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This year she was a guest at the wedding of a friend's daughter. Going up to the bride after the ceremony, she put her loving arms around her neck, and said: "May your whole life be filled with gladness!" To appreciate the full beauty of the thought which led to this benediction, it must be remembered that this was the first wedding she ever attended. The formal benediction was delivered by a bishop, by no means the least distinguished in the Episcopal church; yet such a blessing, from so lovely a child of the infinite love, should carry with it as noble and high a prayer to the All-Loving, as even the benediction of bishop, priest or deacon.

Helen's acquirements teach us how much can be done for the most hopelessly afflicted; but Helen herself teaches a nobler lesson, and makes firm in our souls a higher conviction, -- that in every human heart which strives to be "clean within" an all-merciful, all-loving Father is ever ready to abide; and to all doubters of human goodness the lesson is taught that there is goodness of heart, loveliness of mind and elevation of spirit innate in human nature, ready to show themselves when the baser growths, which tend to infest our souls, are kept out.

Here is a little child, who has compassed but eleven short years, and has lived but three, yet is all that our Heavenly Father would have us be, and who preëminently symbolizes the saying "of such is the kingdom of heaven." Cannot we all learn the lesson set for us?

If the Perkins Institution had done nothing more than develop the system by which such a wonderful mind and heart as Helen's has been rescued from darkness, it would have done, in that alone, a greater work for the world than has been accomplished by many philosophers.

Sympathy and Affection.

"Holy aspirations start
Like blessed angels from the heart,
And bind -- for earth's dark ties are riven --
Her spirit to the gate of heaven."
Prentice.

Helen combines, in a manner possible only to the highest type of nature, intellectual vigor with extreme tenderness of heart. Her mental activity is so great that her knowledge seems to grow with leaps and bounds. At its service there is a brain alive with infinite motion, abounding in rich variety, fertile, resourceful, quickening, expansive. She unrolls out of her cerebral region, by means of vivid energy, new worlds, peopled with thought, throbbing with humanity and teeming with ideas, which are positive figures in her mental kaleidoscope.

This intellectual vivacity draws its motive power and vitality from the heart, as does the ardor of her spirit. Here is a spring of holy aspirations, a source of impulses of kindly interest in the well-fare and happiness of all human beings. Compassion is one of Helen's dominant feelings. Her sympathies are as deep and as broad as her generosity is catholic. She feels alike for those who are within her reach and for those who are at a distance. As Alice Carey puts it,--

"Her loving heart is the mirror
Of the things that are near and far,
Like the wave that reflects in its bosom
The flower and the distant star."

Or, according to Béranger, it is like a musical instrument which sounds as soon as it is touched.

"Son coeur est un luth suspendu;
Sitôt qu' on le touche il resonne."

A stream of affection flows steadily from Helen's heart and freshens everything around her. Nothing can exceed the intensity of her love, which is, --

"A vision to the blind,
To the deaf melody, and to the cold, dead clay
Of common life a resurrection day."

Her attachment to her parents, her teacher and her friends is of great depth and strength. She is passionately fond of each and all of them. She is a devoted daughter, a loving sister, a grateful -MISSING PAGE-

fun to begin. I am making a pretty present for teacher, but I cannot tell you what it is, because she may read this letter. We have a gift for Mildred which will make her laugh.

Mr. Anagnos is very well. He comes to see me as often as he can. He loves your little girl very much, and she loves him dearly. Thursday we were invited to meet some ladies at Miss Curtis'. One of them had just arrived from Europe. She told something about the pope which I did not know before. He never walks or rides as other people do, but when he wishes to go anywhere his attendants carry him in a great chair. He always wears a white gown, and visitors kiss his hand. I have a kind friend in the beautiful and ancient city of Rome. Her name is Mrs. Terry, -- Mrs. Howe's sister. She sent me a pretty blotter by Mr. Anagnos. Is it not nice to know about people in distant lands? I wonder where my beautiful namesake is now. Somewhere on the great ocean or in a safe harbor, I suppose. This afternoon I expect to see a little native Esquimaux lady, at Tremont Temple. I have a little playful kitty. I love to dangle a string for the pretty, graceful thing to catch in her velvety paws.

I am reading the wonderful story of "Life and her Children," and also "Little Women." I hope to begin my French lessons soon. Kiss my dearest sister for me, and tell her that I say to all my friends, Mildred is as sweet as a violet, --