Page:My Friend Annabel Lee (1903).pdf/102

 there?" I inquired in a tone that must have been rather lifeless.

"Why?" repeated my friend Annabel Lee. "Because you will have grown in strength on account of these milestones; because you will have learned to take all things tranquilly. Why, after the very last milestone I daresay you would be able to sit with folded hands if a house were burning up about your ears!"

"Which must indeed be a triumph," said I.

"A triumph?—a victory!" said my friend Annabel Lee—with still more curious expressions. "And the victories are not what this world sees"—which reminded me of things I used to hear in Sunday-school ever so many years ago. "You remember the story of the Ten Virgins? Taking the story literally," said my friend Annabel Lee, "the lot of the five Foolish Virgins is much the more fortunate.