wever, gave him a simple
remedy which soon cured it permanently."

"From whom is the letter that you are reading, Ida?" inquired
Gabrielle, putting up her father's biography in a bookcase; "does it
contain a request for a loan of $500, or is it an offer of a home in a
Christian family?"

"Neither, for once," answered Ida. "It is from _The Tribune_ office,
and contains a slip cut from the Omaha _Bee_, headed, 'Horace Greeley
upon Girls.' It appears that a lady, Miss Hewes, who did not know papa
personally, wrote to him to ask if he recollected his first
school-house, and a former playmate of his, named Reuben Nichols, whose
acquaintance Miss Hewes had just made. Here is papa's answer, dated
Washington, 1856. Let me read it to you, Aunt Esther, and tell me if
you think it is genuine."

"'MISS HEWES:--As I do not know you, and am little interested in any
but a part of your letter, you will allow me, in my terrible
hurry--having two days' work that ought to be done to-day, while I must
leave at evening for a journey to our Pittsburg Convention--to speak
only of that.

"'I very well remember the red school-house in which I first began to
learn (the paint was worn off long since, and it was very far from red
when I last saw it); I remember the Nichols children, who lived, just
below the school-house, in a large house. But I was very young then,
and I do not make out a clear mental picture of Reuben Nichols. I
think he must have been considerably older than I. But I recollect one
Aseneth Nichols, one of two girls not much older than I, whom I thought
very pretty, so that while I was a very good speller, and so one of the
two at the head of the first class in spelling, who were entitled to
"choose sides" for a spelling match; I used to begin by choosing these
two pretty girls who couldn't spell hokee to save their souls. Well,
this was found not to answer; I knew enough to spell but not to choose
sides; so the _role_ had to be altered, and the two next to the one at
the head had the honor of "choosing sides." Ask Mr. Nichols if he had
a sister Aseneth, and if he remembers any such nonsense as this. My
kind regards to him.

"'Yours,

"'HORACE GREELEY.'"

"I don't believe," said Gabrielle, "that papa ever wrote that letter."

"It does not sound much like him," rejoined Marguerite, "with the
exception of 'Yours, Horace Greeley'; what do you think, mamma?"

"The letter is characteristic," was mamma's reply