“‘“Brother, what calamity has descended upon thee? Hast lost thine all?”
“å∑‘“No, but one of my brothers in this world has lost this great piece of money, and I cannot sleep this night for grief aß∑t the thought of his sorrow.”
“‘And the first altruist stared at him in wonder, and said,
“‘“What condition of affairs is this and what is the constitution of man? For I had attained to perfect joy at the thought that you (or another) had found my money, while you have been rendered miserable at the thought that I (or another) had lost it. In what way can we be happy together?”
“‘And even as they held converse a robber came along, and snatching the thousand dollar bill made off with it.
“‘“Ah,” cried both together, raising their voices in joy, “now we can be happy again, for beyond peradventure this robber who took the money needed it, else he would not have taken it, and while we do not condone his dishonesty, we rejoice at his prosperity.”’”
He finished and looked around for an approbation that was freely given him.
“How did you ever think of such an idea?” said Cherry, and I could see that he had impressed her.
He looked at her and began to explain very seriously how the idea had come to him, and she listened just as seriously.
“It’s another edition of you,” said Ethel to me with a smile, and I recalled certain conversations that we had had in years gone by, when she was deeply interested in the “how” of “literary endeavour.”
She flashed a signal to me that I could not mistake. I looked at the handsome pair seated under the maple, he full of the animation of self interest, she animated by a sympathy that might well become something greater, and instantly I began to look ahead and foretell what propinquity would do quite as if they were characters in a story of mine, and I intended that they should fall in love with each other.
He had four hundred a year or less, and ambition, but she had beauty and—enough to support two comfortably while ambition was becoming fruition.
A new interest had been added to life at Clover Lodge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE next day we were all awakened by one of Minerva’s morning songs, but it was such a morning—the air was so bracing and fragrant, the sun so mellow, and yet not too hot, that not one of us felt that the song was out of place, and all four met on the porch a good half hour before breakfast.