I don't think she quite took my meaning (it was not
remarkably well expressed) ; for her only reply was, that
" books were very well if anybody could only get time to
sit down and read.''

Time ! — time indeed ! And how long did she tell mt
herself she had stood that very day rolling out pie-crust ?
" Now, why," I ask, " should the body hare pie-crust,
and the mind scarcely get bare bread ? If the Carver
g^rls made pies all day, or ruffled skirts all day, like her
Mercy and Ella, Mrs. Paulina would be content ; but
if they should take an hour or two of daylight for read-
ing, even from the most instructive book, she would say
they wasted their time."

^^Tims! wasting time/ getting timef said I to
myself, walking home. ^' And what is time for, I won-
der ? and what does make everybody take for granted
that the mind must only have such crumbs of it as the
body throws away ? "

In talking this over with Mr. Carver, he suggested
that I might have used one argument which even she
would have understood : and this was, that reading about
remarkably enterprising or energetic characters often
puts it into the heads of young people to be enterprising
and energetic themselves ; and they might, in conse-
quence, be successful, even according to her ideas of suc-
cess.
