The Philosopher's Stone Discovered 95 



faction from the financial and personal sacrifice you both 

 are making." 



"Ah, professor," said Mr. Keeler, "you can scarcely under- 

 stand how it is not for us a sacrifice but the solution of several 

 very vexing family difficulties. Miss Fanny, strong and vig- 

 ourous with renewed health, finds no day too long for her work 

 amongst her flowers, birds and poultry, and in the many matters 

 in which she can assist her brothers. She is interested in the 

 dairy, in the greenhouses and the orchards and discusses them all 

 quite scientifically. She delights in having occasional city 

 girl-friends with her and gets much fun out of their ignorance 

 of affairs rural in which she is now an expert, and she is never 

 more pleased than in pointing out matters of special interest to 

 them. As for my boy, Ernest, he is happy and busy from morn- 

 ing till night, and is in many ways showing the benefits of his 

 year at the college; while John has experienced a complete 

 revolution, both in his habits and modes of thought and action. 

 He has found himself and his opportunity, and instead of his 

 being an anxiety to me, I am confidently looking forward to his 

 being a power for good in his community scarcely to be meas- 

 ured. Just imagine a joyous, prosperous farming district like 

 in the olden times, whence the depression from unrequited in- 

 dustry will have disappeared, where the common school educa- 

 tion will be a science devoted to illustrating the beauties and 

 dignity of agriculture as a profession, and my children all leaders 

 in the good work. Who knows how great the good, how wide the 

 benefits both to themselves and the community at large. Surely 

 all our ideals ought not to be, and are not, purely commercial! 

 Good society in the past was not founded solely or even largely 

 upon money and the influence it brings; and never in the past, 

 nor now, has it proved any stimulus to either independence, 

 goodness or happiness. The intense competition of modern 

 business dwarfs noble natures, suppresses generous sympathies 

 and stifles lofty ideals. Society must subsist by wealth, but 

 ought not and must not be dominated by it. The 'Idyls of the 

 King' ought to be the catechism of every boy in mercantile life 

 and the application of its codes of honour should replace the 

 ethics which too often govern in business circles." 



And so we must leave the two good friends for the time to 



