importance it was a consolation to him to know that there was an overwhelming Providence.  When I congratulated him upon his continuous good health, notwithstanding the strain upon him for the eight years of his past and present administration, he said: 

    “’Yes!  I am a wonder to myself.  The gout that used to distract me is
    almost cured, and I am in better health than when I entered office.’

    “He accounted for his good health by the fact that he had
    occasionally taken an outing of a few days on hunting expeditions.

    “I said to him, ’Yes!  You cannot think of matters of State while out
    shooting ducks.’

    “He answered: 

    “’No, I cannot, except when the hunting is poor and the ducks do not
    appear.’

    “May 21, 1896.  This morning when I entered President Cleveland’s
    room at the White House, he said:  ’Good morning, I have been
    thinking of you this morning.’

“The fact is he had under consideration the recall of a minister plenipotentiary from a European Government.  I had an opportunity of saying something about a gentleman who was proposed as a substitute for the foreign embassy, and the President said my conversation with him had given him a new idea about the whole affair, and I think it kept the President from making a mistake that might have involved our Government in some entanglement with another nation.

“The President read me a long letter that he had received on the subject.  I felt that my call had been providential, although I went to see him merely to say good-bye before he went away on his usual summer trip to Gray Gables, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.

“The President is in excellent health although he says he much needs an outing.  He is very fond of his children, and seemed delighted to hear of the good time I had with them at Woodley.  When I told how Ruth and Esther sang for me he said he could not stand hearing them sing, as it was so touching it made him cry.  I told him how the baby, Marian, looked at me very soberly and scrutinisingly as long as I held her in my arms, but when I handed her to her mother, the baby, feeling herself very safe, put out her hands to me and wanted to play.  But what a season of work and anxiety it had been to the President, important question after question to be settled.

“March 1, 1897.  I have this afternoon made my last call on President Cleveland.  With Dr. Sunderland and the officers of our church I went to the White House to bid our retiring President goodbye.  Notwithstanding appointments he had made, Thurber, his private secretary, informed us that the President could not see us because of a sudden attack of rheumatism.  But after Thurber had gone into the President’s room, he returned saying that the President would see Dr. Sunderland and myself.  Indeed, afterwards, he saw all our