all celebrated the day in Yankee
fashion and got up those abominations--mince pies. When I told L. about
----'s fourth marriage, he said it reminded him of a place he had
seen, where a man lay buried in the midst of a lot of women, the sole
inscription on his gravestone being "Our Husband." Mrs. ---- says the
tiffs between my Katy and her husband are exactly like those she had
with hers, and Mrs. ---- said very much the same thing--after hearing
which, I gave up.

Tell A. I had a call yesterday from Mrs. S----, who came to town to
spend Thanksgiving at her father's, and fell upon my neck and ate me up
three several times. I tell you what it is, it's nice to have people
love you, whether you deserve it or not, and this warm-hearted,
enthusiastic creature really did me good. Dr. Skinner sent us an
extraordinary book to read called "God's Furnace." There is a good deal
of egotism in it and self-consciousness, and a good deal of genuine
Christian experience. I read it through four times, and, when I carried
it back and was discussing it with him, he said he had too. It seems
almost incredible that a wholly sanctified character could publish such
a book, made up as it is of the author's own letters and journal and
most sacred joys and sorrows; but perhaps when I get sanctified I
shall go to printing mine--it really seems to be a way they have. The
Hitchcocks sailed yesterday, and it must have cheered them to set forth
on so very fine a day. Give my love to everybody straight through from
Hal up to your husband and Mr. H.

_Later_.--Of course, my letters to A. are virtually to you, too, as far
as you can be interested in the little details of which they are made
up. Randolph showed George a letter about Katy, which he says beats
anything we have heard yet, which is saying a good deal. One lady said
Earnest was _exactly_ like her husband, another that he was _painfully_
so; indeed, many sore hearts are making such confessions. So I begin to
think there is even more sorrowfulness and unrest in the world than I
thought there was. You would get sick unto death of the book if I
should tell a quarter of what we hear about it, good and bad. It quite
refreshed me to hear that a young lady wanted to punch me.

Craig's Life is very touching. His delight in Christ and in close
fellowship with Him is beautiful; but it is painful to see that dying
man wandering about Europe alone, when he ought to have been breathing
out his life in th