understand now, tell him, when he is better,
how I loved him and prayed for him every hour that God would bring
him, at last, where I am going so soon. Nannine will take him my
Bible, with passages marked by me, and a photograph which I had
taken a year ago, and which will tell you how I looked then. Now I
am so thin and pale that Arthur would hardly know me. I send, too, a
lock of Jerrie's hair, cut when she was three weeks old. Darling
Jerrie! She is such a comfort to me, and so old and womanly for her
years! She will remember much of our life here, for she notices
everything and understands it, too, and goes over, as in a play,
what she sees and hears.

'We have been cold and hungry sometimes; but not often; the
neighbors are so kind; and when I am dead they will see that Nannine
is made ready for America, with Jerrie; and the papers, and the
diamonds, which I might have pawned when our need was greatest, but
I could not. I must save them for Jerrie, and may she wear them some
day, and many days in the years to come, when her mother is dust and
ashes in the ground, but a glorified spirit in Paradise, where I
shall watch over her, and, if I can, be with her often, and keep
myself in her mind, so that she will never forget my face or the old
home in Germany.

'God bless my little daughter, and make her a true, noble woman; and
God bless you, Arthur's friends, who read this, and incline you to
be kind and just to Jerrie, and see that she has her own; for there
must be money at Tracy Park; and if you are poor and Jerrie comes
rich, tell her from her mother to be kind to you, and give as you
have given to her. Now I must stop, I am so tired, and it is growing
dark, and Nannie has opened the stove door to let the light fall on
the paper in my lap, and Jerrie is standing by me and says, "Are you
going to God pretty soon?"

'Yes, darling, very soon--to-night, perhaps, or to-morrow, or when
He will. The air grows cold, the night is coming on, my eyes grow
dim, my head is tired. I think, yes, I think it will be to-morrow.

'Good-bye.

'GRETCHEN TRACY.'

As she finished reading Marian arose, and going up to Jerrie kissed her
lovingly and said to her in German:

'That was your mother's picture in our old home in Wiesbaden. I am so
glad for you.'

A low sob was Jerrie's reply, and then