,,adventures ,,in ,,friendship ,by ,david ,grayson ,i ,,an ,,adventure ,,in ,,fraternity ,this1 ,i am firmly convinced1 is a strange world1 as strange a one as ,i was ever in4 ,looking about me ,i perceive that the simplest things are the most difficult1 the plainest things1 the darkest1 the commonest things1 the rarest4 ,i have had an amusing adventure--and made a friend4 ,this morning when ,i went to town for my marketing ,i met a man who was a ,mason1 an ,oddfellow and an ,elk1 and who wore the evidences of his various memberships upon his coat4 ,he asked me what lodge ,i belonged to1 and he slapped me on the back in the heartiest manner1 as though he had known me intimately for a long time4 7,i may say1 in passing1 that he was trying to sell me a new kind of corn-planter47 ,i could not help feeling complimented--both complimented and abashed4 ,for ,i am not a ,mason1 or an ,oddfellow1 or an ,elk4 ,when ,i told him so he seemed much surprised and disappointed4 ,you ought to belong to one of our lodges1 he said4 ,you'd be sure of having loyal friends wherever you go4 ,he told me all about his grips and passes and benefits2 he told me how much it would cost me to get in and how much more to stay in and how much for a uniform 7which was not compulsory74 ,he told me about the fine funeral the ,masons would give me2 he said that the ,elks would care for my widow and children4 ,you're just the sort of a man1 he said1 that we'd like to have in our lodge4 ,i'd enjoy giving you the grip of fellowship4 ,he was a rotund1 good-humoured man with a shining red nose and a husky voice4 ,he grew so much interested in telling me about his lodges that ,i think 7,i think7 he forgot momentarily that he was selling corn-planters1 which was certainly to his credit4 ,as ,i drove homeward this afternoon ,i could not help thinking of the ,masons1 the ,oddfellows and the ,elks--and curiously not without a sense of depression4 ,i wondered if my friend of the corn-planters had found the pearl of great price that ,i have been looking for so long4 ,for is not friendliness the thing of all things that is most pleasant in this world8 ,sometimes it has seemed to me that the faculty of reaching out and touching one's neighbour where he really lives is the greatest of human achievements4 ,and it was with an indescribable depression that ,i wondered if these ,masons and ,oddfellows and ,elks had in reality caught the ,elusive ,secret and confined it within the insurmountable and impenetrable walls of their mysteries1 secrets1 grips1 passes1 benefits4 ,it must1 indeed1 ,i said to myself1 be a precious sort of fraternity that they choose to protect so sedulously4 ,i felt as though life contained something that ,i was not permitted to live4 ,i recalled how my friend of the corn-planters had wished to give me the grip of the fellowship--only he could not4 ,i was not entitled to it4 ,i knew no grips or passes4 ,i wore no uniform4 ,it is a complicated matter1 this fellowship1 ,i said to myself4 ,so ,i jogged along feeling rather blue1 marveling that those things which often seem so simple should be in reality so difficult4 ,but on such an afternoon as this no man could possibly remain long depressed4 ,the moment ,i passed the straggling outskirts of the town and came to the open road1 the light and glow of the countryside came in upon me with a newness and sweetness impossible to describe4 ,looking out across the wide fields ,i could see the vivid green of the young wheat upon the brown soil2 in a distant high pasture the cows had been turned out to the freshening grass2 a late pool glistened in the afternoon sunshine4 ,and the crows were calling1 and the robins had begun to come3 and oh1 the moist1 cool freshness of the air6 ,in the highest heaven 7never so high as at this time of the year7 floated a few gauzy clouds3 the whole world was busy with spring6 ,i straightened up in my buggy and drew in a good breath4 ,the mare1 half startled1 pricked up her ears and began to trot4 ,she1 too1 felt the spring4 ,here1 ,i said aloud1 is where ,i belong4 ,i am native to this place2 of all these things ,i am a part4 ,but presently--how one's mind courses back1 like some keen-scented hound1 for lost trails--,i began to think again of my friend's lodges4 ,and do you know1 ,i had lost every trace of depression4 ,the whole matter lay as clear in my mind1 as little complicated1 as the countryside which met my eye so openly4 ,why6 ,i exclaimed to myself1 ,i need not envy my friend's lodges4 ,i myself belong to the greatest of all fraternal orders4 ,i am a member of the ,universal ,brotherhood of ,men4 ,it came to me so humorously as ,i sat there in my buggy that ,i could not help laughing aloud4 ,and ,i was so deeply absorbed with the idea that ,i did not at first see the whiskery old man who was coming my way in a farm wagon4 ,he looked at me curiously4 ,as he passed1 giving me