Excerpt from Under Blue Skies: And Other Stories Most people believe they have a right to existence, because they have a certain mission in the world - a particular work to do. This is true. Some solve life's problem in the kitchen, or on the street; others in the hovel, or in the mansion; and some upon the sea. Everywhere human beings toil for the right to live, and like the stars they move in certain order, and keep to one particular line of duty, and thus become fixed cogs in the great wheel of life. Not so with the author of this book. It is with much hesitancy that I undertake a sketch of her life and work, for her personality is so marked, her gifts so many and varied, her labors range over such wide fields, that it is difficult to follow her career, or to portray the character of one who has been lecturer, reader, and teacher, and, to crown all, possesses the spiritual gifts of clairvoyancy and healing that St. Paul speaks of in I. Corinthians. Unlike the proverbial "Jack of all trades, but master of none," she has been mistress in every capacity in which she has served. Agnes Houghton Banfield was born in Vermont. Do you ask when? Well, the birds of the Green Mountain State will tell you, for they surely sang about her cradle, and in the twilight hours hushed her to sleep with lullabies of perfect melody - melody that sank into her heart and reproduced itself in her voice, for never was heard a voice of greater natural beauty, or more musical intonation than hers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.