later on in life , you might wish that the good things which all befell in your one special year had spread themselves out a little more , that you could maybe take one of the golden things and kind of transplant it right down in the middle of a three-year stretch you could n't remember a blessed good thing about , or even a bad one , and so you knew that things had just gone on the way they were supposed to in the world god had created and adam and eve had half uncreated - the washing had gone out , the floors had been scrubbed , the babies had been cared for , the clothes had been mended ; three years with nothing to break up the gray even flow of time but easter and the fourth of july and thanksgiving and christmas .