The son answered: “I will not be left out of the struggle now that I see my duty plainer.”
Their father thanked them and when they had left the room said to their mother:
“We must encourage them more, for it is a hardship to see suffering when you cannot relieve it.”
CHAPTER II.
Professor Longrin had been appointed to select the missionaries in the different worlds. Princess and Lord Justring were talking over their children’s discouragement with the professor, for they were feeling quite badly over their desire to give it up.
“The people of the Earth have my sympathy,” said the Princess, “and we must find some one who will be willing to devote their time to reaching them. Many public school children among the poor are so hungry that they cannot study in many of the large cities. Then you will hear a great cry go up, ‘A bank has failed for $400,000, or perhaps more, the savings of widows and orphans, all lost by speculating.’ The bank failure seems by far the most important to the inhabitants. Buildings are erected to keep and protect money in that cost more than would support all the poor little starving children in the world. Just consider all the labor that is thrown away in earning all those millions besides the amount stored in them. Then think of the temptation to rob by those in charge when money means so much to every one.”
Professor Longrin told Princess Justring that she could take up work with her children and possibly she could encourage them by her experience for a time at least.
In a few days she with her daughter called upon a young married friend who had twin babies, and while there one of the public officers called to present the young mother with her babies’ card entitling them to draw upon the government for their support. The quiet and matter-of-fact way that the mother accepted it recalled to Miss Justring’s mind the difference between the mothers on the Planet Venus and those on the Planet Earth, so she said to the happy mother:
“You may be glad that you don’t live on the Planet Earth, with two babies at once to care for.”
“Why, I don’t see what difference it makes whether there is one or two, in fact it seems to me better for them because they will always be such companions and I think any mother would be glad.”