Sometimes lately when my head has been so bad, I have thought, what if I should be taken now. It would be grand to go home; but I have talked with Mother W—— so much lately, and I do not feel I could go till I have done something for Him who did so much for me. Pray for me, Mother, that I may get better and do something. I want to go and tell Mattie I'll tell you what Doctor A—— says is the matter with me. She examined me, tested my blood, and said it was not in the system from disease of myself, but that sometime, when my throat was sore, I inhaled the germs from some sick person, that the throat was just in the condition for them to germinate, and now my throat and ear are eaten out terribly. [Cigarette-smoking the probable cause ] She hasn't said she couldn't cure me, but that it will take a year's solid and continuous treatment, without any neglectfulness whatsoever. Oh! isn't it true that if we sow to the flesh, we must reap corruption. I know that I did, and am willing to suffer the pain and endure if I can only tell others—yes—warn them. But I know that I can not do it away from here until I can do it better here, so I want more courage to do it better here. Mania doesn't know much about my throat, only what Mother W—— wrote her that tune. Oh! this is an awfully long letter, so I must close it. I am nervous and can't write well. Pray for us, as we pray for you. Everybody sends you their love, and Your daughter in faith, Lucy ——. How I loved to receive her appreciative, newsy letters! but oh, how they saddened me as I more than ever realized the truth of that statement that "whatsoever we sow, that shall we also reap," Gal. 6:7. But one more incident and story before we leave Eureka. One day, on one of my house-to-house visits, and following considerable disappointment, for so few were at home, or else the inmates did not want to receive me, I at last received a response from a frail-looking woman of about twenty-four years of age, who said, "I should very much like to have a heart-to-heart talk with you, but this is no place for it. Can you come to my private room in the —— —— lodging-house. Go to room No. —, first floor at 1:30 tomorrow, where we can converse undisturbed."
God bless you.