The work at the hospital this month is much lighter, and the patients
are leaving for home daily. The talk of peace is in the air, and we
are praying with all our hearts that it may come. Nobody but those who
have seen with their own eyes can know the unspeakable horrors of this
war. It is not only those who are fighting at the front who have known
the full tragedy, it is those also who are fighting at home the
relentless foe of poverty, sickness, and desolation. If victory comes
to Japan, half the glory must be for those silent heroic little women,
who gave their all, then took up the man's burden and cheerfully bore
it to the end.

I was very much interested in your account of the young missionary who
is coming through Japan on her way to China. I know just how she will
feel when she steps off the steamer and finds no friendly face to
welcome her. I talked over your little scheme with Miss Lessing and
she says I can go up to Yokohama in July to meet her and bring her
right down here. Tell her to tie her handkerchief around her arm so I
will know her, and not to worry the least bit, that I will take care
of her and treat her like one of my own family.

Can you guess how eagerly I am waiting for your answer to my April
letter? It cannot come before the last of June, and happy as I am, the
time seems very long. Yet I would rather live to the last of my days
like this, travelling ever toward the pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow, than ever to arrive and find the gold not there!

You say that at last you know I am the "captain of my soul." Well,
Mate, I believe I am, but I just want to say that it's a hard worked
captain that I am, and if anybody wants the job--very much--I think he