. The book of months . ■.:\.i\i::f ■^St THE BOOK OF MONTHS was as happy as it was in my power to make I been a telegraph boy I should have donewell if I had delivered my telegrams withoutloitering; had Margery lived I should have donewell to have given my life for that. But she didnot live, and I am too old to be a telegraph I have had a great joy, and it is great be-cause she did not know how hardly it was that is my record. That is the sum earnedand the credit already given in thirty does not look at all promising when the addi-tion comes. Hesitatingly, as
. The book of months . ■.:\.i\i::f ■^St THE BOOK OF MONTHS was as happy as it was in my power to make I been a telegraph boy I should have donewell if I had delivered my telegrams withoutloitering; had Margery lived I should have donewell to have given my life for that. But she didnot live, and I am too old to be a telegraph I have had a great joy, and it is great be-cause she did not know how hardly it was that is my record. That is the sum earnedand the credit already given in thirty does not look at all promising when the addi-tion comes. Hesitatingly, as I sat in the shelter, I putdown another item to the sum earned, which isthis: I still have a childlike pleasure in littlethings; I can play soldiers with absorbing zest;1 can imagine that I am a white man in tropicalforests who has to get through with tricks thatpresuppose an almost pitiable stupidity on thepart of my enemies. I can devote twice asmuch energy to the flowering of a nastur-158 Sk^K^;; ■ ■■A:. JULY tium as Mr. Pierpont Morgan finds it neces-sary to give to the formation of a companywith a capital of thirty million dollars. That,with all deference to financiers, is an ad-vantage. My nasturtium, in fact, impliesas much energy as his colossal schemes, andit does not hurt anybody, except, perhaps,the nasturtium. Meantime it unloads me ofmy force, and, considering what harm force cando, it is a great saving of suffering to expend itharmlessly. If I was richer I would have astring quartet attached to this villa, and I wouldspend my force in devising programmes and rec-onciling the second fiddle and the viola. ButI am not, and the string quartet have yet to beengaged. I know whom I shall have, and I shallbe much disappointed if they have made otherengagements. For happiness consists not in getting athing, but in hoping that one may get satisfaction walks surfeit. But to keep159 ■ ^ .^ ft *-. ■■■■■ ■• ■-—=
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