half the road1 ,i glanced up at him and called out cheerfully3 ,how are you1 ,brother8 ,you should have seen him look--and look--and look4 ,after ,i had passed ,i glanced back4 ,he had stopped his team1 turned half way around in his high seat and was watching me--for he did not understand4 ,yes1 my friend1 ,i said to myself1 ,i am intoxicated--with the wine of spring6 ,i reflected upon his astonishment when ,i addressed him as ,brother4 ,a strange word6 ,he did not recognize it4 ,he actually suspected that he was not my ,brother4 ,so ,i jogged onward thinking about my fraternity1 and ,i don't know when ,i have had more joy of an idea4 ,it seemed so explanatory6 ,i am glad1 ,i said to myself1 that ,i am a ,member4 ,i am sure the ,masons have no such benefits to offer in their lodges as we have in ours4 ,and we do not require money of farmers 7who have little to pay74 ,we will accept corn1 or hen's eggs1 or a sandwich at the door1 and as for a cheerful glance of the eye1 it is for us the best of minted coin4 7,item3 to remember4 ,when a man asks money for any good thing1 beware of it4 ,you can get a better for nothing47 ,i cannot undertake to tell where the amusing reflections which grew out of my idea would finally have led me if ,i had not been interrupted4 ,just as ,i approached the ,patterson farm1 near the bridge which crosses the creek1 ,i saw a loaded wagon standing on the slope of the hill ahead4 ,the horses seemed to have been unhooked1 for the tongue was down1 and a man was on his knees between the front wheels4 ,involuntarily ,i said3 ,another member of my society3 and in distress6 ,i had a heart at that moment for anything4 ,i felt like some old neighbourly ,knight travelling the earth in search of adventure4 ,if there had been a distressed mistress handy at that moment1 ,i feel quite certain ,i could have died for her--if absolutely necessary4 ,as ,i drove alongside1 the stocky1 stout lad of a farmer in his brown duck coat lined with sheep's wool1 came up from between the wheels4 ,his cap was awry1 his trousers were muddy at the knees where he had knelt in the moist road1 and his face was red and angry4 ,a true knight1 ,i thought to myself1 looks not to the beauty of his lady1 but only to her distress4 ,what's the matter1 ,brother8 ,i asked in the friendliest manner4 ,bolt gone1 he said gruffly1 and ,i got to get to town before nightfall4 ,get in1 ,i said1 and we'll drive back4 ,we shall see it in the road4 ,so he got in4 ,i drove the mare slowly up the hill and we both leaned out and looked4 ,and presently there in the road the bolt lay4 ,my farmer got out and picked it up4 ,it's all right1 he said4 ,i was afraid it was clean busted4 ,i'm obliged to you for the lift4 ,hold on1 ,i said1 get in1 ,i'll take you back4 ,oh1 ,i can walk4 ,but ,i can drive you faster1 ,i said1 and you've got to get the load to town before nightfall4 ,i could not let him go without taking tribute4 ,no matter what the story books say1 ,i am firmly of the opinion that no gentle knight 7who was human7 ever parted with the fair lady whose misery he had relieved without exchanging the time of day1 or offering her a bun from his dinner pail1 or finding out 7for instance7 if she were maid or married4 ,my farmer laughed and got in4 ,you see1 ,i said1 when a member of my society is in distress ,i always like to help him out4 ,he paused2 ,i watched him gradually evolve his reply3 ,how did you know ,i was a ,mason8 ,well1 ,i wasn't sure4 ,i only joined last winter1 he said4 ,i like it first-rate4 ,when you're a ,mason you find friends everywhere4 ,i had some excellent remarks that ,i could have made at this point1 but the distance was short and bolts were irresistibly uppermost4 ,after helping him to put in the bolt1 ,i said3 ,here's the grip of fellowship4 ,he returned it with a will1 but afterward he said doubtfully4 ,i didn't feel the grip4 ,didn't you8 ,i asked4 ,well1 ,brother1 it was all there4 ,if ever ,i can do anything for you1 he said1 just you let me know4 ,name's ,forbes1 ,spring ,brook4 ,and so he drove away4 ,a real ,mason1 ,i said to myself1 could not have had any better advantage of his society at this moment than ,i4 ,i walked right into it without a grip or a pass4 ,and benefits have also been distributed4 ,as ,i drove onward ,i felt as though anything might happen to me before ,i got home4 ,i know now exactly how all old knights1 all voyageurs1 all crusaders1 all poets in new places1 must have felt6 ,i looked out at every turn of the road2 and1 finally1 after ,i had grown almost discouraged of encountering further adventure ,i saw a man walking in the road ahead of me4 ,he was much bent over1 and carried on his back a bag4 ,when he heard me coming he stepped out of the road and stood silent1 saving every unnecessary motion1 as a weary man will4 ,he neither looked around nor spoke1 but waited for me to go by4 ,he was weary past