"Yes, do, child."

Veronica read--

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

"Well, it means this--I should say--fortune is whatever anyone wants the
most."

"Fortune is a horse, then," said Dietrich quickly.

Veronica sat thinking. "But, Cousin Judith," she said presently, "how can
any one 'grasp fortune'?"

"With your hands," replied Cousin Judith unhesitatingly, "You see, our
hands are given us to work with, and if we use them diligently and do our
work well, as it ought to be done, then fortune comes to us; so don't you
see we 'grasp it' with our hands?"

The verse had now become endued with life, and meant something real and
attractive to Veronica. She did not lay her rose out of her hand for a
long time, that evening, notwithstanding that Dietrich cast threatening
glances upon it, and finally broke out in vexation,

"I will tear off the spring some time, and spoil the thing altogether."

The rose was not put into the book and the book into the cup-board, until
the time came for the children to say their evening prayers. This was the
closing act of every day; and it was so fixed and regular a habit, that