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=Books by Margaret Deland.=


  THE OLD GARDEN, AND OTHER VERSES.
  Enlarged Edition. 16mo, gilt top, $1.25.

  THE OLD GARDEN, AND OTHER VERSES.
  _Holiday Edition._ Illustrated in color by
  WALTER CRANE. Crown 8vo, $4.00.

  JOHN WARD, PREACHER. A Novel. 16mo,
  $1.25; paper, 50 cents.

  SIDNEY. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25; paper, 50 cts.

  THE STORY OF A CHILD. 16mo, $1.00.

  MR. TOMMY DOVE, AND OTHER STORIES. 16mo, $1.00.

  PHILIP AND HIS WIFE. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25.

  THE WISDOM OF FOOLS. Stories. 16mo, $1.25.

  HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
  BOSTON AND NEW YORK.




THE WISDOM OF FOOLS

BY

MARGARET DELAND

[Illustration: (Publisher colophon.)]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY MDCCCXCVII




  COPYRIGHT, 1897,
  BY MARGARET DELAND
  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED




CONTENTS


                                                    PAGE

  WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS, ’TIS FOLLY TO BE WISE      3

  THE HOUSE OF RIMMON                                 66

  COUNTING THE COST                                  136

  THE LAW, OR THE GOSPEL?                            191




THE WISDOM OF FOOLS




WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS ’TIS FOLLY TO BE WISE


I

“THE most delightful thing about our engagement is
that everybody is so pleased with it.” Amy Townsend said this,
smiling down at her lover, who, full length on the grass beside
her, leaned on his elbow, watching her soft hair blowing across her
forehead, and the color of the sun flickering through the shadows,
hot on her cheek; for she had closed her fluffy white parasol and
taken off her hat here under an oak-tree on the grassy bank of the
river.

“I should have thought that the fact that we were pleased ourselves
was a trifle more important,” he suggested. But Miss Townsend paid
no attention to his interruption.

“You know, generally, when people get engaged, there are always
people who exclaim: either the man is too good for the girl (and
you are too good for me, Billy!), or the girl is too good for the
man”--

“She is; there is no question about that,” the man interrupted.

“Be quiet!” the other commanded. “But in our case, everybody
approves. You see, in the first place, you are a Parson, and I’m a
Worker. That’s what they call me,--the old ladies,--‘a Worker.’ And
of course that’s a most appropriate combination to start with.”

“Well, the old ladies will discover that my wife isn’t going to
run their committees for them,” the parson said emphatically.
“Besides, if I’m a Parson, you’re a Person! How do the old ladies
bear it, that I haven’t any ancestors, and used to run errands in a