Among other things I feel that I know and love you better than heretofore, and it is pleasant to love.  I must not forget to answer your little niece’s questions.  I remember her father’s calling with your sister, but I don’t remember any little girl as being with them, much less “kissing her because she liked the Susy books.”  As to writing more about Robbie, I can’t do that till I get to heaven, where he has been ever so many years.  Give my love to the wee maiden, and tell her I should love to kiss her.

No trait in Mrs. Prentiss was more striking than her sympathy with young people, especially with young girls, and her desire to be religiously helpful to them.  But her interest in them was not confined to the spiritual life.  She delighted to join them in their harmless amusements, and to take her part in their playful contests, whether of wit or knowledge.  Her friend, Miss Morse, thus recalls this feature of her character: 

In Mrs. Prentiss’ life the wise man’s saying, A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, was beautifully exemplified.  Yet few were thoroughly acquainted with this phase of her character.  Those who knew her only through her books, or her letters of Christian sympathy and counsel—­many even who came into near and tender personal relations to her—­failed to see the frolicsome side of her nature which made her an eager participant in the fun of young people—­in a merry group of girls the merriest girl among them.  In contests where playful rhymes were to be composed at command, on a moment’s notice, she sharpened the wits of her companions by her own zest, but in most cases herself bore off the palm.

She always entered into such contests with an unmistakable desire to win.  I remember one evening in her own home in Dorset, when four of us were engaged in a game of verbarium, two against two—­the opposite party were gaining rapidly.  She suddenly turned to her partner with a comical air of chagrin and exclaimed:  “Why is it they are winning the game?  You and I are a great deal brighter than they!”

The first time I ever saw Mrs. Prentiss was through an invitation to her home to meet about half a dozen young persons of my own age.  She was in one of her merriest moods.  Games of wit were played and she took part with genuine interest.  She at once impressed me with the feeling that she was one of us, and that this arose from no effort to be sympathetic, but was simply part of her nature.

This brightness wonderfully attracted young people to her, and gave her an influence with them that she could not otherwise have exercised.  She recognised it in herself as a power, and used it, as she did all her powers, for the service of her Master.  Young Christians, seeing that her deeply religious life did not interfere with her keen enjoyment of all innocent pleasures, realised that there need be no gloominess for them, either, in a life consecrated to God.