ly:

"And does thy day seem dark,
All turned to rain?
Seek thou one out whose life
Is filled with pain.
Put out a hand to help
This greater need,
And lo! within thy life
The sun will shine indeed."

_CHAPTER X_
_Beth's Birthday_

The space between our birthdays seems to grow apace,
When we're young they loiter; when we're old they race.

It began with a bad time; and so did the next day, as things sometimes
do, even though they turn out all right at the end, like a rainy morning
that clears off into a blue and gold afternoon. Ethelwyn and Beth did
not fall out very often, but then they didn't have a birthday very
often, nor Christmas, nor any other of the days when the land flows with
ice cream and candy, and is bounded on the next day by crossness and
pitfalls.

That was one reason.

That day early they had decided never to be bad again, never; "because,"
said Ethelwyn, "it is very troublesome getting good again, and makes
mother feel bad."

"Uh huh," said Beth.

They were not up yet, and the door leading into their mother's room was
open.

This was their "present" birthday, but they had not yet begun on their
presents. For fear you shouldn't understand this, I will tell you Beth's
way of explaining it.

"Sister and me is twin children two years all but a month apart, and on
the first birthday which comes in July, we have presents, and on the
second, in August, we have a party, or a trip away, or something, and we
have all the month to choose in."

They generally chose thirty different things. Their mother nearly always
let them have the last one, but once or twice, as when they wanted to go
up in an air ship, she compromised on a steam launch on the river, as
safer, and nearer at hand.

This morning being "present" morning, they were glad to see the
sunshine darting in at their window, and to hear the birds singing
outside something like this--

"Wake up, children: the day is new.
It's full of joy for dears like you."

So they woke up laughing, at least Ethelwyn did, and told Beth what the
birds sang; but Beth was sleepy and uttered her usual "Uh huh."

"You are a very lazy child," said Ethelwyn in a superior tone, "and are
not thinking about your presents at all, nor the making of good
revolutions."

"What's them?" asked Beth, still with her eyes shut.

"Something you need to make very much, for you are not too good a child,