"Ain't Shadywalk big enough for a little mite of a thing like her?"
"I don't know," said the minister. "'Big enough' depends upon what she wants, or what anybody wants. I knew a man once who said he had seen everything in the world there was to be seen, and he was quite at a loss what to do with himself. You perceive the world was not 'big enough' for him. And another man once wrote, 'My mind to me a kingdom is.' Difference of taste, you see."
"That first fellow thought his head was only made to set his eyes in, I s'pose," said the housekeeper dryly.
"Seemed to be all the use he had for it," said the minister.
"But that other man," said Matilda,—"was he contented with himself all alone, and wanted nothing else?"
"I hope not," said Mr. Richmond smiling. "That's a new view of the case. Your king David hit the truth more surely," he went on addressing David, "when he said, 'The Lord is the portion of my inheritance.'"
David's eye brightened; but then he said,
"I have read the words, but I never understood exactly what he meant."
"Your people, you remember, on taking possession of the promised land, had it divided to them by lot; each tribe and family took its share as it was portioned out to them by Joshua."
"Yes, I know," David answered.