woman in bed, with her right wrist broken, and her face and body badly
bruised. She was in great pain, and so discouraged that it was pitiful.
Her boarders had gone, and she found herself once more dependent on
charity; but I felt I could say {213} from a full heart that the help she
now needed would not be grudged to her. For, surely, no one could help
respecting her endeavor for self-support or could regard her effort as a
failure; and, when her accident reduced her once more to dependence, her
rent was paid for the rest of the month, she had a bag of flour and other
groceries in the house, and $8.00 in money with which to pay the doctor
for setting her wrist." The visitor adds: "I think that during this
year's visiting Mrs. X. had really learned to regard me as a friend. At
first I do not think she liked me very well, and I also found it hard
cordially to like her. We were not naturally sympathetic. I am afraid
that she often thought me hard; and she had a dreary, complaining way
that tried me a great deal. But her good qualities commanded my respect
and her misfortunes my pity; and on her my evident desire to befriend her
gradually had its effect. Her first expression of real feeling was when
she consulted me about her plan for taking boarders, and that was after
nine months of constant visiting. She then said that I was the only
friend that she had in the world; and later, when the plan was in
successful operation, she told me that she attributed all her prosperity
to me, and that she was a star in my crown. That she owed all her
prosperity to me was of course an exaggeration. I could not have helped
her had she not been the essentially decent woman she was. But, at the
same {214} time, it was true that, had she not been helped and encouraged
when her destitution was so great, she would probably have lacked both
the physical and moral strength, as well as the opportunity later, to
stand upon her own feet. And, when her bad fortune again overtook her,
it was much for her that she had a friendly visitor to turn to. She felt
it so herself; and, as she lay moaning with pain, she sobbed out that I
was the only comfort she had on earth."

After the breaking of her wrist, Mrs. X. was dependent for a long time,
since the wrist did not knit properly, and her right hand was almost
disabled. It did not seem as if she could ever get on her feet again.
But after a time she wished to move to one of the country towns