'The first of any
Seem the happiest years that come.'"
"Well, of course!" said Mrs. Lenox. "Does not everybody say so?"
Nobody answered.
"Does not everybody agree in that judgment, Miss Lothrop?" urged the gentleman.
"I dare say—everybody looking from that standpoint," said Lois. "And the poets write accordingly. They are all of them seeing shadows."
"How can they help seeing shadows?" returned Mrs. Lenox impatiently.
"The shadows are there!"
"Yes," said Lois, "the shadows are there." But there was a reservation in her voice.
"Do not you, then, reckon the years of childhood the happiest?" Mr.
Lenox inquired.
"No."
"But you cannot have had much experience of life," said Mrs. Lenox, "to say so. I don't see how they can help being the happiest, to any one."