any flocked to Trinity Church that the pews
would not hold them. Chairs were packed in the aisles, and a few more
people managed to hear him by squeezing on to the pulpit steps.

Phillips Brooks's sermons were wonderful, but his work among the sick
and the poor was more wonderful still. He carried help and good cheer
with him every day. The more good he did, the happier he grew himself.
His laugh rang out like a boy's. By the time he was made Bishop, he was
so merry that he could hardly contain himself. He helped poor men find
work; he held sick children while their mothers rested; he coaxed young
men away from bad habits, and, like his Master, he went about doing
good. He did not look sober or bothered with all this, either. There was
always a smile on his face.

Phillips Brooks had no wife or children but several nieces. At his home,
on Clarendon Street, he kept a doll, a music-box, and many toys for them
to play with. Every little while, when he was all tired out with his
preaching and his cheering-up work, he would take a long trip to some
distant country, and from all these strange places he would write
letters to these nieces which made them nearly explode with laughter
when their mothers read them aloud. All the funny sights in Venice were
described, and the stories about the children in India made the eyes of
Susie and Gertrude Brooks open their widest. At the end of almost every
letter he would charge the little girls "not to forget their Uncle
Phillips." As if any one who had ever known Bishop Brooks _could_ forget
him! But Christmas time was the best of all for these little girls.
Their uncle Phillips took them right along with him to buy the presents
for the whole family. This would be weeks and weeks before it was time
for Santa Claus, so he would make them promise not to lisp a word of
what was in the packages that arrived at the rectory. They loved sharing
secrets with him and would not have told one for any money. That was a
strange thing about Phillips Brooks--he made people trust-worthy. He
always believed the best of every one, and no one wanted to disappoint
him.

Sometimes when the girls and their uncle started on one of these
entrancing shopping tours, it did seem as if they would never reach the
shops. So many passers-by wanted a word with the great preacher they
had to halt every other minute. I have no doubt his smile was as sunny
for the Irish scrub-woman who hurried after him to ask a favor