there was nothing in the whole world so dreadful as the power of riches wrongly used.

To my way of thinking and working, the greatest service a piece of fiction can do any reader is to force him to lay it down with a higher ideal of life than he had when he took it up.

We never know the timber of a man's soul until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong. You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture.

Now what is a guest? A thing of a day! A person who disturbs your routine and interferes with important concerns. Why should any one be grateful for company? Why should time and money be lavished on visitors? They come. You overwork yourself. They go. You are glad of it. You return the visit, because it's the only way to have back at them.

The wages of sin are the hardest debts on earth to pay, and they are always collected at inconvenient times and unexpected places.

What was money that it should make such dreadful things of men and women?

But Aunt Margaret doesn't like boys," objected Elnora. "Well, she likes me, and I used to be a boy.