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SKETCHES. 311
I do not know whether Alexander the Great, or whether
the still greater Napoleon, ever knew real happiness. I do
not know whether the possession of the whole world could
have given them contentment; and yet this, the highest
for which they struggled, which they needed, was given to
a poor beggar woman in a ray of sunlight, and a morsel of
dry bread. :
And J, who in the silent shadow of an unnoticed life
ought sooner to find the hidden violet of happiness, but
who find so little enjoyment in many gifts of fortune, I feel
that I possess less than thou, poor and yet wealthy woman.
I have envied thee thy smile and thy glance so free from
care. ;
By way of penitence I will at once make a pilgrimage
across the street to thee, saint of rags, and humbly offering
my little gift at thy shrine, earn from thee a “ God bless
you!” “Amen!” TI shall say silently, and pray that He, -
as His best gift, may give me thy patient contentment. I
gave her my mite and returned home.
In the window opposite, the young gentleman and the
young lady stood side by side. They smiled. The old
beggar-woman smiled with silent satisfaction, and the sun
was smiling over us all. My bad temper had vanished,
and I smiled likewise.
THE SISTERS.
Nover writers have planted the world’s fields full of a
flower called love; and every one, who, like me at the age
of ten years, has collected an herbarium of knowledge of
mankind only in their gardens, expects at his first peep
into the real world to see the beauteous, wonderful flower
blooming in the verdant summer groves; on the frozen
-snow-hill; in the park ; on the heath; in the valley and on
the mountain-tops ; at sea and on shore; in every cottage ;
in every palace, and especially in the road-side inns — but,
like me, he will be grievously deccived.
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