One morning while I lay very ill she went quietly into my husband’s room, asking him to come down-stairs at once. He went immediately and found the kitchen on fire, the Irish servant-women in a panic of alarm. Seeing at a glance the cause of the trouble, he caught up the blazing student-lamp and hurled it out into the snow. It was then an easy task for him to scrape down the flames from the woodwork. All this was done so quietly that I knew nothing of the matter. The physician who attended me was Dr. Abraham Coles, the father of our landlord. He was an excellent doctor and our very good friend. Doctor Coles was an elderly man, large and heavy. He was still handsome, with a wealth of hair that was almost white. The winter of 1886–87 was a very severe one, the ground covered with ice. Mother made a little path to the gate with the poker. She noticed with pleasure that Doctor Coles walked in her little poker path. She wrote many letters to my husband, as he attended to some of her business affairs. In this correspondence she chronicles with affectionate interest the doings of the Hall family, telling us also of her own proceedings. BOSTON, _June 8th, ’93_. MY DEAR DAVID—, ... I telegraphed you to-day to send some flowers for me to the Players’ Club for my dear friend, Edwin Booth. If you have not done this before receiving this letter it will be too late, as the service will be at 9 A.M. to-morrow in N. Y., the burial to be here, the same evening, I suppose. You will send me the bill.... 241 BEACON ST., BOSTON, _June 8th, 1896_. MY DEAR DAVID,—I will do my best to copy a verse of the “Battle Hymn” to-day, but, oh! I write, every day, until I fairly ache, and it is mostly, or in great part, for other people’s pleasure or benefit. I shall write to dear Flossy as soon as I can. Tell her for me that I heard pleasant things about our dear Carrie from Mrs. Sally Whitman, recently returned from a brief stay in Paris. Always your affect. JULIA W. HOWE. P. S.—You see, I have done it. The baby mentioned in the following letter was our mother’s first great-grandchild, little Julia Ward Howe Hall. 241 BEACON ST., _June 16th, 1903_. DEAR DAVID,— ... I saw your dear Harry last evening. He seemed well—I thought him rather sober, as well he may be, with a family to provide for. The Baby, not the less, is a very welcome little creature, and it was a pleasant surprise when, on my birthday, the little Mother laid the little daughter on my lap. I returned on Sunday from a long visit in Gardiner. Always Your very affectionate JULIA WARD HOWE.