302 'GOD'S PEACE'
XI T HAVE a friend in the institution. The insti- X tution is a home for aged spinsters and widows. My friend, a spinster of seventy summers, is one of the youngest inhabitants of the institution, and the other members look upon her as a perfect child. Yet, she is the veteran member of the institution, for she has been there since she was really a child. She was smuggled in with her mother, against all laws and rules, because, according to the doctors, she was so weak and ill, she could not possibly live. She lay in bed for many years, and when she began to recover the mother was dead. Having no other relatives but the institution, the child, now a woman of between thirty aud forty, was allowed to stay.
In her cell, which she shared with three other ladies — they always spoke of each other as ladies — 1 spent some of the happiest days of my childhood. She had numerous talents. No one told such wonderful fairy-tales, of which she had an inex- haustible store, for she made them up herself, and no one knew so many card tricks. Besides that, she was a perfect artist with her fingers : she could cut out all sorts of paper figures, knew how to make the most fascinating things for the Christmas-trees, and platted marvellous little baskets and boxes out of straw. She became a great adept at the last accomplishment during the many years she lay in bed. Her mattress furnished the straw, her fancy and skill did the rest.
