Now my prayer is not that you should “come true,” but that you should get well.  Do this one little thing for me, dearest!  For you I will do anything:  my happiness waits for that.  As yet I seem to have done nothing.  Oh, but, Beloved, I will!  From a reading of the Fioretti, I sign myself as I feel.—­Your glorious poor little one.

THE CASKET LETTERS.

A.

    my dear Prince Wonderful,[1]

Pray God bless ——­ ——­ and make him come true for my sake.  Amen.

R.S.V.P.

[Footnote 1:  The MS. contained at first no name, but a blank; over it this has been written afterwards in a small hand.]

B.

Dear Prince Wonderful:  Now that I have met you I pray that you will be my friend.  I want just a little of your friendship, but that, so much, so much!  And even for that little I do not know how to ask.

Always to be your friend:  of that you shall be quite sure.

C.

Dear Prince Wonderful:  Long ago when I was still a child I told myself of you:  but thought of you only as in a fairy tale.  Now I am afraid of trusting my eyes or ears, for fear I should think too much of you before I know you really to be true.  Do not make me wish so much to be your friend, unless you are also going to be true!

Please come true now, for mine and for all the world’s sake:—­but for mine especially, because I thought of you first!  And if you are not able to come true, don’t make me see you any more.  I shall always remember you, and be glad that I have seen you just once.

D.

Dear Prince Wonderful:  Has God blessed you yet and made you come true?  I have not seen you again, so how am I to know?  Not that it is necessary for me to know even if you do come true.  I believe already that you are true.

If I were never to see you again I should be glad to think of you as living, and shall always be your friend.  I pray that you may come to know that.

E.

Dear Highness:  I do not know what to write to you:  I only know how much I wish to write.  I have always written the things I thought about:  it has been easy to find words for them.  Now I think about you, but have no words:—­no words, dear Highness, for you!  I could write at once if I knew you were my friend.  Come true for me:  I will have so much to tell you then!

F.

Dear Highness:  If I believe in fairy tales coming true, it is because I am superstitious.  This is what I did to-day.  I shut my eyes and took a book from the shelf, opened it, and put my fingers down on a page.  This is what I came to: