she asked,
"Have you brought the baby to be christened?"

I said, No, I thought it would be better to wait till she was a little
older.

"O, no!" she pleaded, "do let us take her over to the church now. The
younger the better, I think; it is so uncertain about our keeping such
treasures."

I still objected that I had not dressed the little one for so public an
occasion.

"O, never mind about that," she said. "She is really lovelier in this
simple fashion than to be loaded with lace and embroidery." Then, her
sweet face growing more earnest,--"There will be more of us here to-day
than at the next communion--_more of us to pray for her._"

The little lamb was taken into the fold that day, and I was Mrs.
Prentiss' warm friend forevermore. Her whole beautiful character had
revealed itself to me in that little interview,--the quick perception,
the wholly frank, unconventional manner, the sweet motherliness, the
cordial interest in even a stranger, the fervent piety which could not
bear delay in duty, and even the quaint, original, forcible thought
and way of expressing it, "There'll be more of us here to pray for her
to-day."

For seven successive summers I saw more or less of her in this "Earthly
Paradise," as she used to call it, and once I visited her in her city
home. I have been favored with many of her sparkling, vivacious letters,
and have read and re-read all her published writings; but that first
meeting held in it for me the key-note of all her wonderfully beautiful
and symmetrical character.

She brought to that little hamlet among the hills a sweet and wholesome
and powerful influence. While her time was too valuable to be wasted
in a general sociability, she yet found leisure for an extensive
acquaintance, for a kindly interest in all her neighbors, and for
Christian work of many kinds. Probably the weekly meeting for
Bible-reading and prayer, which she conducted, was her closest link with
the women of Dorset; but these meetings were established after I had
bidden good-bye to the dear old town, and I leave others to tell how
their "hearts burned within them as she opened to them the Scriptures."

She had in a remarkable degree the lovely feminine gift of
_home-making_. She was a true decorative artist. Her room when she was
boarding, and her home after it was completed, were bowers of beauty.
Every walk over hill and dale, every ramble by brookside or through
wildwood, gave to her some fresh home-ado