power which lies hidden even in the worst of us, ready to take fire
when touched by the Divine flame, and burn up its old evil into a
light that will shine to God's glory before men. I still possess the
epitome of one of these "hopeful" sermons, which she sent me in a
letter after hearing the chaplain preach on the two texts: "What
meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God"; "Awake, thou that
sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

It has been said that, in his story of "The Old Bachelor's Nightcap,"
Hans Andersen recorded something of his own career. I know not if this
be true, but certainly in her story of "Madam Liberality"[1] Mrs.
Ewing drew a picture of her own character that can never be surpassed.
She did this quite unintentionally, I know, and believed that she was
only giving her own experiences of suffering under quinsy, in
combination with some record of the virtues of One whose powers of
courage, uprightness, and generosity under ill-health she had always
regarded with deep admiration. Possibly the virtues were
hereditary,--certainly the original owner of them was a relation; but,
however this may be, Madam Liberality bears a wonderfully strong
likeness to my sister, and she used to be called by a great friend of
ours the "little body with a mighty heart," from the quotation which
appears at the head of the tale.

[Footnote 1: Reprinted in "A Great Emergency and other Tales."]

The same friend is now a bishop in another hemisphere from ours, but
he will ever be reckoned a "great" friend. Our bonds of friendship
were tied during hours of sorrow in the house of mourning, and such as
these are not broken by after-divisions of space and time. Mrs. Ewing
named him "Jachin," from one of the pillars of the Temple, on account
of his being a pillar of strength at that time to us. Let me now quote
the opening description of Madam Liberality from the story:--

It was not her real name; it was given to her by her brothers and
sisters. People with very marked qualities of character do
sometimes get such distinctive titles to rectify the indefiniteness
of those they inherit and those they receive in baptism. The
ruling peculiarity of a character is apt to show itself early in
life, and it showed itself in Madam Liberality when she was a
little child.

Plum-cakes were not plentiful in her home when Madam Liberality was
young, and, su