BUBBLES

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Other men have succeeded. She shall be rich now!

 

T blow and blow, and the bubble bursts! All gone,
gone in a flash,— the savings of years! Ruined!

 

T hurry home — though it is but the middle of the day.
No one there. I sit down to think. Ruined? Not a bit
of it. Have n't I health and honesty and_ strength ?
Have n’t I Father and Mother and have n’t I Mary and
have n't I young Joe?

With this thought, and hearing our Ponto give a brisk
questioning bark of attention, and Joe calling me, I stepped
to the back window and looked out. Surely enough, there
sat my little man, and if the young scamp was n’t blowing
bubbles! And, if you'll believe me, the little gir] next door
was leaning out of the window watching him! Just then,
Mary came in,—I mean just now, for the fact is I’m
writing about this very day. And both Mary and I think
it is n’t such a very dreadful thing, after all, to lose a few
hundred dollars, for I have my. clerkship yet, and I’m
determined never to speculate with my savings again.
No, I’m going to be a steady, faithful, hard-working fel-
low, and Mary and Mother and Joe and I are going to be
just as comfortable and happy as birds — and — and —

You see, I am blowing this new bubble so slowly and
cautiously in the sunlight that I know it will be all safe.
And right in the heart of it I see Mary—Mary who has
looked brightly up at me from every bubble that I have
ever blown in all my hfe.