
If all the talks of you which are heard in our family were telephoned to your ear, you would have daily communications from the house of Johnston.
"Uncle Walt would enjoy this;" "I wish Uncle Walt could hear that;" "If Uncle Walt
were only here," are frequent exclamations. Indeed you have had, since the sad event of
thirteen years ago, (does it seem so long?) a central place in the heart of the home and it was there I met and welcomed
you.
Now another change is about to take place: (and who knows whether life or death is more momentous?) The marriage of Grace.
You know how lovely she is in voice and feature: but you cannot know how every best quality of
her parents is mingled into a perfect whole. To me, her second mother, (by law, her
first in devotion) she has always been a daughter indeed! Nothing could surpass the
filial love she has given me: the confidence in my judgment: the loving obedience to
every requirement. The aid, the encoureagement, the companionship she has given me
since reaching the level of womanhood.
It is not easy for me to give this to a man: nor easy for her to turn her face away from the
sweet care-free maidenhood: leave the dear sheltered home—next the
companionship of sisters: and take all at once wife-hood mother-hood,—the
burden of a wealth-sustaining matron!
For you have doubtless heard that the man she is to marry has both children and money: (burdens or blessings as we make them.) Fortunately—though without these qualities he would not have gained his

