clothes will be accepted, the writer graciously says, although new
dresses would be preferable.

One letter dated Lebanon is chiefly upon the virtues of a _lucky
stone_, which the writer will as a great favor sell to Miss Greeley for
twenty-five dollars. All further misfortune will, she says, be averted
from Ida if she becomes its owner; the stone is especially recommended
as beneficial in love-affairs, and, the writer kindly adds, it is not
to be taken internally.

Another letter is from the mother of a young invalid girl, begging Miss
Greeley, whom she knows by report to be very wealthy and charitably
inclined, to make her daughter a present of a melodeon, as music, she
thinks, might help to pass away the tedious hours of illness.

Sometimes Ida is solicited to open a correspondence for the improvement
of her unknown friend, or to dispose of some one's literary wares,
while offers of marriage from her unseen admirers are of almost daily
occurrence. I think I would not exaggerate in saying she might reckon
by the bushel these letters, written generally in very questionable
grammar, and worse chirography. In very few instances has she ever
replied to them, for they have been usually from people possessing so
little claim upon her, that the favors they so boldly requested could
only be viewed in the light of impertinence.

One letter, couched in somewhat enigmatical terms, was dated from
Baltimore, and was explicit upon one point only--that it was the
manifest will of Providence that Ida should marry him--S. M. Hudson.
We read the letter together, laughed a little over it, and threw it
into the waste basket. Time passed, and we came out here. Ida was