"How then do I live?" nearly burst from Ida's heart, but she smothered it, and replied, "It is easier to speak of death than to brave it." "Death! did I say death?" exclaimed Carry. "I saw life as it would be were I bereft of father, sister, friends--and I said truly that it would not be worth the keeping--but death! I would not rush on _that!_ I have such a horror of the winding-sheet and the worm!" She shivered. "Yet you like to be here?" "Yes. This is a sunny, cheerful place, with no fresh graves to remind one that the work of destruction is still going on. I love life. Others may expose its deceits, and weep above its withered blooms; I see blue sky where they fancy clouds. It is the day--the time for action and enjoyment; who would hasten the coming of the night--impenetrable--dawnless!" "'To die--and go--we know not where!'" quoted Ida. "That line conveys all that I fear in death. There have been seasons when the uncertainty shrouding the abyss beyond alone prevented my courting its embrace. Were it eternal forgetfulness, how grateful would be its repose. Looking around me here, I think of calm sleepers under these stones, hands folded meekly upon bosoms that will never heave again; of aching heads and wearied spirits at rest forever." "You are too young to covet this dreamless slumber," said Carry "With your talents and facilities you have a work to do in this world." "What can I do? and for whom?" "Why--for every body." "Too wide a scope--define. For example, what are my school-duties, setting aside my studies?" "We can help each other," was the modest rejoinder. "We can impart pleasure, and avoid giving pain. Not a day passes in which we cannot add a drop of sweet to the appointed draught of some one of our fellow-creatures." "Apropos to honey--it suggests its opposite, gall, and our ei-devant professor. I have not thanked you for your generous interference in my behalf, on the day of our fracas," said Ida, with an ease and cordiality that surprised herself. "You magnify the favor. I spoke the truth. To withhold it would have been dishonesty." "Dishonesty!" "Your character for veracity was assailed. I had the proof which would establish it. I should have felt like a receiver of stolen goods had I concealed it." "Moreover, to your philanthropy, I was not an individual, but the impersonation of the sisterhood;" said Ida, jestingly. "Perhaps so," returned Carry, in a like strain. "You remember the 'Young Ladies' Female meeting.'" "That was a piece of Ellen Morris' grandiloquence. Do you know, I envy that girl her faculty of creating mirth wherever she goes!" "I had rather be Emma Glenn," said Carry. "One is witty, the other affectionate, and they will receive respectively admiration and love."