L. I couldn't think what you were about. I saw your French grammar
lying on the grass behind you, and thought perhaps you had gone to
ask the ants to hear you a French verb.
ISABEL. Ah! but you didn't, though!
L. Why not, Isabel? I knew, well enough, Lily couldn't learn that
verb by herself.
ISABEL. No; but the ants couldn't help her.
L. Are you sure the ants could not have helped you, Lily?
LILY (thinking). I ought to have learned something from them,
perhaps.
L. But none of them left their sticks to help you through the
irregular verb?
LILY. No, indeed. (Laughing, with some others.)
L. What are you laughing at, children? I cannot see why the ants
should not have left their tasks to help Lily in hers,--since here
is Violet thinking she ought to leave HER tasks, to help God in
his. Perhaps, however, she takes Lily's more modest view, and
thinks only that "He ought to learn something from her."
(Tears in VIOLET'S eyes.)
DORA (scarlet). It's too bad--it's a shame:--poor Violet!
L. My dear children, there's no reason why one should be so red,
and the other so pale, merely because you are made for a moment to
feel the absurdity of a phrase which you have been taught to use,
in common with half the religious world.
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