The Brick Moon [93]
to set the good against the evil, that he might have something to distinguish his case from worse, he stated impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts and miseries, thus:--
EVIL. GOOD.
I am cast upon a horrible But I am alive, and not desolate island, void of all drowned as all my hope of recovery. ship's company were.
I am singled out and separated, But I am singled out, as it were, from all the world, to too, from the ship's crew be miserable. to be spared from death.
And so the debtor and creditor account goes on.
Julia Hackmatack read this aloud to them--the whole of it--and they agreed, as Robinson says, not so much for their posterity as to keep their thoughts from daily poring on their trials, that for each family they would make such a balance. What might not come of it? Perhaps a partial nay, perhaps a perfect cure!
So they determined that on the instant they would go to work, and two in the smoking-room, two in the dining- room, two in George's study, and two in the parlor, they should in the next halfhour make up their lists of good and evil. Here are the results:--
FREDERIC AND MARY INGHAM.
GOOD. EVIL.
We have three nice boys But the door-bell rings all and three nice girls. the time.
We have enough to eat, But the coal bill is awful, drink, and wear. and the Larrabee furnace has given out. The firm that made it has gone up, and no castings can be got to mend it.
We have more books than But our friends borrow our we can read, and do not care books, and only return odd to read many newspapers. volumes.
We have many very dear But we are behindhand 143 friends--enough. names on our lists of calls.
We have health in our But the children may be family. sick. The Lowndes children are.
We seem to be of some But Mrs. Hogarth has left use in the world. Fred $200 for the poor, and he is afraid he shall spend it wrong.
The country has gone to the dogs.
GEORGE AND ANNA HALIBURTON.
GOOD. EVIL.
We have a nice home in You cannot give a cup of town, and one in Sharon, and coffee to a beggar but he sends a sea-shore place at Little five hundred million tramps to Gau, and we have friends the door. enough to fill them.
We have some of the nicest A great many people call children in the world. whose names we have forgotten.
We have enough to do, and We have to give a party to not too much. all our acquaintance every year, which is horrid.
Business is good enough, We do not do anything we though complaining. want to do, and we do a great deal that we do not want to do. George had added, "And there is no health in us." But Anna marked that out as wicked.
The children are all well. People vote as if they were possessed.
GEORGE AND JULIA HACKMATACK
GOOD. EVIL.
We have eight splendid The plumbers' work always children. gives way at the wrong time, and the plumbers' bills are awful.
We have money enough, The furnace will not heat the though we know what to do house unless the wind is at the with more. southwest. None of the chimneys draw well.
George will not have to go We hate the Kydd School.
EVIL. GOOD.
I am cast upon a horrible But I am alive, and not desolate island, void of all drowned as all my hope of recovery. ship's company were.
I am singled out and separated, But I am singled out, as it were, from all the world, to too, from the ship's crew be miserable. to be spared from death.
And so the debtor and creditor account goes on.
Julia Hackmatack read this aloud to them--the whole of it--and they agreed, as Robinson says, not so much for their posterity as to keep their thoughts from daily poring on their trials, that for each family they would make such a balance. What might not come of it? Perhaps a partial nay, perhaps a perfect cure!
So they determined that on the instant they would go to work, and two in the smoking-room, two in the dining- room, two in George's study, and two in the parlor, they should in the next halfhour make up their lists of good and evil. Here are the results:--
FREDERIC AND MARY INGHAM.
GOOD. EVIL.
We have three nice boys But the door-bell rings all and three nice girls. the time.
We have enough to eat, But the coal bill is awful, drink, and wear. and the Larrabee furnace has given out. The firm that made it has gone up, and no castings can be got to mend it.
We have more books than But our friends borrow our we can read, and do not care books, and only return odd to read many newspapers. volumes.
We have many very dear But we are behindhand 143 friends--enough. names on our lists of calls.
We have health in our But the children may be family. sick. The Lowndes children are.
We seem to be of some But Mrs. Hogarth has left use in the world. Fred $200 for the poor, and he is afraid he shall spend it wrong.
The country has gone to the dogs.
GEORGE AND ANNA HALIBURTON.
GOOD. EVIL.
We have a nice home in You cannot give a cup of town, and one in Sharon, and coffee to a beggar but he sends a sea-shore place at Little five hundred million tramps to Gau, and we have friends the door. enough to fill them.
We have some of the nicest A great many people call children in the world. whose names we have forgotten.
We have enough to do, and We have to give a party to not too much. all our acquaintance every year, which is horrid.
Business is good enough, We do not do anything we though complaining. want to do, and we do a great deal that we do not want to do. George had added, "And there is no health in us." But Anna marked that out as wicked.
The children are all well. People vote as if they were possessed.
GEORGE AND JULIA HACKMATACK
GOOD. EVIL.
We have eight splendid The plumbers' work always children. gives way at the wrong time, and the plumbers' bills are awful.
We have money enough, The furnace will not heat the though we know what to do house unless the wind is at the with more. southwest. None of the chimneys draw well.
George will not have to go We hate the Kydd School.