"Well, I was a-going to go scuttling about just as usual, thinking only of not making any noise lest I should see the general--heeding no more of the grace than of what cook was doing at her fire--when that young gentleman, as is come newly among us, bent forward and began to speak it. The effect upon me was wonderful--it was electric--Mr. Buckminster, you know what I mean; I stood as one arrested--I couldn't have moved or _not_ cared if it had been never so--I really couldn't. It seemed to me as if he truly _was_ thanking God for the good things that were set before them. Their plenty, and their comfort, and their abundance; it seemed to me as if things were opened to my mind--what I had never thought of before--who it was--who _did_ give them, and us after them, all sorts of delicacies, and food, and drink, when others might be wanting a morsel of bread; and I seemed to be standing before Him--I felt need to thank Him with the rest.... All this flashed through me like lightning; but he had done in a moment, and they all sat down." "How beautiful Thomas does talk when he has a mind," whispered the under-housemaid to the under-laundry-maid. "What a fine tall young man he is, and what a gift of the gab." "Well," said the rest, "go on--is there any more?" "Yes, there is more. Someway, I could not get it out of my head--I kept thinking of it all dinner. It was as much as I could do to mind what I was about; and once I made such a clatter in putting a knife and fork upon a plate, that if it hadn't been for the greatest good luck in the world, I should have got it. But the general was talking quite complacent like with the two young gentlemen, and by huge good fortune never heeded." "Well!" "Well, when I got into the pantry and began washing up, I had more time for quiet reflection. And this is what I thought. What a lot of lubberly, inanimated, ungrateful, stupid slaves we all must be. Here serving an earthly master, to the best of our abilities, for a few beggarly pounds, and for his meat and drink and fine clothing; and very well contented, moreover, when there's roast beef of a Sunday, or plum-pudding, and a glass of wine besides on a wedding-day or a birthday; and thank him, and feel pleased with him, and anxious next day to do better than ordinary, mayhap--And there's the Great Master--the Lord and Giver of all, who made us by his hand, and created us by his power, and feeds us by his bounty, and shelters us by his care; and all for no good of his, but ours--simply ours. For what's he to get of it, but the satisfaction of his merciful and generous spirit, when he sees his poor creatures happy?