19th. Very sick but wrote seventeen pages.
20th. Finished 343 pages. Still sick.
21st. Wrote all day.
22nd. Finished 373 pages.
23rd. Working on “The Bow” all day.
24th. Finished “The Bow of Orange Ribbon,” 404 pages.
29th. My fifty-fifth birthday. I was sick and tired and uncertain. I sat still all day, not realizing until the book was done, and out of my hands, how weary I was. But I was not unhappy. Lilly still ordered my home, and I caught her brave, happy look every time I asked it with my smile. And I thought over all the work I had done the past year, and stretched out my right hand to God, for He knew I had done it faithfully, and could say with McAndrews,
“I ha’ lived an’ I ha’ worked,
All thanks to Thee Most High,
An’ I ha’ done, what I ha’ done—judge