adieu to it. The house and other
improvements had cost Noddy so much hard labor that he was sorry to
leave them before he had received the full benefit of all the comfort
and luxury which they were capable of affording.

"Don't you think we ought to live on the island for a year or so, after
all the work we have done there?" said Noddy, as the boat gathered
headway, and moved away from the shore.

"I'm sure I should be very happy there, if we had to stay," replied
Mollie, "But I don't think I should care to remain just for the sake of
living in the house you built."

"Nor I; but it seems to me just as though I had done all the work for
nothing."

"You worked very hard."

"But I enjoyed my work, for all that."

"And you think you did not win anything by it," added she, with a smile.

"I don't think that. I used to hate to work when I was at Woodville. I
don't think I do hate it now."

"Then you have won something."

"I think I have won a great deal, when I look the matter over. I have
learned a great many things."

Noddy had only a partial appreciation of what he had "won," though he
was satisfied that his labor had not been wasted. He had been happy in
the occupation which the necessities of his situation demanded of him.
Many a boy, wrecked as he had been, with no one but a weak and timid
girl to support him, would have done nothing but repine at his hard lot;
would have lived "from hand to mouth" during those two months, and made
every day a day of misery. Noddy had worked hard; but what had he won?
Was his labor, now that he was to abandon the house, the cisterns, the
stores, and the garden,--was it wasted?

Noddy had won two months of happiness.

He had won a knowledge of his own powers, mental and physical.

He had won a valuable experience in adapting means to ends, which others
might be years in obtaining.

He had won a vast amount of useful information from the stubborn toil he
had performed.

He had won the victory over idleness and indifference, which had beset
him for years.

He had won a cheerful spirit, from the trials and difficulties he had
encountered.

He had won a lively faith in things higher than earth, from the gentle
and loving heart that shared his exile, for whom, rather than for
himself, he had worked.

His labor was not lost. He had won more than could be computed. He had
won faith and hope, confidence in himself, an earnest purpose, which
were to go through life with