“My husband was satisfied with the first day’s result, and made the few arrangements necessary. And you, Doctor, ought to have seen me as at sunrise, day after day, rain or shine, I walked to the pasture, with a big basket on my right arm full of my mending work; in my right hand a large white umbrella which my husband had bought for me; and in my left hand the rope to which my bossy was tied, and which, by the way, I did not need after a fortnight, she following me at my call and lying close beside me when not walking a few steps for a bite of the rich grass. “My charwoman brought me all my meals and a pail of water for bossy. I soon had a keen appetite, almost impossible to satisfy; even the abundant provisions brought me and eagerly eaten with such good relish still seemed to leave a hollow unfilled; and after my walk home at sundown, I slept sweetly as I had not done for months. “The cow got well; she is now followed by a strong, beautiful heifer six weeks old for which my husband has already had an offer of just half the money that he paid for the cow. And I--I feel strong, well and happy, can do all my work, and have taken none of the tonic. Besides all this, both my children are equally well, because when they came home for their weekly sojourn, they felt that they must spend Saturday and Sunday out in the field with poor mother who had no other diversion than the company of a cow. I really believe that their being with me out of doors has done them more good than they would have got from the change we had planned for vacation, a visit to relatives up in the mountains. “So I thought I had better come and tell you of all the good you have done to our whole family by your excellent advice, although it seemed so queer to us all and, you may well believe, to our neighbors too.” “How many months did you do this?” I asked. “Was it not tedious to be all day in such dull company?” “I did this same thing,” she replied, “every day, from the time that I left you until the calf was three days old. And as for tediousness or loneliness, I never felt it, for I have done a heap of sewing, old and new, which had been accumulating during the past year when I could not sew because I was so miserable. Besides, I always took some reading matter with me, especially on rainy days when I could not use my needle. And as my bossy liked to have me talk to her, I read aloud the Boston _Journal_ and our town paper. These she seemed to enjoy as much as my chatting with her, even when it came to the obituaries, death notices and quack medicine advertisements.” She assured me that she had not had a single cold, although she had several times been drenched by thunder showers that had overtaken her when she was unprotected. She said also that she had learned the great lesson of the folly of carrying self-neglect and self-sacrifice to such an extent as to bring trouble not only on one’s self but also on all the family.