hrop's sands of time had all
run out, and Oaklands gone to decay, or passed into other hands.

"Isn't it tiresome work washing dishes--the same yesterday, to-day and
fifty years hence? I wish I had been created a man; they don't have such
sameness in their work."

"Are you sure, dear? Fancy a bookkeeper's lot, or a clerk's reckoning up
columns of figures so like there is not a particle of variety; not a new
or thrilling idea in all their round of work from January to December,
unless we except a column that won't come right. That may have a thrill
in it now and then, but certainly not a joyous one. After we return from
New York, if you pay attention to a clerk's work in the stores we visit,
you will acknowledge a lady's household tasks delightful in comparison.
The farmer's life has the most variety, and comes nearest to elementary
things and nature's great throbbing vitals; but as a rule they are a
dissatisfied lot, and unreasonably so, I think."

"Come to look at things generally, it's a very unsatisfactory sort of
world, anyway. I think it's affairs might just as well get wound up as
not. There have been plenty of one variety of beings created, I should
think, to fill up lots of room in the starry spaces, and there are so
many to suffer forever."

"It is hardly reverent, dear, for us to criticise God's plans. It is His
world, and we are His creatures; and we may all be happy in Him here, and
there be happy with Him forever. Besides, life does not seem monotonous
when we are doing His will."

"But I know so few who are doing His will save you, and that poor blind
Mr. Bowen. I read my Bible every day, and sometimes I get thinking over
its words, and I reckon there will only be one here and there fit to
enter Heaven. All our friends nearly would be terribly out of place to be
suddenly transplanted to the Heavenly gardens. What could they talk about
to the shining ones? The fashions, and social gossips, and fancy work and
amusements would all be tabooed subjects there, I expect."

"You do not know many people yet. I thank God there are thousands longing
to serve Him. I think, dear, you must have a touch of dyspepsia this
morning; your thoughts are so morbid."

"Oh no, indeed; I am quite well. But shall we see any of those people you
describe in New York?"

"If we stay long enough, doubtless we shall. I have a few rare friends
there whose friendship often gives me the feeling of possessing unlimited
riches."

"