human
Look, mamma--look,
gpt
Oh, Nate, cried Anne,
human
Well, mamma--are you happy? asked Nathan, as he leaned against the tree beside her. She nodded and directed their glances to the children and said gently,
gpt
And they justify it--don't they?
human
Yes, dear--I suppose that's what the Lord gave us love for. That is why love makes the world go around.
gpt
And don't the people who don't have them miss it--my! Nate, if they only knew--if these bridge-playing, childless ones knew how dear they are--what joy they bring--just as children--not for anything else--do you suppose they would--
human
Oh, you can't tell, answered the young father.
gpt
Perhaps selfish people shouldn't have children; or perhaps it's the children that make us unselfish, and so keep us happy. Maybe it's one of those intricate psychical reactions, like a chemical change--I don't know! But I do know the kids are the best things in the world.
human
You know, Nate, I was just thinking to-day as I put up the lunch--I'm a mighty lucky woman. I've had all these children and kept every one so far; I've had such joy in them--such joy, and we haven't had death. Even little Annie's long sickness, and everything--Oh, dear, Nate--but isn't she worth it--isn't she worth it?
gpt
You know I'm so glad we went down to South Harvey to live, Anne. I can see--well, here's the way it is. Lots of families down there--families that didn't have any more to go on than we had then, started out, as we did. They had a raft of kids-- he laughed,
human
Nate, honestly I believe if I had two or three million dollars, and could give every girl in South Harvey a good education--teach her how to cook and keep house and care for babies before she is eighteen, that we could change the whole aspect of South Harvey in a generation. If I had just two or three million dollars to spend--I could fill that town just as full as Harvey of happy couples like us. Of course there'd be the other kind--some of them--just as there are the other kind in Harvey--people like the Van Dorns--but they would be the exception in South Harvey, as the Van Dorns are the exception in Harvey. And two or three million dollars would do it.
gpt
Yes, mamma,--that's the hell of it--the very hell of it that grinds my gizzard--your father and my father and the others who haven't done a lick of the work--and who are entitled only to a decent interest and promoters' profits, have taken out twenty million dollars from South Harvey in dividends in the last thirty years--and this is the result. Hell for forty thousand people down there, and--you and I and a few dozen educated happy people are the fruit of it. Sometimes, Anne, I look at our little flock and look at you so beautiful, and think of our life so glorious, and wonder how a just God can permit it.