CHAPTER V
THE LAW OF LAUGHTER
The Mortons were sitting on their porch on a warm evening waving fans and trying to think that the coming night promised comfortable sleep. The Ethels sat on the upper step, Roger was stretched on the floor at one side, Helen sat beside her mother’s hammock which she kept in gentle motion by an occasional movement of her hand, and Dicky was dozing in a large chair. In a near-by tree an insect insisted that “Katy did,” and in the grass a cricket chirruped its shrill call.
“I do feel that Aunt Louise’s being able to build this pretty house after all her years of wandering is about the nicest thing that ever happened out of a fairy story,” murmured Helen softly to her mother, but loudly enough for the others to hear.
“There are people who talk about the law of compensation,” smiled Mrs. Morton in the darkness. “They think that if one good is lacking in our lives other goods take its place.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I believe that everything that happens to us comes because we have obeyed or disobeyed God’s laws. Sometimes we are quite unconscious of disobeying them, but the law has to work out just as if we knew all about it.”
“For instance?” came a deep voice from the floor, indicating that Roger had awakened.
“Do you remember the time you walked off the end of the porch one day?”
“I should say I did! My nose aches at the mere thought of it.”
“You didn’t know anything about the law of gravitation, but the law worked in your case just as if you had known all about it.”