I want to be rid of you both until tea-time . '' Frances and Mrs. Kennedy went to the fern walk and the beautiful `` Bubble '' -- a clear , round spring of amber-hued water set down in a cup of rock overhung with ferns and beeches . It was a spot Frances had always loved . She found herself talking freely to Mrs. Kennedy of her hopes and plans . The older woman drew the girl out with tactful sympathy until she found that Frances 's dearest ambition was some day to be a writer of books like Sara Beaumont . `` Not that I expect ever to write books like hers , '' she said hurriedly , `` and I know it must be a long while before I can write anything worth while at all . But do you think -- if I try hard and work hard -- that I might do something in this line some day ? '' `` I think so , '' said Mrs. Kennedy , smiling , `` if , as you say , you are willing to work hard and study hard . There will be a great deal of both and many disappointments . Sara Beaumont herself had a hard time at first -- and for a very long first too . Her family was poor , you know , and Sara earned enough money to send away her first manuscripts by making a pot of jelly for a neighbour . The manuscripts came back , and Sara made more jelly and wrote more stories . Still they came back . Once she thought she had better give up writing stories and stick to the jelly alone . There did seem some little demand for the one and none at all for the other . But she determined to keep on until she either succeeded or proved to her own satisfaction that she could make better jelly than stories . And you see she did succeed . But it means perseverance and patience and much hard work . Prepare yourself for that , Frances , and one day you will win your place . Then you will look back to the ` Newbury Bubble , ' and you will tell me what a good prophetess I was . ''
They talked longer -- an earnest , helpful talk that went far to inspire XXXXX 's hazy ambition with a definite purpose .
Beaumont Bubble Frances Kennedy Sara beeches day first neighbour prophetess