That was Flora's utterance. Meredith, however, sat looking very gravely into the water, which was rolling its little waves along at his feet far below. The sun had got lower while he had been reading; the lights and colours were changing; shadows fell from the hill-tops and began to lie broad on the river, cast from the western shore; but all softened in the haze, which now was getting in a strange way transfused with light; and a few little flecks of cloud were taking on the most delicate hues. "Mr. Murray," Meredith broke out, "that story is not exaggerated? I mean, the doing of the people in the story is not, is it?" "Miss Flora thinks so." "Don't you, Mr. Murray?" said the young lady. "Let us hear your reasons, please." "Well, Mr. Murray, surely life is given to us for something besides bare work. We are meant to be happy and enjoy ourselves a little, aren't we?" "Most certainly." "Those good men,--I dare say they were good men,--seem to me to have been mistaken." "You think, for instance, they might have kept some of their New Year's money to buy their wives new dresses?" "Yes; or to get a good dinner, which I suppose they never had; or a carpet, suppose, for the bit of a room they lived in." "What do you say, Esther?" "Oh, I think just as Flora does, Uncle Eden. I think those people were very extravagant." "Maggie?" "Uncle Eden, I do not know if they were extravagant; but it seems to me they might have kept a _little_ for their own New Year." "You all overlook one thing." "What is that, sir?" several voices asked eagerly. "Those good men were not acting so very contrary to your principle. They were doing, every one of them, what gave him the most pleasure with his money. That is what I understand you to advocate. The only difference is, that they found their pleasure in one thing, and you would find yours in another." "But, Mr. Murray," Meredith began. "Yes, Mr. Murray," said Flora eagerly taking the words out of her brother's mouth, "you have really not said anything. The question comes round,--_ought_ we to find our pleasure in what they did, and in nothing else?" "That is not the right way of putting it. The Lord does not demand that, nor desire it; but that we should seek _first_ the kingdom of God. You may remember too that the spirit of our life, if we are Christians, must be the same as Christ's; for 'if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.' Now the motto of His life was, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.' And that, Miss Flora, must make pleasing God the great pleasure of a child of God." "That is what I think," said Meredith. "Then are we to have no pleasure?" Flora repeated. "I mean, no pleasure of our own?" "I have been trying to explain that. I do not know any pleasure much sweeter than pleasing some one that we dearly love; do you?" Flora looked very gloomy.