ou are too tired to pray for me otherwise.

I have been writing this in my shawl and bonnet, expecting every instant
to hear the bell toll for church, and now it is time to go. Good-bye,
dear, till by and by.

Well, I have been and come, and--wonder of wonders!--I have had a little
tiny bit of a very much needed nap. Mr. Pratt gave us a really good
sermon about living to Christ, and I enjoyed the hymns. We have had a
talk, my John and I, about death, and I asked him which of us had better
go first, and, to my surprise, he said he thought _I_ should. I am sure
that was noble and unselfish in him. But I am not going to have even a
wish about it. God only knows which had better go first, and which stay
and suffer. Some of His children _must_ go into the furnace to testify
that the Son of God is there with them; I do not know why I should
insist on not being one of them. Sometimes I almost wish we were not
building a house. It seems as if it might stand in the way, if it should
happen I had a chance to go to heaven. I should almost feel mean to do
that, and disappoint my husband who expects to see me so happy there.
But oh, I do so long to be perfected myself, and to live among those
whose one thought is Christ, and who only speak to praise Him!

I like you to tell me, as you do in your East Dorset letter, how you
spend your time, etc. I have an insatiable curiosity about even the
outer life of those I love; and of the inner one you can not say too
much. Good-bye. We shall have plenty of time in heaven to say all we
have to say to each other.

* * * * *

III.

Return to Town. Death of an old Friend. Letters and Notes of Love and
Sympathy. An Old Ladies' Party. Scenes of Trouble and Dying Beds. Fifty
Years old. Letters.

Her return to town brought with it a multitude of cares. The following
months drew heavily upon her strength and sympathies; but for all that
they were laden with unwonted joy. The summer at Dorset had been a very
happy one. While there she had finished _Stepping Heavenward_ and on
coming back to her city home, the cheery, loving spirit of the book
seemed still to possess her whole being. Katy's words at its close were
evidently an expression of her own feelings:

Yes, I love everybody! That crowning joy has come to me at last. Christ
is in my soul; He is mine; I am as conscious of it as that my husband
and children are mine; and His Spirit flows forth from mine in t