264 AN ODD LIFE.
" As my mother brooded upon this bitter truth," he resumed, when he had refreshed himself, "and saw how sad an illustration of it was her own life — with its sufferings and its mistakes — she could not help wishing existence had been ordered otherwise. If we had had at least two lives, we might profit in the second by the first. But, she told herself, with a sigh, this was vain day-dreaming. Then sud- denly the thought flashed upon her. Granting that more than one life was impossible upon this planet, why should it not be differently distributed ? Suppose, instead of flow- ing on like a stream, one's life progressed like a London street — the odd numbers on the one side and the even on the other, so that after doing the numbers i, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, &c, &c, one could return and do the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, &c, &c. Without craving from Providence more than man's allotted span, what if, by a slight re-arrangement of the years, it were possible to extort an infinitely greater degree of happiness from one's life-time ! What if it were possible to live the odd years, gleaning experience as well as joys, and then to return to the even years, armed with all the wisdom of one's age ! What if her child could enjoy this inestimable privilege ! The thought haunted her, she brooded on it day and night ; and when I was born, she drew me eagerly towards her, as if to see some mark of promise written on my forehead. But a year passed before she dared to think her wish had found fulfilment. On the eve of my first birthday she measured and weighed me with intense anxiety, though pretending to herself she only wished to keep a register of my growth. In the morning I was more by a year's inches and pounds. I had shot up at a bound into my third year, and manifested sudden symptoms of walking and talking. She almost fainted with joy when my unexpected teeth bit her finger. She could not get my
