In the evening Alice sat on her grandfather’s knee and listened to stories of faraway places. 

When he had finished, Alice would say, “When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea.”

“That is all very well little Alice,” her grandfather would say, “but there is a third thing you must do…

…you must do something to make the world more beautiful.”

 from Miss Rumphius

by Barbara Cooney