home with her sixteenth commission in her hand. She had served the
public of Jefferson faithfully and efficiently and the people had
honored her. During these years her elder daughter had married but
only lived a year after her marriage. This was another searing sorrow
and for many days seemed to consume her. Now her second daughter was
about to become the wife of a noble man who had long wished to wed her
and take her back with him to make their home in New York City.

This evening she sat in the midst of her little family and
recalled many scenes of her life. She was still a young woman,
forty-eight, and she intended sending her resignation to Washington. She
was about to leave Jefferson and follow her daughter to New York where
there were better opportunities for the advancement of her three sons.

The following day she went with her prospective son-in-law and her
daughter to pay a farewell visit to Mr. D'Archais at his little
two-roomed house. The old man rose with his arms outstretched to meet
them and his "little girl" was soon enclosed in them. On parting he
turned to her soon-to-be husband and said:

"Make her happy. Make my little girl happy," and held his hand
affectionately in his own.



So it was that Renestine, the little immigrant girl, became a
superb woman of deeds, a wonderful American mother whose grandchildren
have fought in this last war to win democracy for the world!