"Yes, they are like the rainbow," said Hope, "because glad as my nature
is, I am partly made of tears as well as smiles."

"And will you stay with us," asked Epimetheus, for ever and ever?"

"As long as you need me," said Hope, with her pleasant smile,--"and that
will be as long as you live in the world,--I promise never to desert
you. There may come times and seasons, now and then, when you will
think that I have utterly vanished. But again, and again, and again,
when perhaps you least dream of it, you shall see the glimmer of my
wings on the ceiling of your cottage. Yes, my dear children, and I know
something very good and beautiful that is to be given you hereafter!"

"O tell us," they exclaimed,--"tell us what it is!"

"Do not ask me," replied Hope, putting her finger on her rosy mouth.
"But do not despair, even if it should never happen while you live on
this earth. Trust in my promise, for it is true."

"We do trust you!" cried Epimetheus and Pandora, both in one breath.

And so they did; and not only they, but so has everybody trusted Hope,
that has since been alive. And, to tell you the truth, I cannot help
being glad--(though, to be sure, it was an uncommonly naughty thing for
her to do)-but I cannot help being glad that our foolish Pandora peeped
into the box. No doubt--no doubt--the Troubles are still flying about
the world, and have increased in multitude, rather than lessened, and
are a very ugly set of imps, and carry most venomous stings in their
tails. I have felt them already, and expect to feel them more, as I
grow older. But then that lovely and lightsome little figure of Hope!