words I used to say when my
temper got the better of me. Oh, that old failing! I hope it is forever
vanquished--but there, I must not forget to be scientific, and of course
it is not scientific to talk of error in any way.

"Jamie is a dear little scamp, if he _did_ try to break the rules and
get something to eat between meals by playing prairie dog. It must have
been very funny to see him sitting in the attitude of a begging dog,
mutely appealing for something, and being obliged at last to suggest
that there was candy on the top shelf. Even my heart would have softened
for the innocent little trickster.

"Well, really, we must try to give the children the liberty we older
children desire and insist upon having in such a headstrong way. Bless
my little darlings! They shall realize the absence of fear, the presence
of love in their home, which we must strive more and more to make
typical of the great Home in which we are all members.

"I feel that they are dearer now than ever. My love is more unselfish,
and I can really feel that they are truly consecrated to the Good,
because I know how to hold them in the thought of the Good, how to annul
the opposite influences and fill their minds with the sweet, pure,
ennobling realizations of Love. Meekly I say this, because I know not my
own strength, or rather I know not how much divine strength I may
recognize and use, but this is the right path, and I earnestly desire to
walk in it.

"You know some people say (in their ignorance, of course) that this free
thinking breaks up families. Oh, if they could only know, on the other
hand, how it strengthens the bonds, how it clears up misunderstandings
and falsities, how it teaches us the sacredness of family relations, and
brings us into spiritual oneness, which is the only true marriage.

"Spiritual light has come to me on this subject which can not be put
into words, but some time you will know what I know, and we shall both
be blessed by the knowledge.

"Peace be unto all God's children.

"Your loving

"MARION."

CHAPTER XXVI.

"If thou art worn and hard beset,
With troubles that thou would'st forget,
If thou would'st read a lesson that will keep
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,
Go to the woods and hills! No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears."

--_H. W. Longfellow._

Grace was in deep perplexity. She pondered her problem over and over,
and though in realit