“I am all attention.”

“That if people would gather up each day the blessings that are scattered like unseen pearls about their feet, the world would be rich in contentment.”

“I don’t know about that, Agnes; I’ve been studying for the last half hour over this very proposition.”

“Indeed! and what is the conclusion at which you have arrived?”

“Why, that discontent with the present, is a law of our being, impressed by the Creator, that we may ever aspire after the more perfect.”

“I am far from believing, Edward,” said his wife, “that a discontented present is any preparation for a happy future.  Rather, in the wooing of sweet Content to-day, are we making a home for her in our hearts, where she may dwell for all time to come—­yea, forever and forever.”

“Beautifully said, Agnes; but is that man living whose heart asks not something more than it possesses—­who does not look to a coming time with vague anticipations of a higher good than he has yet received?”

“It may be all so, Edward—­doubtless is so—­but what then?  Is the higher good we pine for of this world?  Nay, my husband.  We should not call a spirit of discontent with our mere natural surroundings a law of the Creator, established as a spur to advancement; for this disquietude is but the effect of a deeper cause.  It is not change of place, but change of state that we need.  Not a going from one point in space to another, but a progression of the spirit in the way of life eternal.”

“You said just now, Agnes, that you were no philosopher.”  Mr. Markland’s voice had lost much of its firmness.  “But what would I not give to possess some of your philosophy.  Doubtless your words are true; for there must be a growth and progression of the spirit as well as of the body; for all physical laws have their origin in the world of mind, and bear thereto exact relations.  Yet, for all this, when there is a deep dissatisfaction with what exists around us, should we not seek for change?  Will not a removal from one locality to another, and an entire change of pursuits, give the mind a new basis in natural things, and thus furnish ground upon which it may stand and move forward?”

“Perhaps, if the ground given us to stand upon were rightly tilled, it would yield a richer harvest than any we shall ever find, though we roam the world over; and it may be, that the narrow path to heaven lies just across our own fields.  It is in the actual and the present that we are to seek a true development of our spiritual life.  ‘Work while it is to-day,’ is the Divine injunction.”

“But if we can find no work, Agnes?”

“If the heart be willing and the hands ready,” was the earnestly spoken answer, “work enough will be found to do.”