For the first time since Sabina began to speak, Veronica raised her eyes
from her work. She shook her head sadly and said,

"Not my fortune."

"'Not my fortune!'" repeated Sabina angrily, "when I tell you this place
is yours! Your fortune is made."

"I cannot grasp the fortune that is offered me," said the girl, and bent
over her work again.

Sabina's searching glance seemed to try to penetrate her inmost thought.

"What sort of an expression is that you are using, Veronica? Where did you
learn that? I never expected to hear such words from your lips. It is not
like you. What put that into your head, child?"

"I will tell you something of my experience, and then you will understand
why I use this expression," said Veronica quietly. "When I was only a
little girl I learned a motto which ran thus:

'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