Marmaduke Crofton’s parting words keep ringing in Olive’s ears, “A happy life is when the inner life is adjusted so satisfactorily that it gives one no trouble.” What could this mean?

Brimming with mischief and armed with a twinkle in his eyes, Kelly Nash doesn’t have a care in the world. Work at the mill is easy, Grandfather doesn’t tell him what to do, and Kelly is one of the best boys in town—or so he believes himself to be. But Kelly has one major flaw—he doesn’t think! There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for a good laugh, and life is one big game. So it is for the simpleminded.

Another victim of intemperance and poverty, Dick Nason grew up in a home bereft of affection and the fear of God. Though poor and left to himself, his was a life of relative ease and freedom from care, except when his stomach was empty. If there was anything to be enjoyed it was the beauty of the flowers in the market. He would often wonder at their beauty amidst the dingy, dirty circumstances of his home life. Who could have created such beautiful flowers as these?