affectionate sympathy and Christian cheer;
but long before we can make them reach you, I trust you will have felt
sure that you were at least remembered and prayed for. It is a comfort
that no ocean separates us from Him who has afflicted you. The loss to
you each and all is very great, but to the mother of such a child it
is beyond description. Faith alone can bear her through it, but faith
_can_. What a wonderful little creature the sweet Ellie must have been!
We were greatly touched by your account of her singing that beautiful
hymn. It must have been divinely ordered that she should leave such a
precious legacy behind her. And though her loveliness makes her loss the
greater, the loss of an unlovely wayward child would surely be a heavier
grief.

I never know where to stop when I begin to talk about the death of a
little one; but before I stop I want to ask you to tell Mrs. H. one word
from me, which will not surprise and will perhaps comfort her. It is
this. Neither his father nor myself would be willing to have God now
bereave us of the rich experience of seven years ago, when our noble
little boy was taken away. We have often said this to each other, and
oftener said it to Him, who if He took, also gave much. But after all,
we can not _say_ much to comfort either Mrs. H. or you. We can only
truly, heartily and always sympathise with you.... Mr. Prentiss and Mr.
Stearns have spent a fortnight in jaunting about; beginning at Thun and
ending at Munich. They both came home looking fresher and better than
when they left, but Mr. P. is not at all well now, and will have his ups
and downs, I suppose, for a long time to come.... We can step out at
any moment into a beautiful path, and, turn which way we will, meet
something charming. Yesterday he came back for me, having found a new
walk, and we took our sticks, and went to enjoy it together till we got,
as it were, fairly locked in by the mountains, and could go no further.
Only to think of having such things as gorges and water-falls and
roaring brooks, right at your back door! The seclusion of this whole
region is, however, its great charm to us, and to tell the truth, the
primitive simplicity of style of dress, etc., is quite as charming to me
as its natural beauty. We took tea one night last week with the pastor
of the Free church; he lives in a house for which he pays thirty dollars
a year, and we were quite touched and pleased with his style of living;
white pine