oughts wandering again. "I believe I like them better
now than I do in summer. Now they are like the things you wish for, and
in the summer they are like the things you get; and the things you get
are never half as nice as the things you wish for."

This was too subtle for Christopher. "I like them best with the leaves
on; but anyhow they are nicer to look at than the chimneys that we see
from our house. You can't think how gloomy it is for your rooms to look
out on nothing but smoke and chimneys and furnaces. When you go to bed
at night it's all red, and when you get up in the morning it's all
black."

"I should like to live in a house like that. I love the smoke and the
chimneys and the furnaces--they are all so big and strong and full of
life; and they make you think."

"What on earth do they make you think about?"

Elisabeth's gray eyes grew dreamy. "They make me think that the Black
Country is a wilderness that we are all travelling through; and over it
there is always the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by
night, to tell us which way to go. I make up tales to myself about the
people in the wilderness; and how they watch the pillar, and how it
keeps them from idling in their work, or selling bad iron, or doing
anything that is horrid or mean, because it is a sign to them that God
is with them, just as it used to be to the Children of Israel."

Christopher looked up from his work. Here was the old problem: Elisabeth
did not think about religion half as much as he did, and yet the helpful
and beautiful thoughts came to her and not to him. Still, it was
comforting to know that the smoke and the glare, which he had hated,
could convey such a message; and he made up his mind not to hate them
any more.

"And then I pretend that the people come out of the wilderness and go to
live in the country over there," Elisabeth continued, pointing to the
distant hills; "and I make up lovely tales about that country, and all
the beautiful things there. That is what is so nice about hills: you
always think there are such wonderful places on the other side of them."

For some minutes Christopher worked silently, and Elisabeth watched him.
Then the latter said suddenly:

"Isn't it funny that you never hate people in a morning, however much
you may have hated them the night before?"

"Don't you?" Rapid changes of sentiment were beyond Christopher's
comprehension. He was by no means a variable person.

"Oh! no.