hat the Blessed
Spirit must have influenced you in the writing of it, and I doubt not
His blessing will accompany its teachings.

Now will you excuse this blotty letter--written in bed--and accept my
thanks for all the good your book has done me.

The following is her reply:

DEAR MR. CADY:--Your letter afforded me more satisfaction than I know
how to explain. It is true that I made up my mind, as a very young girl,
to keep out of the way of literary people, so as to avoid literary
ambition. Nor have I regretted that decision. Yet the human nature is
not dead in me, and my instincts still crave the kind of recognition
you have given me. I have had heaps of letters from all parts of this
country, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland, about my
books, till I have got sick and tired of them. And the reason I tired of
them was, that in most cases there was no discrimination. People liked
their religious character, and of course I wanted them to do so. But you
appreciate and understand everything in Greylock, and have, therefore,
gratified my husband and myself. Not a soul out of this house, for
instance, has ever so much as alluded to my little Eric, except one
friend who said, "We thought that part of the book forced, and supposed
A. wrote it." Nobody has ever alluded to Margaret, save yourself.
I hoped a sequel to the book might be called for, when I meant to
elaborate her character. Still, it would have been very hard.... I am
not sorry that I chose the path in life I did choose. A woman should not
live for, or even desire, fame. This is yet more true of a Christian
woman. If I had not steadily suppressed all such ambition, I might have
become a sour, disappointed woman, seeing my best work unrecognised. But
it has been my wish to

"Dare to be little and unknown,
Seen and loved by God alone."

Your letter for a few hours, did stir up what I had always trampled
down; but only for that brief period, and then I said to myself, God has
only taken me at my word; I have asked Him, a thousand times, to make me
smaller and smaller, and crowd the self out of me by taking up all the
room Himself. There is so much of that work yet to be done, that I
wonder He ventures to make so many lines fall to me in pleasant places,
and that I have such a goodly heritage. I trust He will bless you for
your labor of love to me.

I do not like the idea of your buying my books. Greylock being for
mothers, I never dreamed