Oh, mamma, I am sixteen now, and it will soon be time for me to begin taking care of you; but I warn you, I shall never do it by means of the boarders!" "Are you so weak and proud, little daughter, as to be ashamed because I have taken care of you these sixteen years 'by means of the boarders,' as you say ?" "No, no, mamma! Don't think so badly of me as that.

That feeling was outgrown long ago.

Do I not know that it is just as fine and honorable as anything else in the world, and do I not love and honor you with all my heart because you do it in so sweet and dignified a way that everybody respects you for it?
But it is n't my vocation.

I would like to do something different, something wider, something lovelier, if I knew how, and were ever good enough!" "It is easy to 'dream noble things,' dear, but hard to do them 'all day long.' My own feeling is, if one reaches the results one is struggling for, and does one's work as well as it lies in one to do it, that keeping boarders is as good service as any other bit of the world's work.

One is not always permitted to choose the beautiful or glorious task.