One good word deserves another,
But receives more than it deserves.
To-day is the best of all days,
But to-morrow will be better.
Let heaven begin here.
After all my regretful thinking on that journey, which had now come to its end, these words began to fill with meaning. That last injunction, printed in golden threads, sank deeply into my heart and led to this conviction: that the Mill House was one of the outlying provinces of heaven; far removed, maybe, but still as much a part of it as those isles ten thousand miles from London are a part of the British Empire.
Breakfast being ready, I went down after my good friends. The Pearl would not come in.
“Just hand me a little snack,” said he; “I ain't fit to go in.”
He would not yield to urging, and so I brought his breakfast to him, and he sat down and ate at the foot of the stairway.
My mother and sister sat at the table with Mr. McCarthy and me. The manners of the handmade gentleman became exceedingly formal. He spoke only when spoken to, save when he said: