ou, in your turn, are proving helpful to others,
is indeed a great gratification. God bless, strengthen, and keep
you, my darling, through this new year, is your loving mother's
prayer.

"It almost seems to me that we miss you more and more as time
goes. Phil counts the weeks now until you come home, and I found
the little ones busy doing a long sum on their slates, which,
when they brought to me to see if it was right, I saw was to
ascertain first, how many days before you came, and then, how
many hours. Bennie told me that to-morrow they were to calculate
the minutes, and then the seconds. I suppose they have, for I
see them studying the clock very often, particularly the minute
hand.

"So you see how we miss and long for you at home.

"Your father is busier than ever. He is truly a workman of whom
his Master need not to be ashamed. He keeps well and happy.
Deacon Simonds came in last night to ask him to have some extra
meetings, as the Methodists were going to have an evangelist
here, and might draw away people from his church; but your
father said in his gentle way, 'The parish was not too large as
yet for him to do all the work required, and if any of his
people could be benefited by the evangelist, and should wish to
unite with that church, he should wish them Godspeed.' Then the
deacon said something about the difficulty of raising the
salary, which I minded more than your father. What a good,
trusting man he is! Mrs. Hoppen ran in this noon with a large
tin pan full of delicious doughnuts she had fried for us, and
Hetty Sprague put two pumpkin-pies into my pantry window. Not a
day passes but we are cared for in some way. I laugh, for it
looks as if they thought now you are gone there was no one left
to prepare goodies for the home. Tim Knowles dumped a load of
coal into our cellar when your father was away, then came to the
kitchen door and said,--

"'Mis' Parke, you tell the parson if he'll keep up the fire of
religion in the church, I'll keep it up in his study stove, and
it sha'n't cost him a copper cent. We all d'ought to have ways
of sarving the Lord, and this 'ere is mine.' Then he hurried
away, without giving me a chance to even say 'Thank you.'

"Sometimes it seems to me as if our whole parish felt as if you
belonged to them, and they had sent you away to school, and were
to pay your expenses, they are so wonderfully