* * * * *

"_Washington, Dec._ 21, 18--.

"DEAR MARJORIE:

"Aunt Helen sent me your letter; it came an hour ago. I am full of
business that I like. I have no time for sight-seeing. I wish I had!
Washington is the place for Young America to come to. But Young America
has to come on business this time. Perhaps I will come here on my wedding
trip, when there is no business to interfere. I am not ashamed to say
that if I had been a girl I would have cried over your letter. Helen was
_something_ to everybody; she used to laugh and then look grave when she
read your letters about her and the good she was to you. There will never
be another Helen. There is one who has a heartache about her and no one
knows it except himself and me. She refused him a few days before
she was taken ill. He stood a long time and looked at her in her coffin,
as if he forgot that any one was looking at him. I told him it was of no
use to ask her, but he persisted. She had told me several times that he
was disagreeable to her. Her mother wonders who will take her place to us
all, and we all say no one ever can. I thank God that she lived so long
for my sake. You and she are like sisters to me. You do me good, too. I
should miss your letters very much, for I hear from home so seldom. You
are my good little friend, and I am grateful to you. Give my best love to
every one at home and tell mother I like my business. Mother's photograph
and yours and Helen's are in my breast pocket. If I should die to-night
would I be as safe as Helen is?

"Your true friend,

"HOLLIS RHEID."

* * * * *

"_The Homestead, Jan_. 4, 18--.

"DEAR FRIEND HOLLIS:

"Thank you for your letter from Washington. I took it over to your mother
and read it to her and your father, all excepting about the young man who
stood and looked at Helen in her coffin. I thought, perhaps, that was in
confidence. Your father said: 'Tell Hollis when he is tired of tramping
around to come home and settle down near the old folks,' and your mother
followed me to the door and whispered: 'Tell him I cannot feel that he is
safe until I know that he has repented and been forgiven.' And now, being
through all this part, my conscience is eased and I can tell you
everything else I want to.

"Look in and see us in a snow-storm. Mother is reading for the one
hundred and twenty-second and a half time somebody's complete works on
the New Testa