readers whose lives had been cheered by the buoyant hopefulness
expressed in her writings, she was very modest in regard to her
productions, yet held it a duty to continue writing for others the
thoughts which had helped her. When we were at supper in the home of
Professor Lyle, who was gifted with an unusually poetic mind, he
repeated passages from favorite authors. On being asked if he did not
sometimes write poetry, he replied that he had often written rhymes
and loved to do it, but when he would afterward read Virgil and
Shakespeare and Tennyson he would tear up his own verses, feeling that
he ought not to make the effort.

"Then," replied Mrs. Preston, "the gardener should not plant the seeds
that bring forth the little forget-me-nots and snowdrops. He should
plant only the great multiflora roses and the Lady Bankshires and
magnolias."

Mrs. Preston spent much of her time in knitting because the weakness
of her eyes made reading and writing difficult. "Are you never tired
of knitting?" I asked. She replied that it did not tire her, and told
me that Mrs. Lee said she loved to knit because she did not have to
put her mind on the work. She could think and talk as well when she
was knitting for the reason that she did not have to keep her eyes nor
her attention upon what she was doing. She knew perfectly well when
she came to a seam. In a letter from a soldier to Mrs. Lee he thanked
her for the socks she had sent him, and wrote; "I have fourteen pairs
of socks knitted by my mother and my mother's sisters and the Church
Sewing Society, and I have not a shirt to my back nor a pair of
trousers to my legs nor a whole pair of shoes to my feet." "But," said
Mrs. Lee as she concluded the story, "I continued to knit socks just
the same."