“They don’t bore me, Grandma. They interest me.”

Abbie smiled across at her. No longer could she look down upon Laura. The twelve-year-old girl was larger than her little grandmother.

“And we old pioneers dreamed other things, too, Laura. We dreamed dreams into the country. We dreamed the towns and the cities, the homes and the factories, the churches and the schools. We dreamed the huge new capitol. When you walk under its wonderful tower, you say to yourself, ‘My Grandfather and Grandmother Deal dreamed all this . . . they, and a thousand other young couples dreamed it all in the early days . . . and the architect had the imagination to catch the dream and materialize it. It is their vision solidified. They were like the foundation stones under the capitol . . . not decorative, but strong. They were not well-educated. They were not sophisticated. They were not cultured. But they had innate refinement and courage. And they could see visions and dream dreams.”

“How does it feel to be old, Grandma?”

Abbie laughed. “Laura, it doesn’t feel at all. People don’t understand about old age. I am an old woman . . . but I haven’t changed. I’m still Abbie Deal. They think we’re different . . . we old ones. The real Abbie Deal still has many of the old visions and longings. I’m fairly contented here in the old home. . . . There was a time when I thought I never could be . . . but . . . some way . . . we get adjusted. I’ve never grown tired of life as some old people do. I’m only tired of the aches and the pains and the inability to make my body do what I want it to do. I would like to live a long time yet . . . to see what can still be invented . . . to read the new things that will be written . . . to hear the new songs that will be sung . . . to see heavy foliage on all the new shrubbery . . . to see all the babies grow into men and women. But there comes an end . . .”

“Don’t talk that way, Grandma. It makes me feel like crying.”

“Why, it ought not, Laura . . . not when Grandma has happy memories to live over.”

“What memories do you have, Grandma?”