She had forgiven Samantha, she was ready to be on good terms with Miss
Vilda, she was at peace with all the world. That she was eating the
bread of dependence did not trouble her in the least! No royal visitor,
conveying honor by her mere presence, could have carried off a delicate
situation with more distinguished grace and ease. She was perched on a
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, and immediately began blowing bubbles
in her mug of milk in the most reprehensible fashion; and glancing up
after each naughty effort with an irrepressible gurgle of laughter, in
which she looked so bewitching, even with a milky crescent over her red
mouth, that she would have melted the heart of the most predestinate old
misogynist in Christendom.
Timothy was not so entirely at his ease. His eyes had looked into life
only a few more summers, but their "radiant morning visions" had been
dispelled; experience had tempered joy. Gay, however, had not arrived at
an age where people's motives can be suspected for an instant. If there
had been any possible plummet with which to sound the depths of her
unconscious philosophy, she apparently looked upon herself as a guest
out of heaven, flung down upon this hospitable planet with the single
responsibility of enjoying its treasures.
O happy heart of childhood! Your simple creed is rich in faith, and
trust, and hope. You have not learned that the children of a common
Father can do aught but love and help each other.
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