The cold hoarfrost glistened on the tombstones, and sparkled like rows of gems, among the stone carvings of the old church. The snow lay hard and crisp upon the ground; and spread over the thickly-strewn mounds of earth, so white and smooth a cover, that it seemed as if corpses lay there, hidden only by their winding sheets.

For not an orphan in the wide world can be so deserted as the child who is an outcast from a living parent's love.

This reminds me, Godmother, to ask you a serious question. You are as wise as wise can be (having been brought up by the fairies), and you can tell me this: Is it better to have had a good thing and lost it, or never to have had it?

And what about the cash, my existence's jewel?

It was a good thing to have a couple of thousand people all rigid and frozen together, in the palm of one's hand.

"She's a very charming and delightful creature," quoth Mr. Robert Sawyer, in reply; "and has only one fault that I know of, Ben. It happens, unfortunately, that that single blemish is a want of taste. She don't like me."

Friendless I can never be, for all mankind are my kindred, and I am on ill terms with no one member of my great family.