'What makes you mention money, Chris?'
'I don't know exactly, except that it came into my head to-night, that if everybody had just a little more, everything would be right. But then I suppose when they had just that little more, they would want just a little more?'
'That is in uncle Bryan's style. Chris, I think you are clever!'
'I don't know, Jessie; Mr. Eden is pleased with me, and says I shall get along very well. I would like to; I would like to be rich.'
She mimicked uncle Bryan: 'You would like to be rich! You would like the moon! Open your mouth, and what you would like will drop into it.'
I laughed at the imitation, which was perfect, and said, 'Well, I suppose it is all nonsense--wishing, wishing! Uncle Bryan would be right if he said that, Jessie, and it's just what he would say, if he had the opportunity. Most of the great men I've read about had to work and wait for success. The other night, when uncle Bryan was in one of his amiable moods, he said that success was like the robbers' cavern in The Forty Thieves, and that there was one magic key which would always open it. When I asked him what that key was, he said, Earnestness.'
'That's one of the things that uncle Bryan would never give me credit for.'
'Uncle Bryan is very unjust and very unkind. Let us turn back and walk a little. The night is so beautiful and I feel so happy at this minute that I should like it to last for ever.' Jessie's hand stole into mine, and I held it close; the silence that followed was broken by Jessie.
'Why would you like to be rich, Chris?'
'For your sake, Jessie, more than for my own. If I could give you all that you desired, I shouldn't wish for anything more.'