"But you are happy when you succeed. Now, what is it in you that
tries to be good, and is happy when it succeeds?"

"It is my mind, Mother."

"Would you, Frank, give up your mind for a pair of martin's wings?"

"O, no, Mother; but I want my mind, and a pair of wings too."

"If you think your mind is better than the martin's wings, my dear,
be thankful for the possession of it; and be thankful too that God
has allowed you the privilege of making yourself happy by your own
efforts, and by the exercise of your thoughts, for they are the
wings of your mind. You do not now see a martin in the air; you are
only thinking of him; and yet you feel how pleasant it might be to
be like him, up among the clouds.

The martin cannot have the pleasure we have now had, but God has
given him wings, and taught him the way through the air, and put
love into his heart for his mate; and let us rejoice in his
happiness, and, more than all, let us rejoice in the goodness of Him
who has put joy into so many hearts. And when, my dear children, you
see the martin cutting his way so swiftly through the air, and when
you think of him travelling away thousands of miles, guided by the
goodness of God to the right place, and you wish that you had wings
like him, and think that he is happier than you are, you can then
remember a far greater gift that God has bestowed upon you.

Although the martin's flight is very swift and very high, yet he can
go but so far, and he knows not what directs him. When his wings are