We have been at the West twenty years as Home Missionaries. When I tell you that, I need not add that we have been made very happy by being able to save money enough to give Marion at least a year under your kind care, if you can receive her into your school.
I think I can safely promise you that she will be faithful and industrious; and I earnestly hope that the lovely Christian character 6 she has sustained at home, may deepen and brighten in the new life which will open to her in the East.
May I ask your patience while she is accustoming herself to it; of your kindness I am well assured.
Truly yours,
E. G. Parke.
“The child of a poor, far western missionary, so different from the class of girls that she will be with here,” thought Miss Ashton as she slowly folded the letter.
She sat for some time thinking over its contents, then she took her pen, and wrote:—
Dear Mrs. Parke,—Send your daughter to me. I have great interest in, and sympathy with, all Home Missionary work. I wish I could do something to lighten the expenses she must incur; but this is a chartered institution, and at present all the places to be filled by those who need assistance have been taken. I will, however, bear her in mind; and should she prove a good scholar, exemplary in her behavior, I may be able to render her in the future some acceptable assistance.
Wishing you all success in your trying and arduous life, and the help of the great Helper,
I am, truly yours,
C. S. Ashton.
Miss Ashton did not seal this note; she tossed it upon her desk, meaning to look it over before it was mailed; but she had no time, and, with many misgivings as to what might come of it, she allowed it to go as it was.