“23d.  Miss Prudence has not come home yet and I’m as lonesome as can be.  Coming home from school to-day I stopped to inquire about Helen and saw nobody but the servant who opened the door; there were three doctors upstairs then, she said, so I came away without hearing any more; that tells the whole story.  I wish Hollis would come and tell me.  I’ve learned my lessons and read my chapters in history and biography, and now I am tired and stupid and want to see you all.  I do not like it here, in this stiff house, without Miss Prudence.  Most of the boarders are gentlemen or young married ladies full of talk among themselves.  Miss Prudence says she is going back to her Maple Street home when she takes you, and you and she and her old Deborah are to live alone together.  She is tired of boarding and so I am, heartily tired.  I am tired of school, to-night, and everything.  Your letter did not come to-day, and Will’s was a short, hurried one, and I’m homesick and good-for-nothing.

“27th.  I’ve been studying hard to keep up in geometry and astronomy and have not felt a bit like writing.  Will has sailed for Liverpool and I shall not see him till next spring or later, for he may cross the Mediterranean, and then back to England, and nobody knows where else, before he comes home.  It all depends upon “freights.”  As if freight were everything.  Hollis called an hour ago and stayed awhile.  Helen is no better.  She scarcely speaks, but lies patient and still.  He looked in at her this morning, but she did not lift her eyes.  Oh, she is so young to die!  And she has so much to do.  She has not even begun to do yet.  She has so much of herself to do with, she is not an ignoramus like me.  Her life has been one strong, pure influence Hollis said to-night.  He is sure she will get well.  He says her father and mother pray for her night and day.  And his Aunt Helen said such a beautiful thing yesterday.  She was talking to Hollis, for she knows he loves her so much.  She said something like this:  (the tears were in his eyes when he told me) ’I was thinking last night, as I stood looking at her, about that blood on the lintel—­the blood of the lamb that was to keep the first-born safe among the children of Israel.  She is our first-born and the blood of Jesus Christ is in all our thoughts while we plead for her life—­for his sake—­for the sake of his blood.’  Hollis broke down and had to go away without another word.  Her life has done him good.  I wish she could talk to him before she goes away, because he is not a Christian.  But he is so good and thoughtful that he will think now more than he ever did before.  Miss Prudence stays all the time.  Helen notices when she is not there and Mrs. Rheid says she can rest while Miss Prudence is in the room.

“I am such a poor stick myself, and Helen could do so much in the world; and here I am, as strong and well as can be, and she is almost dying.  But I do not want to take her place.  I have so much to live for—­so many, I ought to say.  I thought of writing a long journal letter, but I have not the heart to think of anything but Helen.