Katherine Merritte Snyder Yates

“ I always know that it is a lesson and that part of it is coming to me, when I find that I have something that it fits, among my own belongings."
"And then?"
"Oh, dear!" said Marjorie, "You ask so many questions that you spoil all of my egotism."
The Dream laughed. "That's fine," he said. "Anything that can be spoiled by questions, is pretty good stuff to get rid of. If we have anything that shies at questions, then questions are the things to make it walk right up to, without blinders;—and if it bolts,—good riddance! ”

“ Marjorie leaned back against the tree, looking long and deep into the great picture spread before her;—long and long she looked, until her eyes grew great and her breath came strong and full. "No price looks too large to pay for anything worth while, when I am here on the hill-top," she said. "I am going to try to stay here all the time, and to bring up here to me, all of the lessons that I must learn, and to give from here all of the things that I have to give; for when I am here I can see where everything belongs, and I don't even know how to be a misfit." ”

“ If you had a single focus that would cover the big and beautiful things at the same time as the near and definite ones, you wouldn't get any jolts, would you?"
"N-no," said Marjorie, "but my eyes don't seem to be built that way."
"Humph!" said the Dream. "We lay lots of things to our 'build,' when it is nothing but habit and laziness that is the trouble. ”

“ Can't you see that?"
"Yes," said Marjorie slowly. "Yes, if they really fully understood all that it meant, they wouldn't want to do wrong things; and even if they wanted to, they wouldn't dare. I see that. And then I suppose that it is for every one of us to try to help everybody else to know and to understand as much good as we know and understand ourselves. Is that what you mean? But how can we, without seeming to—to 'preach'?"
The girl looked at Marjorie again with very level eyes. "Just by living it," she said gravely, "and by having your hand always ready." ”

“ Marjorie sat still on the top of the high hill and gazed around. "Oh," she said breathlessly, "isn't it wonderful!"
"There's one nice thing about you," said the Dream, "You don't admire things with a falling inflection."
Marjorie looked puzzled. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"Why," said the Dream, "haven't you known people who admire things with a falling inflection or a whine?" ”

“ I am afraid that I do a whole lot of my kindnesses from so close up to the 'Me' mole-hill, that I don't lose sight of it at all, but keep it right in the picture, to see how the kindnesses look with it in the foreground, or the background, or somewhere."
"There is nothing so very original about doing that," said the Dream.
"But that doesn't help me any," said Marjorie. "It hasn't any business to be always getting around in the way."
"It does mess up the landscape considerably," said the Dream. ”

“ Just then the girl with a sweet face came around the brow of the hill, leading by the hand a very soiled, bedraggled little child who was eating hungrily, a bit of bread. Marjorie had sprung up at the first glimpse of the girl, but when she saw the bedraggled child, she hesitated, half drawing back. The girl glanced down at the muddy little one. "She is in a pretty bad way, isn't she?" she said, smiling; "—ragged and hungry, but the raggeder and hungrier she is, the more she needs my help, doesn't she?" ”

“ Everything has its place, but don't be lazy and go and lie down beside it and let it cut off all the rest of the view.
"I see," said Marjorie, thoughtfully, "A single eye gives you balance and the right idea of composition in your picture, and keeps the little things from shutting off the big ones. ”

“ One hates to be talked about or laughed at even if one does know that it doesn't really matter as long as one is doing the best that she knows how."
"It isn't pleasant," said the Dream, "but you are right, it really doesn't matter. If you start to worrying about what people say, then your troubles really will begin."
"And the next group," said Marjorie, "just looked me over as if I were a dummy in a new style of frock or a polar bear or something ”

“ And in the opposite direction, just about as far off, were steep green mountains with big tumbles of clouds about their tops, and cloud shadows creeping across the deep gulches and the sharp shoulders, and down below were ponds divided off into squares like mirrors and reflecting the very bluest sky and the sunniest clouds that you ever dreamed of. ”

“ The Dream was walking along on Marjorie's other side; and presently, when she stopped to help the little one down over a steep place in the trail, the Dream sniffed. "Is it grateful for all your trouble?" he asked.
Marjorie looked at him as the girl had looked at her. "I don't know and I'm not asking," she said. "She needs me and I'm helping her,—that's my part, to do as wisely as I know how; the rest of it is her problem. We're both of us learning lessons, and the more that we learn by love and kindness, the less we'll have to learn by hard knocks ”

“ That's a good sign. Most folks think that spot-lights are just to light up other people, or else their own show-windows, and never think about turning them on the little dark personal cellars, and attics, and cubby-holes that they keep all shut up tight. I wonder why."
"I think it's because we're afraid of our cellars and attics and the things that may be shut up there," said Marjorie. "I've found a lot of ugly little objects lurking around in those places, and plenty of them wearing masks that you don't notice until you turn on the light. ”

“ Why, that's what it means by 'making mountains out of mole-hills.' If you go and lie down with your face up close to a mole-hill, it can shut out all of the mountains on earth while you stay there,—and all of the other beautiful things in the world. ”

“ No matter how big you are or how big you grow to be, on the outside, if you are not wise and kind inside, you will make mistakes, and you can't really correct them until you learn better ways, and you can learn those only by studying the best in you and by coming near to those who are wiser and kinder than you are ”

“ Presently she began to fidget, and in a few minutes more she rose up and bade them good-bye and, after another glance at the Dream, she walked toward the next group. The children there greeted her as had the others, and again she sat down. This time she sat a little longer, though even more uncomfortably, and presently she arose again and said good-bye and turned toward a group fartheron, while those whom she had left looked after her, and one of them said something at which the others laughed. ”

“ She said that if, when he came and tried to make friends with them, they scolded him and sent him away and accused him of following them to steal their meat, and threw stones at him,—then, right while they were looking, he would begin to get bigger and bigger and they would have to drop everything and run for their lives,—and even then they didn't always escape him. ”

“ Well, one of them said that I must never put my left foot forward first, and told me who said so, and a whole lot of reasons why. And then after she had talked a while about something else, she told me that I must never put my right foot forward first, and told me who said so, and gave me a lot of reasons for that. 'Well,' I said, 'what must I do? Jump?' 'Oh, no!' she said, 'You must never jump!' 'But,' said I, 'If I never put my left foot forward first, and never put my right foot forward first, and don't jump ”