singularly
appropriate one, but those who had read the tale in the Magazine were
aware that it was written three years previously, and that the second
name was put before the first, as it was feared the public would be
perplexed by a Latin title. The only part of the book that my sister
added during her illness was Leonard's fifth letter in Chapter X. This
she dictated, because she could not write. She had intended to give
Saint Martin's history when the story came out in the Magazine, but
was hindered by want of space.[32] Many people admire Leonard's story
as much as that of Jackanapes, but to me it is not quite so highly
finished from an artistic point of view. I think it suffered a little
from being written in detachments from month to month. It is, however,
almost hypercritical to point out defects, and the circumstances of
Leonard's life are so much more within the range of common experiences
than those of Jackanapes, it is probable that the lesson of the Short
Life, during which a V.C. was won by the joyful endurance of
inglorious suffering, may be more helpful to general readers than that
of the other brief career, in which Jackanapes, after "one crowded
hour of glorious life," earned his crown of victory.

[Footnote 32: Letter, Oct. 5, 1882.]

On one of Julie's last days she expressed a fear to her doctor that
she was very impatient under her pain, and he answered, "Indeed you
are not; I think you deserve a Victoria Cross for the way in which you
bear it." This reply touched her very much, for she knew the speaker
had not read Leonard's Story; and we used to hide the proof-sheets of
it, for which she was choosing head-lines to the pages, whenever her
doctors came into the room, fearing that they would disapprove of her
doing any mental work.

In the volume of _Aunt Judy_ for 1883 "A Happy Family" appeared, but
this had been originally written for an American Magazine, in which a
prize was offered for a tale not exceeding nine hundred words in
length. Julie did not gain the prize, and her story was rather spoiled
by having to be too closely condensed.

She also wrote three poems for _Aunt Judy_ in 1883, "The Poet and the
Brook," "Mother's Birthday Review," and "Convalescence." The last one
and the tale of "Sunflowers and a Rushlight" (which came out in
November 1883) bear some traces of the deep sympathy she had learned
for ill health through her own sufferings of the last few years; the
same may, to some e