't I be with you at this moment! I wonder
if you are as impatient to see me as I am to fly to you?
Sometimes it seems as if I must leave business and every
thing else to the Fates, and take the first train to Dawson.
However, the hours do move, though they don't appear to, and
in a few more weeks we shall meet again. Let me hear from you
as frequently as pos