10. Friendship
This woman of many noble traits was especially endowed with the rare gift of loyal and understanding friendship. Her relation to kindred and personal friends brought to her and to them an unusual degree of happiness. This was so great a factor in her life that it may seem as if special mention of many of these friends should be made in even so brief a sketch as this. But they themselves will realize how impossible this would be because the circle to which they belong is so large. She was not blind to the failings of her friends, but was clear in her comprehension of their fundamental traits, and her love for them, her strong though often undemonstrative interest in them, never abated. While she added to their number many times during her stay in different places, no new friend or new interest ever took the place of an old one. Her generous heart had room for all whom she took to it.
Her correspondence with friends was surprisingly large in view of the frequency of her letters to her own immediate circle; when the family became widely scattered this might easily have been made an excuse for dropping much of the general correspondence, but instead of that it grew as the circle of her interest widened. No one was neglected and all letters were written with her own hand. During the last years of her life much of her mail that was not personal became a distinct burden with its increasing appeals from all directions, but she conscientiously attended to it all herself. An abundance of good common sense helped her to ignore many of these, but any that could not be laid aside lightly she investigated in a way that took much time and strength.
Her outspoken nature and uncompromising mind often made her draw hard and fast lines in no unmistakable way as to conduct that met her approval or condemnation, but she asked no one to come up to any standard higher than she had laid down for herself. She wanted above all things to be just, and few people are so essentially just as she was. To quote a friend, "her judgment of character was clear, just, and vigorous."
One fixed habit of her mind must not be overlooked: this was unwillingness to accept any help in whatever she could possibly do herself. Many friends thought this a failing and frequently told her so. They were wont to rebel against the fact that they could not serve her, while she was a past master in the art of serving others. Her swift motions and deft hands, impelled by her quick mind, would outwit half a dozen people who were looking for means by which to circumvent her. No amount of urging could lead her to agree to be waited upon if that could be avoided, and she often refused to accept ministrations at times when it seemed to others that they were necessary to her comfort. But even at such times she would withhold no service for another. Whatever mention the Recording Angel may make of this failing, it will be very brief compared with what is written of the countless deeds of love and of kindness for others with which she filled her days.