ding the
probable results was an idle waste of time. And she likewise knew
instinctively that fear of inability to solve them would paralyze her
efforts and insure defeat at the outset.

Nor could she force solutions to correspond to what she might think
they ought to be--as mankind attempt to force the solving of their
life problems to correspond to human views. She was glad to work out
her problems in the only way they could be solved. Love, humility,
obedience, enabled her to understand and correctly apply the principle
to her tasks. The results were invariable--harmony and exceeding joy.

Jose had learned another lesson. Again that little hand had softly
swept his harp of life. And again he breathed in unison with its
vibrating chords a deep "Thank God!"

"Padre dear." Carmen looked up from a brown study. "What does zero
really mean?"

"It stands for nothing, child," the priest made reply, wondering what
was to follow this introduction.

"And the minus sign in algebra is different from the one in
arithmetic. What does it mean?"

"Less than nothing."

"But, Padre, if God is all, how can you say there is nothing, or less
than nothing?"

The priest had his answer ready. "They are only human ways of
thinking, _chiquita_. The plus sign always represents something
positive; the minus, something negative. The one is the opposite of
the other."

"Is there an opposite to everything, Padre?"

The priest hesitated. Then:

"No, _chiquita_--not a _real_ opposite. But," he added hastily, "we
may suppose an opposite to everything."

A moment's pause ensued. "That is what makes people sick and unhappy,
isn't it, Padre?"

"What, child?" in unfeigned surprise.

"Supposing an opposite to God. Supposing that there can be nothing,
when He is everywhere. Doesn't all trouble come from just supposing
things that are not so?"

Whence came such questions to the mind of this child? And why did they
invariably lead to astonishing deductions in his own? Why did he
often give a great start as it dawned again upon him that he was not
talking to one of mature age, but to a babe?

He tore a strip from the paper in his hand. Relatively the paper had
lost in size and quantity, and there was a distinct separation.
Absolutely, such a thing was an impossibility. The plus was always
positive and real; the minus was always relative, and stood for
unreality. And so it was throughout the entire realm of thought.
_Every real thing has