y could
appreciate heat if it were not for cold, or light if there were no darkness. Hunger compels us to search for food; thirst seeks satisfaction in drink, and ambition in the search for personal advancement. It often unconsciously assists the weak by its efforts, when it intends to help nothing but the personal selfishness that inspires it. Everything, both good and evil, is a part of the eternal programme."
"Where did you imbibe such ideas as you often express on this subject? "asked her father, a great pride in her springing afresh in his heart.
"From the stars, I guess, or from the angels. Or maybe they were born within me. I never could reconcile myself to the generally accepted idea of gratitude. To thank God for blessings we enjoy that are not accessible to others, to me is nothing else but blasphemy."
"Then you cannot say with the poet, —
"' Some hae meat, and canna eat.
And some would eat that want it; But we hae meat, and we can eat, Sae let the Lord be thankit! ' "
said Mrs. Benson, who had been looking on in silence.
"Indeed I can't!" exclaimed Jean. "But we've all heard just such prayers and praises through all our lives."
"Nobody in normal health has any right to be thankful for anything unless he earns it," said the Captain; "and then he has nobody to thank but himself."
"He ought to be thankful for health, at least," suggested Marjorie.
"If you'd follow your logic to its natural sequence. Captain, my occupation would be gone," laughed the Little Doctor. "It is as unnatural and unscientific to be sick as to be hungry; therefore there should be no doctors."
"I can see no analogy between your conclusions and my observations," said the Captain.
