“Well, that’s been my attitude for some years,” Richie said, shifting his lame leg again.  “Of course I started in handicapped, which is a great advantage—–­”

“Advantage?  Oh, Richie!” Julia protested.

“Yes, it is, from one point of view,” he insisted whimsically.  “‘Who loses his life,’ you know.  Most boys and girls start off into life like kites in a high wind without tails.  There’s a glorious dipping and plunging and sailing for a little while, and then down they come in a tangle of string and paper and broken wood.  I had a tail to start with, some humiliating deficiency to keep me balanced.  No football and tennis for me, no flirting and dancing and private theatricals.  When Bab and Ned were in one whirl of good times, I was working out chess problems to make myself forget my hip, and reading Carlyle and Thoreau and Emerson.  Nobody is born content, Ju, and nobody has it thrust upon him; just a few achieve it.  I worked over the secret of happiness as if it was the multiplication table.  Happiness is the best thing in the world.  It’s only a habit, and I’ve got it.”

“Is happiness the best thing in the world, Rich?” Julia asked wistfully.

“I think it is; real happiness, which doesn’t necessarily mean a box at the Metropolitan and a touring car,” Richie said, smiling.  “It seems to me, to have a little house up here on the mountain, and to have people here like me, and let me take care of them—–­”

“For nothing?” interposed Julia.

“Don’t you believe it!  I didn’t write a cheque last month!  Anyway, it suits me.  I have books, and letters, and a fire, and now and then a friend or two—­and now and then Julia and Anna to amuse me!”

“I’m happy, too,” Julia said thoughtfully.  “I realized it some time ago—­oh, a year ago!  I feel just as you might feel, Rich, if you had left some critical operation unfinished, or done in a wrong way, and then gone back to do it over.  I feel as if, in going back to first principles, and doing what I could for my own people, I had ‘trued’ a part of my life, if you can understand that!  I had gone climbing and blundering on, and reached a point where I couldn’t help myself, but they were just where they started, and I could help them!”

“It was probably the best thing you could have done for yourself, at the same time,” Richard interpolated, with a swift glance.

“Oh, absolutely!” Julia laughed a little sadly.  “I was like an animal that goes out and eats a weed:  I had a wild instinct that if I rushed into my grandmother’s house, and bullied everybody there, and simply shrieked and stamped on the dirt and laziness and complaining, on the whole wretched system that I grew up under, in short, that it would be a heavenly relief!  My dear Richie,” and Julia laughed again, and more naturally, “I wonder they didn’t tar and feather me, and throw me out of the house!  I scoured and burned and scolded and bossed them all like a madwoman.  I told them that we had enough money to keep the house decently, and always had had, but, my dear!  I never dreamed the whole crowd would fall in line so soon!”