twinkling of an eye, Dr. Buck says he would
have died. He would certainly have died if he had been at Dorset. He has
never recovered his strength, but is able to give his lectures. Although
I did very little nursing, I got a good deal run down, especially from
losing sleep, and have had to go to bed at half-past eight or nine all
summer and thus far in the winter.

I am taking lessons this winter in oil-painting with A. She has the
advantage of me in having had lessons in drawing, while I have had none.
My teacher says she never had a beginner do better than I, so I think
beginners very awkward mortals, who get paint all over their clothes,
hands and faces, and who, if they get a pretty picture, know in the
secrecy of their guilty consciences it was done by a compassionate
artist who would fain persuade one into the fancy that the work was
one's own.

What you say about my having done you good surprises me. Whatever
treasure God has in me is hidden in an earthen vessel and unseen by my
own eyes.... I feel every day how much there is to learn, how much to
unlearn, and that no genuine experience is to be despised. Some people
roundly berate Christians for want of faith in God's word, when it is
want of faith in their own private interpretation of His word. I think
that when the very best and wisest of mankind get to heaven, they'll get
a standard of holiness that might make them blush; only it is not likely
they _will_ blush.

In the latter part of this year _Urbane and His Friends_ appeared.
Urbane is an aged pastor and his Friends are members of his flock, whom
he had invited to meet him from week to week for Christian counsel and
fellowship. Some of their names, Antiochus, Hermes, Junia, Claudia,
Apelles and the like, sound rather strange, but, together with those
more familiar, they are all borrowed from the New Testament.

_Urbane and His Friends_ is the only book of a didactic sort written by
Mrs. Prentiss. It is not, however, wholly didactic, but contains also
touches of narrative and character that add to its interest. Among the
topics discussed are: The Bible, Temptation, Faith, Prayer, the Mystics,
"The Higher Christian Life," Service, Pain and Sorrow, Peace and Joy,
and the Indwelling Christ. She was dissatisfied with the work and
required some persuasion before she would consent to its being
published. But its spiritual tone, its tenderness, its "sweet
reasonableness," and the bright little pictures of Chr