expectation4 ,i stopped the mare4 ,get in1 ,brother1 ,i said2 ,i am going your way4 ,he looked at me doubtfully2 then1 as ,i moved to one side1 he let his bag roll off his back into his arms4 ,i could see the swollen veins of his neck2 his face had the drawn look of the man who bears burdens4 ,pretty heavy for your buggy1 he remarked4 ,heavier for you1 ,i replied4 ,so he put the bag in the back of my buggy and stepped in beside me diffidently4 ,pull up the lap robe1 ,i said1 and be comfortable4 ,well1 sir1 ,i'm glad of a lift1 he remarked4 ,a bag of seed wheat is about all a man wants to carry for four miles4 ,aren't you the man who has taken the old ,rucker farm8 ,i asked4 ,i'm that man4 ,i've been intending to drop in and see you1 ,i said4 ,have you8 he asked eagerly4 ,yes1 ,i said4 ,i live just across the hills from you1 and ,i had a notion that we ought to be neighbourly--seeing that we belong to the same society4 ,his face1 which had worn a look of set discouragement 7he didn't know beforehand what the ,rucker place was like671 had brightened up1 but when ,i spoke of the society it clouded again4 ,you must be mistaken1 he said4 ,i'm not a ,mason6 ,no more am ,i1 ,i said4 ,nor an ,oddfellow4 ,nor ,i4 ,as ,i looked at the man ,i seemed to know all about him4 ,some people come to us like that1 all at once1 opening out to some unsuspected key4 ,his face bore not a few marks of refinement1 though work and discouragement had done their best to obliterate them2 his nose was thin and high1 his eye was blue1 too blue1 and his chin somehow did not go with the ,rucker farm4 ,i knew6 ,a man who in his time had seen many an open door1 but who had found them all closed when he attempted to enter6 ,if any one ever needed the benefits of my fraternity1 he was that man4 ,what ,society did you think ,i belonged to8 he asked4 ,well1 ,i said1 when ,i was in town a man who wanted to sell me a corn-planter asked me if ,i was a ,mason---- ,did he ask you that1 too8 interrupted my companion4 ,he did1 ,i said4 ,he did---- and ,i reflected not without enthusiasm that ,i had come away without a corn-planter4 ,and when ,i drove out of town ,i was feeling rather depressed because ,i wasn't a member of the lodge4 ,were you8 exclaimed my companion4 ,so was ,i4 ,i just felt as though ,i had about reached the last ditch4 ,i haven't any money to pay into lodges and it don't seems if a man could get acquainted and friendly without4 ,farming is rather lonely work sometimes1 isn't it8 ,i observed4 ,you bet it is1 he responded4 ,you've been there yourself1 haven't you8 ,there may be such a thing as the friendship of prosperity2 but surely it cannot be compared with the friendship of adversity4 ,men1 stooping1 come close together4 ,but when ,i got to thinking it over1 ,i said1 it suddenly occurred to me that ,i belonged to the greatest of all fraternities4 ,and ,i recognized you instantly as a charter member4 ,he looked around at me expectantly1 half laughing4 ,i don't suppose he had so far forgotten his miseries for many a day4 ,what's that8 he asked4 ,the ,universal ,brotherhood of ,men4 ,well1 we both laughed--and understood4 ,after that1 what a story he told me6--the story of a misplaced man on an unproductive farm4 ,is it not marvellous how full people are--all people--of humour1 tragedy1 passionate human longings1 hopes1 fears--if only you can unloosen the floodgates6 ,as to my companion1 he had been growing bitter and sickly with the pent-up humours of discouragement2 all he needed was a listener4 ,he was so absorbed in his talk that he did not at first realize that we had turned into his own long lane4 ,when he discovered it he exclaimed3 ,i didn't mean to bring you out of your way4 ,i can manage the bag all right now4 ,never mind1 ,i said1 ,i want to get you home1 to say nothing of hearing how you came out with your pigs4 ,as we approached the house1 a mournful-looking woman came to the door4 ,my companion sprang out of the buggy as much elated now as he had previously been depressed 7for that was the coinage of his temperament71 rushed up to his wife and led her down to the gate4 ,she was evidently astonished at his enthusiasm4 ,i suppose she thought he had at length discovered his gold mine6 ,when ,i finally turned the mare around1 he stopped me1 laid his hand on my arm and said in a confidential voice3 ,i'm glad we discovered that we belong to the same society4 ,as ,i drove away ,i could not help chuckling when ,i heard his wife ask suspiciously3 ,what society is that8 ,i heard no word of his answer3 only the note in his voice of eager explanation4 ,and so ,i drove homeward in the late twilight1 and as ,i came up the lane1 the door of my home opened1 the light within gleamed kindly and warmly across the darkened yard3 and ,harriet was there on the step1 waiting4 ,,ii ,a ,,day ,,of ,,pleasant ,,bread ,they have all gone now1 and the house is very still4 ,for the first time this evening ,i can hear the familiar sound of the ,december wind blustering about the house1 complaining at closed doorways1 asking questions at the shutters2 but here in my room1 under the green reading lamp1 it is warm and still4 ,although ,harriet has closed the doors1 covered the coals in the fireplace1 and said good-night1 the atmosphere still seems to tingle with the electricity of genial humanity4 ,the parting voice of the ,scotch ,preacher still booms in my ears3 ,this1 said he1 as he was going out of our door1 wrapped like an ,arctic highlander in cloaks and tippets1 has been a day of pleasant bread4 ,one of the very pleasantest ,i can remember6 ,i sometimes think we expect too much of ,christmas ,day4 ,we try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year4 ,as for me1 ,i like to take my ,christmas a little at a time1 all through the year4 ,and thus ,i drift along into the holidays--let them overtake me unexpectedly--waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself3 ,why1 this is ,christmas ,day6 ,how the discovery makes one bound out of his bed6 ,what a new sense of life and adventure it imparts6 ,almost anything may happen on a day like this--one thinks4 ,i may meet friends ,i have not seen before in years4 ,who knows8 ,i may discover that this is a far better and kindlier world than ,i had ever dreamed it could be4 ,illustration3 ,merry ,christmas1 ,harriet6 ,so ,i sing out to ,harriet as ,i go down3 ,merry ,christmas1 ,harriet--and not waiting for her sleepy reply ,i go down and build the biggest1 warmest1 friendliest fire of the year4 ,then ,i get into my thick coat and mittens and open the back door4 ,all around the sill1 deep on the step1 and all about the yard lies the drifted snow3 it has transformed my wood pile into a grotesque ,indian mound1 and it frosts the roof of my barn like a wedding cake4 ,i go at it lustily with my wooden shovel1 clearing out a pathway to the gate4 ,cold1 too2 one of the coldest mornings we've had--but clear and very still4 ,the sun is just coming up over the hill near ,horace's farm4 ,from ,horace's chimney the white wood-smoke of an early fire rises straight upward1 all golden with sunshine1 into the measureless blue of the sky--on its way to heaven1 for aught ,i know4 ,when ,i reach the gate my blood is racing warmly in my veins4 ,i straighten my back1 thrust my shovel into the snow pile1 and shout at the top of my voice1 for ,i can no longer contain myself3 ,merry ,christmas1 ,harriet4 ,harriet opens the door--just a crack4 ,merry ,christmas yourself1 you ,arctic explorer6 ,oo--but it's cold6 ,and she closes the door4 ,upon hearing these riotous sounds the barnyard suddenly awakens4 ,i hear my horse whinnying from the barn1 the chickens begin to crow and cackle1 and such a grunting and squealing as the pigs set up from behind the straw stack1 it would do a man's heart good to hear6 ,it's a friendly world1 ,i say to myself1 and full of business4 ,i plow through the snow to the stable door4 ,i scuff and stamp the snow away and pull it open with difficulty4 ,a cloud of steam arises out of the warmth within4 ,i step inside4 ,my horse raises his head above the stanchion1 looks around at me1 and strikes his forefoot on the stable floor--the best greeting he has at his command for a fine ,christmas morning4 ,my cow1 until now silent1 begins to bawl4 ,i lay my hand on the horse's flank and he steps over in his stall to let me go by4 ,i slap his neck and he lays back his ears playfully4 ,thus ,i go out into the passageway and give my horse his oats1 throw corn and stalks to the pigs and a handful of grain to ,harriet's chickens 7it's the only way to stop the cackling674 ,and thus presently the barnyard is quiet again except for the sound of contented feeding4 ,take my word for it1 this is one of the pleasant moments of life4 ,i stand and look long at my barnyard family4 ,i observe with satisfaction how plump they are and how well they are bearing the winter4 ,then ,i look up at my mountainous straw stack with its capping of snow1 and my corn crib with the yellow ears visible through the slats1 and my barn with its mow full of hay--all the gatherings of the year1 now being expended in growth4 ,i cannot at all explain it1 but at such moments the circuit of that dim spiritual battery which each of us conceals within seems to close1 and the full current of contentment flows through our lives4 ,all the morning as ,i went about my chores ,i had a peculiar sense of expected pleasure4 ,it seemed certain to me that something unusual and adventurous was about to happen--and if it did not happen offhand1 why ,i was there to make it happen6 ,when ,i went in to breakfast 7do you know the fragrance of broiling bacon when you have worked for an hour before breakfast on a morning of zero weather8 ,if you do not1 consider that heaven still has gifts in store