nding life. "There are so many sickly
girls and women, Helen, you cannot be thankful enough for one of the
most beautiful of all things, health."

"I am thankful, mother. You know I never even had a headache. Isn't it
fine to be so well that you don't know what to do?"

Mrs. Douglas, however, had some serious thoughts of Helen, and at times
she was anticipating possible sorrow for this creature with the strength
and grace of some forest animal. Helen was careless and thoughtless in
many ways, selfish and arbitrary in the home circle, although in many
cases she was quickly penitent and ready to acknowledge her faults. She
was inclined to be very critical and openly judged everyone, from the
minister to her own father and mother. She was constantly calling Louis
to account for his failings, and one of Mrs. Douglas's daily crosses was
due to the habit Helen had of provoking Louis, partly in a spirit of
banter, partly because Louis offended the girl's nice feelings about
certain customs and courtesies in polite society. There were great
possibilities in Helen for a rich and rare womanhood, but many a hard
fight ahead for her in the overcoming, and many humiliations perhaps for
her sensitive soul before she reached the place of victory.

Louis was fifteen, just entered high school, a little backward with his
studies on account of trouble with his eyes and a nervous attack which
left him somewhat irritable and timid. He was an average boy, a great
lover of his mother and a hero-worshipper toward his father. He was a
handsome-looking boy who bade fair to develop into a business career of
some sort, but with doubtful habits which would be settled one way or
another as his nervous physical condition improved or grew worse. Paul
watched him closely and counselled much with Esther over Louis,
realising more as the boy grew that his case was one which called for
much wisdom and care.

Two months after Walter's departure his father received a letter from
him which he read aloud to Esther in the family circle. It was Paul's
custom to take the whole family into his confidence in all matters that
belonged to all, and the habit was one that strengthened the ties of
comradeship among them.

"Dear father and mother and all," Walter wrote, using a phrase common to
the Douglas children whenever they had been away from home. "I'm having
the time of my life at Burrton and thought you might like to hear about
it.

"There are about five