that the doctor left, I put on my nurse's dress.

Of course I have not been able to go to the reverend's for my lessons,
and I have not been able to study much, except when grandfather is
asleep; but he--the reverend, I mean--comes to our house as often as he
can, and we take turns in reading aloud to grandfather, sometimes from
the book you sent me, but most times from the Holy Bible, which he likes
best.

The reverend says that it is better than medicine to sooth a troubled
heart, and I reckon it must be so, for it almost always puts grandfather
to sleep, and the trouble is with his heart, like I told you.

Then, beside that, a little wild mountain flower was born to a neighbor
of ours last week. We tried--oh, so hard--to make it live, but the cold
was so bitter here that God took pity on it and took it back to his
garden in Paradise.

At first I could not help crying, and I came home and tore up the verses
that I wrote, but then I remembered what you told me about the Reaper,
and I went back to the poor, sorrowful mother and told her. And I
remembered what you said about making people smile by smiling myself, so
I did that, too.

This is not a very happy letter, but grandfather is getting better every
day, and summer will soon be here now. The new year seems to me like the
top of a snow covered mountain. When we have climbed over it, it is not
long before we can hurry down into the valley where the sun is warm and
the flowers bloom.

Your affectionate friend,
Rose Webb.

P. S. I am very glad that you are going to be married.

(The Enclosure)

Deep the world with snow was covered,
Cold and barren was the earth,
Low the Christmas angels hovered
As a little babe had birth.

Just a tender little flower,
Dropped upon the world below
Out of God's eternal bower--
Pink as sunrise, white as snow.

But the little blossom stranger,
As its earthly life it starts,
Need fear neither cold nor danger,
For 'tis planted _in our hearts_.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

VII

"Thayerhurst"
Manchester-by-the-sea.
August 15, 1913.

My