t same thing to her myself--afterwards.
And then I told her--when I found out myself, you know--about its being
what was inside of you, after all, that counted; and then is when I
asked her if she couldn't think of something nice that was going to
happen to her sometime."

"Well, what did she say?"

"She shook her head, and said 'No.' Then she looked away, and her eyes
got soft and dark like little pools in the brook where the water stops
to rest. And she said she had hoped once that this something would
happen; but that it hadn't, and that it would take something more than
thinking to bring it. And I know now what she meant, because thinking
isn't all that counts, is it?"

Mr. Jack did not answer. He had risen to his feet, and was pacing
restlessly up and down the veranda. Once or twice he turned his eyes
toward the towers of Sunnycrest, and David noticed that there was a new
look on his face.

Very soon, however, the old tiredness came back to his eyes, and he
dropped into his seat again, muttering "Fool! of course it couldn't
be--that!"

"Be what?" asked David.

Mr. Jack started.

"Er--nothing; nothing that you would understand, David. Go on--with
what you were saying."

"There isn't any more. It's all done. It's only that I'm wondering how
I'm going to learn here that it's a beautiful world, so that I
can--tell father."

Mr. Jack roused himself. He had the air of a man who determinedly
throws to one side a heavy burden.

"Well, David," he smiled, "as I said before, you are still out on that
sea where there are so many little upturned boats. There might be a
good many ways of answering that question."

"Mr. Holly says," mused the boy, aloud, a little gloomily, "that it
doesn't make any difference whether we find things beautiful or not;
that we're here to do something serious in the world."

"That is about what I should have expected of Mr. Holly" retorted Mr.
Jack grimly. "He acts it--and looks it. But--I don't believe you are
going to tell your father just that."

"No, sir, I don't believe I am," accorded David soberly.

"I have an idea that you're going to find that answer just where your
father said you would--in your violin. See if you don't. Things that
aren't beautiful you'll make beautiful--because we find what we are
looking for, and you're looking for beautiful things. After all, boy,
if we march straight ahead, chin up, and sing our own little song with
all our might and main, we shan't