"In the past times, when those big houses of which grandfather speaks were so plenty, we _must_ have lived in a cottage whether we had liked it or not; and the said cottage, instead of having in it everything we want, would have been bare and empty.

We should not have got enough to eat; our clothes would have been ugly to look at, dirty and frowsy.

You, grandfather, have done no hard work for years now, but wander about and read your books and have nothing to worry you; and as for me, I work hard when I like it, because I like it, and think it does me good, and knits up my muscles, and makes me prettier to look at, and healthier and happier.

But in those past days you, grandfather, would have had to work hard after you were old; and would have been always afraid of having to be shut up in a kind of prison along with other old men, half-starved and without amusement.

And as for me, I am twenty years old.