east home; she knew I would not be anything wonderful, but she had
tried to help me make the most of myself and she was satisfied that I had
done it. I had education enough to know that I am an ignorant thing (she
didn't say _thing_, however), and I had common sense and a loving heart.
I was not to go out into the world as a bread-winner or 'on a mission,'
but I was to stay home and make a home for a good man, and to make it
such a sweet, lovely home that it was to be like a little heaven. (And
then I had to put my head down and cry again.) So it ended, and I felt
better and got up early to write it all to Will.--There's a knock at the
door and a message for Miss Prudence.

"Later. The message was that Helen Rheid is very sick and wants her to
come to sit up with her to-night. Hollis brought the word but would not
come upstairs. And now I must read my chapter in the Bible and prepare to
retire. Poor Helen! She was here last week one evening with Hollis,
as beautiful as a picture and so full of life. She was full of plans. She
and Miss Prudence are always doing something together.

"23d. Miss Prudence has not come home yet and I'm as lonesome as can be.
Coming home from school to-day I stopped to inquire about Helen and saw
nobody but the servant who opened the door; there were three doctors
upstairs then, she said, so I came away without hearing any more; that
tells the whole story. I wish Hollis would come and tell me. I've learned
my lessons and read my chapters in history and biography, and now I am
tired and stupid and want to see you all. I do not like it here, in this
stiff house, without Miss Prudence. Most of the boarders are gentlemen or
young married ladies full of talk among themselves. Miss Prudence says
she is going back to her Maple Street home when she takes you, and you
and she and her old Deborah are to live alone together. She is tired of
boarding and so I am, heartily tired. I am tired of school, to-night, and
everything. Your letter did not come to-day, and Will's was a short,
hurried one, and I'm homesick and good-for-nothing.

"27th. I've been studying hard to keep up in geometry and astronomy and
have not felt a bit like writing. Will has sailed for Liverpool and I
shall not see him till next spring or later, for he may cross the
Mediterranean, and then back to England, and nobody knows where else,
before he comes home. It all depends upon "freights." As if freight were
everything. Hollis called