for you67--when ,i went in to breakfast1 ,i fancied that ,harriet looked preoccupied1 but ,i was too busy just then 7hot corn muffins7 to make an inquiry1 and ,i knew by experience that the best solvent of secrecy is patience4 ,david1 said ,harriet1 presently1 the cousins can't come6 ,can't come6 ,i exclaimed4 ,why1 you act as if you were delighted4 ,no--well1 yes1 ,i said1 ,i knew that some extraordinary adventure was about to happen6 ,adventure6 ,it's a cruel disappointment--,i was all ready for them4 ,harriet1 ,i said1 adventure is just what we make it4 ,and aren't we to have the ,scotch ,preacher and his wife8 ,but ,i've got such a good dinner4 ,well1 ,i said1 there are no two ways about it3 it must be eaten6 ,you may depend upon me to do my duty4 ,we'll have to send out into the highways and compel them to come in1 said ,harriet ruefully4 ,i had several choice observations ,i should have liked to make upon this problem1 but ,harriet was plainly not listening2 she sat with her eyes fixed reflectively on the coffeepot4 ,i watched her for a moment1 then ,i remarked3 ,there aren't any4 ,david1 she exclaimed1 how did you know what ,i was thinking about8 ,i merely wanted to show you1 ,i said1 that my genius is not properly appreciated in my own household4 ,you thought of highways1 didn't you8 ,then you thought of the poor2 especially the poor on ,christmas day2 then of ,mrs4 ,heney1 who isn't poor any more1 having married ,john ,daniels2 and then ,i said1 ',there aren't any4' ,harriet laughed4 ,it has come to a pretty pass1 she said when there are no poor people to invite to dinner on ,christmas day4 ,it's a tragedy1 ,i'll admit1 ,i said1 but let's be logical about it4 ,i am willing1 said ,harriet1 to be as logical as you like4 ,then1 ,i said1 having no poor to invite to dinner we must necessarily try the rich4 ,that's logical1 isn't it8 ,who8 asked ,harriet1 which is just like a woman4 ,whenever you get a good healthy argument started with her1 she will suddenly short-circuit it1 and want to know if you mean ,mr4 ,smith1 or ,joe ,perkins's boys1 which ,i maintain is not logical4 ,well1 there are the ,starkweathers1 ,i said4 ,david6 ,they're rich1 aren't they8 ,yes1 but you know how they live--what dinners they have--and besides1 they probably have a houseful of company4 ,weren't you telling me the other day how many people who were really suffering were too proud to let anyone know about it8 ,weren't you advising the necessity of getting acquainted with people and finding out--tactfully1 of course--you made a point of tact--what the trouble was8 ,but ,i was talking of poor people4 ,why shouldn't a rule that is good for poor people be equally as good for rich people8 ,aren't they proud8 ,oh1 you can argue1 observed ,harriet4 ,and ,i can act1 too1 ,i said4 ,i am now going over to invite the ,starkweathers4 ,i heard a rumor that their cook has left them and ,i expect to find them starving in their parlour4 ,of course they'll be very haughty and proud1 but ,i'll be tactful1 and when ,i go away ,i'll casually leave a diamond tiara in the front hall4 ,what is the matter with you this morning8 ,christmas1 ,i said4 ,i can't tell how pleased ,i was with the enterprise ,i had in mind3 it suggested all sorts of amusing and surprising developments4 ,moreover1 ,i left ,harriet1 finally1 in the breeziest of spirits1 having quite forgotten her disappointment over the non-arrival of the cousins4 ,if you should get the ,starkweathers---- ',in the bright lexicon of youth1' ,i observed1 'there is no such word as fail4' ,so ,i set off up the town road4 ,a team or two had already been that way and had broken a track through the snow4 ,the sun was now fully up1 but the air still tingled with the electricity of zero weather4 ,and the fields6 ,i have seen the fields of ,june and the fields of ,october1 but ,i think ,i never saw our countryside1 hills and valleys1 tree spaces and brook bottoms more enchantingly beautiful than it was this morning4 ,snow everywhere--the fences half hidden1 the bridges clogged1 the trees laden3 where the road was hard it squeaked under my feet1 and where it was soft ,i strode through the drifts4 ,and the air went to one's head like wine6 ,so ,i tramped past the ,pattersons'4 ,the old man1 a grumpy old fellow1 was going to the barn with a pail on his arm4 ,merry ,christmas1 ,i shouted4 ,he looked around at me wonderingly and did not reply4 ,at the corners ,i met the ,newton boys so wrapped in tippets that ,i could see only their eyes and the red ends of their small noses4 ,i passed the ,williams's house1 where there was a cheerful smoke in the chimney and in the window a green wreath with a lively red bow4 ,and ,i thought how happy everyone must be on a ,christmas morning like this6 ,at the hill bridge who should ,i meet but the ,scotch ,preacher himself1 ,god bless him6 ,well1 well1 ,david1 he exclaimed heartily1 ,merry ,christmas4 ,i drew my face down and said solemnly3 ,dr4 ,mc,alway1 ,i am on a most serious errand4 ,why1 now1 what's the matter8 ,he was all sympathy at once4 ,i am out in the highways trying to compel the poor of this neighbourhood to come to our feast4 ,the ,scotch ,preacher observed me with a twinkle in his eye4 ,david1 he said1 putting his hand to his mouth as if to speak in my ear1 there is a poor man you will na' have to compel4 ,oh1 you don't count1 ,i said4 ,you're coming anyhow4 ,then ,i told him of the errand with our millionaire friends1 into the spirit of which he entered with the greatest zest4 ,he was full of advice and much excited lest ,i fail to do a thoroughly competent job4 ,for a moment ,i think he wanted to take the whole thing out of my hands4 ,man1 man1 it's a lovely thing to do1 he exclaimed1 but ,i ha' me doots--,i ha' me doots4 ,at parting he hesitated a moment1 and with a serious face inquired3 ,is it by any chance a goose8 ,it is1 ,i said1 a goose--a big one4 ,he heaved a sigh of complete satisfaction4 ,you have comforted my mind1 he said1 with the joys of anticipation--a goose1 a big goose4 ,so ,i left him and went onward toward the ,starkweathers'4 ,presently ,i saw the great house standing among its wintry trees4 ,there was smoke in the chimney but no other evidence of life4 ,at the gate my spirits1 which had been of the best all the morning1 began to fail me4 ,though ,harriet and ,i were well enough acquainted with the ,starkweathers1 yet at this late moment on ,christmas morning it did seem rather a hair-brained scheme to think of inviting them to dinner4 ,never mind1 ,i said1 they'll not be displeased to see me anyway4 ,i waited in the reception-room1 which was cold and felt damp4 ,in the parlour beyond ,i could see the innumerable things of beauty--furniture1 pictures1 books1 so very1 very much of everything--with which the room was filled4 ,i saw it now1 as ,i had often seen it before1 with a peculiar sense of weariness4 ,how all these things1 though beautiful enough in themselves1 must clutter up a man's life6 ,do you know1 the more ,i look into life1 the more things it seems to me ,i can successfully lack--and continue to grow happier4 ,how many kinds of food ,i do not need1 nor cooks to cook them1 how much curious clothing nor tailors to make it1 how many books that ,i never read1 and pictures that are not worth while6 ,the farther ,i run1 the more ,i feel like casting aside all such impedimenta--lest ,i fail to arrive at the far goal of my endeavour4 ,i like to think of an old ,japanese nobleman ,i once read about1 who ornamented his house with a single vase at a time1 living with it1 absorbing its message of beauty1 and when he tired of it1 replacing it with another4 ,i wonder if he had the right way1 and we1 with so many objects to hang on our walls1 place on our shelves1 drape on our chairs1 and spread on our floors1 have mistaken our course and placed our hearts upon the multiplicity rather than the quality of our possessions6 ,presently ,mr4 ,starkweather appeared in the doorway4 ,he wore a velvet smoking-jacket and slippers2 and somehow1 for a bright morning like this1 he seemed old1 and worn1 and cold4 ,well1 well1 friend1 he said1 ,i'm glad to see you4 ,he said it as though he meant it4 ,come into the library2 it's the only room in the whole house that is comfortably warm4 ,you've no idea what a task it is to heat a place like this in really cold weather4 ,no sooner do ,i find a man who can run my furnace than he goes off and leaves me4 ,i can sympathize with you1 ,i said1 we often have trouble at our house with the man who builds the fires4 ,he looked around at me quizzically4 ,he lies too long in bed in the morning1 ,i said4 ,by this time we had arrived at the library1 where a bright fire was burning in the grate4 ,it was a fine big room1 with dark oak furnishings and books in cases along one wall1 but this morning it had a dishevelled and untidy look4 ,on a little table at one side of the fireplace were the remains of a breakfast2 at the other a number of wraps were thrown carelessly upon a chair4 ,as ,i came in ,mrs4 ,starkweather rose from her place1 drawing a silk scarf around her shoulders4 ,she is a robust1 rather handsome woman1 with many rings on her fingers1 and a pair of glasses hanging to a little gold hook on her ample bosom2 but this morning she1 too1 looked worried and old4 ,oh1 yes1 she said with a rueful laugh1 we're beginning a merry ,christmas1 as you see4 ,think of ,christmas with no cook in the house6 ,i felt as if ,i had discovered a gold mine4 ,poor starving millionaires6 ,but ,mrs4 ,starkweather had not told the whole of her sorrowful story4 ,we had a company of friends invited for dinner to-day1 she said1 and our cook was ill--or said she was--and had to go4 ,one of the maids went with her4 ,the man who looks after the furnace disappeared on ,friday1 