What can be said of a childhood which even the fairies have failed to touch with the warm glow of affection?
Such a little restless spirit, striving to express itself now in this direction, now in that; yet always actuated by the same constant force, _the desire for work_.

Bernardine seemed to have no special wish to be useful to others; she seemed just to have a natural tendency to work, even as others have a natural tendency to play.

She was always in earnest; life for little Bernardine meant something serious.
Then the years went by.

She grew up and filled her life with many interests and ambitions.

She was at least a worker, if nothing else; she had always been a diligent scholar, and now she took her place as an able teacher.