was simple and sincere, and his deep voice trembled with earnestness
as he declared that sacrifice was the only true road to happiness,
sacrifice of ourselves, our wishes and desires, for the good and the
progress of others. And suddenly all the feeling in me got on a
rampage and I wanted to get up and say that it was true, that I knew
it was true, that the most miserable, pitiful, smashed-up life, could
blossom again if it would only blossom for others. I walked home in a
sort of ecstasy and at dinner the long-nosed young preacher said: "'T
was a pity we couldn't have regular preaching, there was such a peart
lot at meeting." This is certainly a good place to study people's
eccentricities, their foibles and follies, to hear them preach and see
them not practice!

One more year and I will be home. Something almost stops in my heart
as I write it! Of course I am glad you are going abroad in the spring,
you have been living on the prospect of seeing Italy all your
life. Only, Mate, I am selfish enough to want you back by the time I
get home. It would take just one perfect hour of seeing you all
together once more to banish the loneliness of all these years!

I am glad Jack and Dr. Leet have struck up such a friendship. Jack
uses about the same care in selecting a friend that most men do in
selecting a wife. Tell Dr. Leet that I am glad he found me in a pigeon
hole of his memory, but that I am a long way from being "the blue-eyed
bunch of mischief" he describes. I wish you would tell him that I am
slender, pale, and pensive with a glamour of romance and mystery
hovering about me; that is the way I would like to be.

I knew you could get Jack out of his rut if you tried. The Browning
evenings must be highly diverting, I can imagine you reading a few