It was her advice and her opinion that they always asked
when they felt that they needed a better opinion than their own. The
three sat silent now for a time, and then John broke out, as if the
talk had been going on in his mind all the while: "What's the good of
us tryin' to live at all?" he said. "Is livin' any use to us? We do
nothin' but work all day, and eat a little to give us the strength to
work the next day, and then we sleep all night, if we can sleep. And
it's that and nothing else all the year through. Are we any better
when the year ends than we were when it began? If we've paid the
rent, we've done well. We never do more."
"John," the old woman answered, "it's not for us to say why we're here
or what for we're living. It's God that put us here, and He'll keep us
here till it's our time to go. He has made it the way of all His
creatures to provide for themselves and for their own, and to keep
themselves alive while they can. When He's ready for us to die, we
die. That's all we know. The rest is with Him."
"I know all that's true, mother," said John; "but what is there for us
to hope for, that we'ld wish to live? It's nothing but work to keep
the roof over us.
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