And to
make yourself is a million times better than to have any one else make
you.
To Miss Elsie Dean
_Regarding the Habit of Exaggeration_
During your visit here with my niece, I became much interested in you.
Zoe had often written me of her affection for you, and I can readily
understand her feeling, now that I have your personal acquaintance.
You have no mother, and your father, you say, absorbed in business, like
so many American fathers, seems almost a stranger. Even the most devoted
fathers, rarely understand their daughters.
Now, I want to take the part of a mother and write you to-day, as I
would write my own daughter, had one been bestowed upon me with the many
other blessings which are mine.
I could not ask for a fairer, more amiable, or brighter daughter than
you, nor one possessed of a kinder or more unselfish nature.
You are lovable, entertaining, industrious, and refined.
But you possess one fault which needs eradicating, or at least a
propensity which needs directing.
_It is the habit of exaggeration in conversation_.
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