It ain't in it to
give happiness. I know, partly because I have tried, and it has failed
me, and partly because I am told that `a man's life consisteth not in
the abundance of the things that he possesseth.'

"Well, now, if that is so, will you tell me why there ain't one man in
ten thousand who believes it, or at least who acts as if he believed it?
Why is all the world chasing after wealth, as if it were the one thing
for body and soul? If money ain't worth having, why hasn't somebody
found it out, and set the world right about it before now?"

"As to money not being worth the having, I never said that. What I say
is, that God never meant that mere wealth should make a man happy. That
has been found out times without number; but as to setting the world
right about it, I expect that is one of the things that each man must
learn by experience. Most folks do learn it after a while, in one way
or other."

"Well," said Mr Green, gravely, "you look as if you believed what you
say, and you look as if you enjoyed life pretty well too. If it ain't
your property that makes you happy, what is it?"

"It ain't my property, _sartain_," said Mr Snow, with emphasis. "I
know I shouldn't be any happier if I had twice as much. And I am sure I
shouldn't be less happy if I hadn't half as much; my happiness rests on
a surer foundation than anything I have got."

He paused, casting about in his thoughts for just the right word to
say--something that might be as "a fire and a hammer" to the softening
and breaking of that world-hardened heart.

"He _does_ look as if he believed what he was saying," Mr Green was
thinking to himself. "It is just possible he might give me a hint. He
don't look like a man who don't practise as he preaches." Aloud, he
said,--

"Come, now, go ahead. What has cured one, may help another, you know.
Give us your idea as to what is a sure foundation for a man's
happiness."

Mr Snow looked gravely into his face and said,

"Blessed is the man who feareth the Lord."

"Blessed is the man whose trust the Lord is."

"Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered."

"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose
spirit there is no guile."

Mr Green's eye fell before his earnest gaze. It came into his mind
that if there was happiness to be found in the world, this man had found
it. But it seemed a happiness very far-away from him--quite beyond his