"What are your rules of life then, let us hear, oh, Oracle!--we listen with respect!" Halcyone reddened a little and a gleam grew in her wise eyes.

She would have refused to reply, but looking at her revered master, she saw that he was awaiting her answer with an encouraging smile.

So she thought a second and then said calmly, measuring her words: "Things are what we make them, they have no power in themselves; they are as inanimate as this wood--" and she touched the table with her fine brown hand.

"It is we ourselves who give them activity.

So it is our own faults if they are bad--they could just as easily be good.