p
between her and me, and I was moved to forgive her the, in many respects,
grovelling tendencies of her nature. I even ascended occasionally to her
room on the fourth floor to shock her with my sentiments, when there was
nothing livelier going on.

She wrote:--

"MY DEAR S----: Are you still perfectly happy, as you used to try to
have me think you were always--the old restlessness, the better
longings unsatisfied, do they never come up again? [That was Mary's
insidious way of stating a difficulty.] Don't you believe you would
be happier to _do_ something in real earnest? Something for people
_outside_, I mean. [I flushed a little at that. An insinuation of
that sort can't be put too delicately.] I have tried to imagine how
the proposal I am going to make will strike you--but never mind. I
am teaching, you know, in Kedarville. I leave here, at the close of
the term, for another field of labor, and now I want you to apply
for the Kedarville school. Yes, it is a remote, poverty-stricken
place. It contains no society, no church, no library, not even a
little country store! It would seem to you, I dare say, like going
back to the half-barbarous conditions of life. The people are simple
and kind-hearted; but they need training--oh, how much!--physically,
mentally, and morally. I can assure you, here is scope for the most
daring missionary enterprise, and you,--I believe that you could do
it if you would. Consider the matter seriously; consult with your
friends about it, and if you do decide to try the experiment, write
as legibly as you possibly can to the Superintendent of Schools,
Farmouth, Mass., stating your qualifications, etc."

The idea struck me with such strange and immediate favor that I quite
forbore to consult with my friends in regard to it. I resolved to go on
the instant, and wrote my friend Mary to that effect, congratulating
her, with an undercurrent of mischievous intention, on having been the
happy means of setting my powers drifting in the right direction at
last; and reproached her gently with having seemed to imply, once, in
her letter, some occult reason why I had not been regarded, heretofore
as specially designed to work in the cause of missions, whereas I had
always felt myself drifting inevitably towards that end.

I wrote to the Superintendent of the Farmouth schools. But here I had an
earnest purpose to serve,