dd that they soon found their way to a most grateful young
'sufferer.' Here a poor widow divided her well-worn 'mourning' with some
stranger sister-in-grief; there the bereaved mother brought out the
treasured garments her little one had worn, for some happier mother who
had lost only earthly possessions.

"Letters by hundreds were found in the packages, pertinent and
impertinent, but all demanding answers. They were stuffed into old shoes
and the linings of hats, cracked tea-pots and boxes of soap, combs and
matches. Every small boys' knickerbockers contained a note--generally
of original spelling and laboriously written in large capitals, from
'Tommy' or 'Johnnie' or 'Charley,' asking a reply, telling all about the
storm, from the boy who should receive the gift. Sentimental epistles
from ladies were hidden in the pockets of coats and trousers, inviting
correspondence with the future wearers; and billet-doux from
disconsolate widowers, presumably beginning to 'take notice,' were
pinned to the raiment of deceased wives. Such manifold phases have our
poor human nature! Happily there was another and far more numerous class
of letters, from charitable men and women, offering to adopt children,
or to assist in any way in their power; from Sunday-school classes and
sewing societies and day-schools, enclosing small sums of money, or
telling of gifts to come. There was even a letter from an almshouse,
enclosing a check for eighty dollars, raised by thirty aged pensioners,
who gave up their only luxuries--coffee, sugar, and tobacco--to swell
the fund for Galveston's relief. Another came from the poor, forgotten
negroes of the Carolina sea islands, to whose assistance the Red Cross
went, after their disastrous floods a few years ago. Impelled by
gratitude for the benefits then received, those simple-minded people
contributed a surprising amount, considering their poverty. Truly, in
heaven's reckoning those unselfish 'mites' of the poor and lowly will
count for as much as the millions given by the great cities.

"Notwithstanding the vast amount of old clothes that came to us, we were
always particularly short of the most important articles of an outfit,
such as underwear, respectable skirts and dresses, and shoes--except of
extraordinary sizes, sent because unsalable. It frequently happened
that, for days together, there was hardly a thing in stock fit for
people of the better class. It must be remembered that we were not
suppl