and the stableman has been drinking4 ,we can't very well leave the place without some one who is responsible in charge of it--and so here we are4 ,merry ,christmas6 ,i couldn't help laughing4 ,poor people6 ,you might1 ,i said1 apply for ,mrs4 ,heney's place4 ,who is ,mrs4 ,heney8 asked ,mrs4 ,starkweather4 ,you don't mean to say that you never heard of ,mrs4 ,heney6 ,i exclaimed4 ,mrs4 ,heney1 who is now ,mrs4 ',penny' ,daniels8 ,you've missed one of our greatest celebrities4 ,with that1 of course1 ,i had to tell them about ,mrs4 ,heney1 who has for years performed a most important function in this community4 ,alone and unaided she has been the poor whom we are supposed to have always with us4 ,if it had not been for the devoted faithfulness of ,mrs4 ,heney at ,thanksgiving1 ,christmas and other times of the year1 ,i suppose our ,woman's ,aid ,society and the ,king's ,daughters would have perished miserably of undistributed turkeys and tufted comforters4 ,for years ,mrs4 ,heney filled the place most acceptably4 ,curbing the natural outpourings of a rather jovial soul she could upon occasion look as deserving of charity as any person that ever ,i met4 ,but ,i pitied the little ,heneys3 it always comes hard on the children4 ,for weeks after every ,thanksgiving and ,christmas they always wore a painfully stuffed and suffocated look4 ,i only came to appreciate fully what a self-sacrificing public servant ,mrs4 ,heney really was when ,i learned that she had taken the desperate alternative of marrying ,penny ,daniels4 ,so you think we might possibly aspire to the position8 laughed ,mrs4 ,starkweather4 ,upon this ,i told them of the trouble in our household and asked them to come down and help us enjoy ,dr4 ,mc,alway and the goose4 ,when ,i left1 after much more pleasant talk1 they both came with me to the door seeming greatly improved in spirits4 ,you've given us something to live for1 ,mr4 ,grayson1 said ,mrs4 ,starkweather4 ,so ,i walked homeward in the highest spirits1 and an hour or more later who should we see in the top of our upper field but ,mr4 ,starkweather and his wife floundering in the snow4 ,they reached the lane literally covered from top to toe with snow and both of them ruddy with the cold4 ,we walked over1 said ,mrs4 ,starkweather breathlessly1 and ,i haven't had so much fun in years4 ,mr4 ,starkweather helped her over the fence4 ,the ,scotch ,preacher stood on the steps to receive them1 and we all went in together4 ,i can't pretend to describe ,harriet's dinner3 the gorgeous brown goose1 and the apple sauce1 and all the other things that best go with it1 and the pumpkin pie at the end--the finest1 thickest1 most delicious pumpkin pie ,i ever ate in all my life4 ,it melted in one's mouth and brought visions of celestial bliss4 ,and ,i wish ,i could have a picture of ,harriet presiding4 ,i have never seen her happier1 or more in her element4 ,every time she brought in a new dish or took off a cover it was a sort of miracle4 ,and her coffee--but ,i must not and dare not elaborate4 ,and what great talk we had afterward6 ,i've known the ,scotch ,preacher for a long time1 but ,i never saw him in quite such a mood of hilarity4 ,he and ,mr4 ,starkweather told stories of their boyhood--and we laughed1 and laughed--,mrs4 ,starkweather the most of all4 ,seeing her so often in her carriage1 or in the dignity of her home1 ,i didn't think she had so much jollity in her4 ,finally she discovered ,harriet's cabinet organ1 and nothing would do but she must sing for us4 ,none of the new-fangled ones1 ,clara1 cried her husband3 some of the old ones we used to know4 ,so she sat herself down at the organ and threw her head back and began to sing3 ,believe me1 if all those endearing young charms1 ,which ,i gaze on so fondly to-day----1 ,mr4 ,starkweather jumped up and ran over to the organ and joined in with his deep voice4 ,harriet and ,i followed4 ,the ,scotch ,preacher's wife nodded in time with the music1 and presently ,i saw the tears in her eyes4 ,as for ,dr4 ,mc,alway1 he sat on the edge of his chair with his hands on his knees and wagged his shaggy head1 and before we got through he1 too1 joined in with his big sonorous voice3 ,thou wouldst still be adored as this moment thou art----1 ,oh1 ,i can't tell here--it grows late and there's work to-morrow--all the things we did and said4 ,they stayed until it was dark1 and when ,mrs4 ,starkweather was ready to go1 she took both of ,harriet's hands in hers and said with great earnestness3 ,i haven't had such a good time at ,christmas since ,i was a little girl4 ,i shall never forget it4 ,and the dear old ,scotch ,preacher1 when ,harriet and ,i had wrapped him up1 went out1 saying3 ,this has been a day of pleasant bread4 ,it has2 it has4 ,i shall not soon forget it4 ,what a lot of kindness and common human nature--childlike simplicity1 if you will--there is in people once you get them