Daughters, is there no better way to pass the fleeting hours ?" 'The four elder sisters cast down their eyes as if abashed by the holy man's reproof, but Alice raised hers, and bent them mildly on the friar.
'"Our dear mother," said the maiden; "Heaven rest her soul!" '"Amen!" cried the friar in a deep voice.
'"Our dear mother," faltered the fair Alice, "was living when these long tasks began, and bade us, when she should be no more, ply them in all discretion and cheerfulness, in our leisure hours; she said that if in harmless mirth and maidenly pursuits we passed those hours together, they would prove the happiest and most peaceful of our lives, and that if, in later times, we went forth into the world, and mingled with its cares and trials--if, allured by its temptations and dazzled by its glitter, we ever forgot that love and duty which should bind, in holy ties, the children of one loved parent--a glance at the old work of our common girlhood would awaken good thoughts of bygone days, and soften our hearts to affection and love." '"Alice speaks truly, father," said the elder sister, somewhat proudly.
And so saying she resumed her work, as did the others.
'It was a kind of sampler of large size, that each sister had before her; the device was of a complex and intricate description, and the pattern and colours of all five were the same.

The sisters bent gracefully over their work; the monk, resting his chin upon his hands, looked from one to the other in silence.
'"How much better," he said at length, "to shun all such thoughts and chances, and, in the peaceful shelter of the church, devote your lives to Heaven! Infancy, childhood, the prime of life, and old age, wither as rapidly as they crowd upon each other.

Think how human dust rolls onward to the tomb, and turning your faces steadily towards that goal, avoid the cloud which takes its rise among the pleasures of the world, and cheats the senses of their votaries.

The veil, daughters, the veil!" '"Never, sisters," cried Alice.

"Barter not the light and air of heaven, and the freshness of earth and all the beautiful things which breathe upon it, for the cold cloister and the cell.