’Fortune stands ready, full in sight;
     He wins, who knows to grasp it right.’

I saw that ‘fortune’ was something good to have, and I wanted to find out how it could be grasped.  I asked Cousin Judith, and she told me it must be grasped like everything else with our hands, that is to say, through work.  From that time forward I was eager for work as other children are for play, and the older I grow, the more I strive for the good fortune that can be grasped by work.  Even on Sundays I often go to my room to sew, and I shut my door, for my mother does not like to see me sew then.  I work on and on, just as long as I can sit at it, even into the night; sometimes till one and two o’clock in the morning; yet I do not find the fortune I want.  When my hands are busy, my thoughts wander where they will, and I must follow them.  But they do not lead to ‘fortune,’ but only farther away from it.  This offer may bring me a fortune in money and position, but that is not the fortune I want.  ‘Fortune’ for me, means happiness.”

Sabina had not lost a word of this sad story.

“Yes, yes, I understand you, Veronica,” she said sympathizingly.  “I know something of this too.  Judith told you the truth, but only one half the truth.  Fortune is grasped by the hands, it is true; but the Fortune which you long for, that is, Happiness, is to be gained in other ways besides.  I will tell you an instructive little story, and if you will take the trouble to grasp it, not with your hands, but with your thoughts and understanding, you will be able to work it out for yourself and get some profit from it.  It is part of the story of my own life.  I have had so much the same experience as yours that I cannot help hoping that what I found good for myself, may prove good for you.”

“When I was about your age, Veronica, I was so unhappy that I cried myself to sleep every night.  Can you guess why?  No, for one understands only the sufferings that he has himself experienced, and cannot imagine those of others.  Well, it was because I was a hunchback!  I remember as if it were yesterday, when I first came to a perception of my misfortune; when I first learned that I was different from other children, and must remain as one apart, all my life.  We were all coming out of school one day, and a little quarrel arose between us children, and one of them said to me in a scornful tone, ‘Hold your tongue, Sabina, you’re only a hunchback.’  From that day I never knew a happy moment, and I grew timid and avoided every one; if I saw any one looking at me, I thought he was scoffing at me because I was a hunchback.  I kept away from other children, for if one of them laughed, I fancied she was laughing at my deformed shoulders.  If any stranger was kind to me, I thought that it was because my hunch had not yet been seen, and that as soon as it was, kindness would be changed for contempt.  I looked at the figure of every one I met; all were