ere's a
heap more in the cuttin' out and the sewin' than there is in the
caliker. The same sort o' things comes into all lives, jest as the
Apostle says, 'There hath no trouble taken you but is common to all
men.'

"The same trouble'll come into two people's lives, and one'll take it
and make one thing out of it, and the other'll make somethin' entirely
different. There was Mary Harris and Mandy Crawford. They both lost
their husbands the same year; and Mandy set down and cried and worried
and wondered what on earth she was goin' to do, and the farm went to
wrack and the children turned out bad, and she had to live with her
son-in-law in her old age. But Mary, she got up and went to work, and
made everybody about her work, too; and she managed the farm better'n
it ever had been managed before, and the boys all come up steady,
hard-workin' men, and there wasn't a woman in the county better fixed
up than Mary Harris. Things is predestined to come to us, honey, but
we're jest as free as air to make what we please out of 'em. And when
it comes to puttin' the pieces together, there's another time when
we're free. You don't trust to luck for the caliker to put your quilt
together with; you go to the store and pick it out yourself, any
color you like. There's folks that always looks on the bright side and
makes the best of everything, and that's like puttin' your quilt
together with blue or pink or white or some other pretty color; and
there's folks that never see anything but the dark side, and always
lookin' for trouble, and treasurin' it up after they git it, and
they're puttin' their lives together with black, jest like you would
put a quilt together with some dark, ugly color. You can spoil the
prettiest quilt pieces that ever was made jest by puttin' 'em together
with the wrong color, and the best sort o' life is miserable if you
don't look at things right and think about 'em right.

"Then there's another thing. I've seen folks piece and piece, but when
it come to puttin' the blocks together and quiltin' and linin' it,
they'd give out; and that's like folks that do a little here and a
little there, but their lives ain't of much use after all, any more'n
a lot o' loose pieces o' patchwork. And then while you're livin' your
life, it looks pretty much like a jumble o' quilt pieces before
they're put together; but when you git through with it, or pretty nigh
through, as I am now, you'll see the use and the purpose of every