l and it became necessary for the teacher to go to another
continent to live.

"How hard it was for the girls to have her go! But it was harder still for
her, for she had wanted to help them through to womanhood. She had tried
to help them to see the best but often she had felt that her efforts were
all too small. The day came nearer for her to leave and she had asked the
girls to spend the last evening with her in her home.

"And they came, each bringing in their hands a little letter, sealed
tightly. They were steamer letters for their teacher and they had been
written because they had heard her say that she wished she could take with
her some idea as to what the girls wanted to be when they had grown, so
that she might be thinking of their plans, even though she could not be
there to help with them. One by one they laid them on the table till there
were ten little letters--heart-to-heart letters to their dear friend.

"Five days later, away out in mid-ocean, the teacher opened the letters
and read them over and over to herself. How much they told of the girls!

"Jennie wanted to be a great singer; she wanted to go to New York and
study and then go into Grand Opera.

"Katherine wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher. Ah! she had found that
because of helping in the church.

"Mary wanted to be a lawyer--a criminal lawyer. Perhaps that desire had
grown in their debating club.

"Louise wanted to be a nurse. What a dear faithful girl she had been in
helping with the bandages after the great fire in the city!

"So one by one she read their letters and her heart was filled with
gratitude that to her it had been given to mold in a little way their
lives."

Then turning to the mayor of the city, the little white-haired lady said,

"Sir, the contents of one of those letters will be of interest to you more
than to the rest. I was the teacher of those girls, so I can give you the
exact wording of the last letter that I read,

"'Dear friend: You have asked us to give you our dearest wish. I have many
wishes for the future but the wish that I want most of all is to be a fine
woman and some day to be a real mother, the kind you have so often told us
about.'

"The girl who wrote that letter, sir, became your mother. Fourteen years
before you were born, your character was being formed, your ideals were
being molded, your future was being safeguarded. I congratulate you, sir,
on being elected to the office of mayor; but I co