"Barby is very poor," said Mrs. Plumfield; "she has nothing but her own earnings to support herself and her old mother, and now, I suppose, her sister and her child; for Hetty is a poor thing never did much, and now I suppose does nothing."
"Are those Finns poor, aunt Miriam?"
"O no not at all they are very well off."
"So I thought they seemed to have plenty of everything, and silver spoons and all. But why then do they go out to work?"
"They are a little too fond of getting money, I expect," said aunt Miriam. "And they are a queer sort of people rather the mother is queer, and the children are queer they aint like other folks exactly never were."
"I am very glad we are to have Barby, instead of that Lucy Finn," said Fleda. "Oh, aunt Miriam! you can't think how much easier my heart feels."
"Poor child!" said aunt Miriam, looking at her. "But it isn't best, Fleda, to have things work too smooth in this world."
"No, I suppose not," said Fleda, sighing. "Isn't it very strange, aunt Miriam, that it should make people worse instead of better to have everything go pleasantly with them?"
"It is because they are apt then to be so full of the present, that they forget the care of the future."
"Yes, and forget there is anything better than the present, I suppose," said Fleda.