Alice was playing with the fishes and the swans in the garden, and the husband and wife were sitting by an open window, gazing out upon the city.
"Brother Volmer has not been to see us yet," said he. "You remember he was our brother Sardus?"
"I remember him well," she answered.
"His musical talent is now of great blessing to himself and to the cause of God, as he is a musical director in the Temple. He understands now why he lost his hearing while in mortality, and he praises God for his then seeming misfortune."
"Husband," said she, "I am thinking again about our children. How long will it be before we shall receive them all?"
"Not long now; but each in his order. Leave that to the Lord."
They looked out at Alice. The swans were eating from her hand, and she was stroking their curved necks.
"To look back," said he, "and see the wonderful ways through which the Lord has brought us to this perfection, fills my heart with praise to Him. Now we are beyond the power of death and the evil one. Now the pure, life-giving spirit of God flows in our veins instead of the blood of mortality. Now we can know the two sides of things. We understand the good, because we have been in contact with the evil. Our joy is perfect, because we have experienced pain and sorrow. We know what life is, eternal life, because we have passed through the ordeal of death."
"Yes, Father teaches a good school."
"And we have learned this truth," said she, "that existence itself is a continuous penalty or reward. The children of God reap as they sow from eternity to eternity."