down together and persuade them that the things they think serious are not serious at all4 ,,iii ,,the ,,open ,,road ,to make space for wandering is it that the world was made so wide4 --,,goethe1 ,wilhelm ,meister4 ,i love sometimes to have a day alone--a riotous day4 ,sometimes ,i do not care to see even my best friends3 but ,i give myself up to the full enjoyment of the world around me4 ,i go out of my door in the morning--preferably a sunny morning1 though any morning will do well enough--and walk straight out into the world4 ,i take with me the burden of no duty or responsibility4 ,i draw in the fresh air1 odour-laden from orchard and wood4 ,i look about me as if everything were new--and behold everything is new4 ,my barn1 my oaks1 my fences--,i declare ,i never saw them before4 ,i have no preconceived impressions1 or beliefs1 or opinions4 ,my lane fence is the end of the known earth4 ,i am a discoverer of new fields among old ones4 ,i see1 feel1 hear1 smell1 taste all these wonderful things for the first time4 ,i have no idea what discoveries ,i shall make6 ,so ,i go down the lane1 looking up and about me4 ,i cross the town road and climb the fence on the other side4 ,i brush one shoulder among the bushes as ,i pass3 ,i feel the solid yet easy pressure of the sod4 ,the long blades of the timothy-grass clasp at my legs and let go with reluctance4 ,i break off a twig here and there and taste the tart or bitter sap4 ,i take off my hat and let the warm sun shine on my head4 ,i am an adventurer upon a new earth4 ,is it not marvellous how far afield some of us are willing to travel in pursuit of that beauty which we leave behind us at home8 ,we mistake unfamiliarity for beauty2 we darken our perceptions with idle foreignness4 ,for want of that ardent inner curiosity which is the only true foundation for the appreciation of beauty--for beauty is inward1 not outward--we find ourselves hastening from land to land1 gathering mere curious resemblances which1 like unassimilated property1 possess no power of fecundation4 ,with what pathetic diligence we collect peaks and passes in ,switzerland2 how we come laden from ,england with vain cathedrals6 ,beauty8 ,what is it but a new way of approach8 ,for wilderness1 for foreignness1 ,i have no need to go a mile3 ,i have only to come up through my thicket or cross my field from my own roadside--and behold1 a new heaven and a new earth6 ,things grow old and stale1 not because they are old1 but because we cease to see them4 ,whole vibrant significant worlds around us disappear within the sombre mists of familiarity4 ,whichever way we look the roads are dull and barren4 ,there is a tree at our gate we have not seen in years3 a flower blooms in our door-yard more wonderful than the shining heights of the ,alps6 ,it has seemed to me sometimes as though ,i could see men hardening before my eyes1 drawing in a feeler here1 walling up an opening there4 ,naming things6 ,objects fall into categories for them and wear little sure channels in the brain4 ,a mountain is a mountain1 a tree a tree to them1 a field forever a field4 ,life solidifies itself in words4 ,and finally how everything wearies them and that is old age6 ,is it not the prime struggle of life to keep the mind plastic8 ,to see and feel and hear things newly8 ,to accept nothing as settled2 to defend the eternal right of the questioner8 ,to reject every conclusion of yesterday before the surer observations of to-day8--is not that the best life we know8 ,and so to the ,open ,road6 ,not many miles from my farm there is a tamarack swamp4 ,the soft dark green of it fills the round bowl of a valley4 ,around it spread rising forests and fields2 fences divide it from the known land4 ,coming across my fields one day1 ,i saw it there4 ,i felt the habit of avoidance4 ,it is a custom1 well enough in a practical land1 to shun such a spot of perplexity2 but on that day ,i was following the ,open ,road1 and it led me straight to the moist dark stillness of the tamaracks4 ,i cannot here tell all the marvels ,i found in that place4 ,i trod where human foot had never trod before4 ,cobwebs barred my passage 7the bars to most passages when we came to them are only cobwebs71 the earth was soft with the thick swamp mosses1 and with many an autumn of fallen dead1 brown leaves4 ,i crossed the track of a muskrat1 ,i saw the nest of a hawk--and how1 how many other things of the wilderness ,i must not here relate4 ,and ,i came out of it renewed and refreshed2 ,i know now the feeling of the pioneer and the discoverer4 ,peary has no more than ,i2 ,stanley tells me nothing ,i have not experienced6 ,what more than that is the accomplishment of the great inventor1 poet1 painter8 ,such cannot abide habit-hedged wildernesses4 ,they follow the ,open ,road1 they see for themselves1 and will not accept the paths or the names of the world4 ,and ,sight1 kept clear1 becomes1 curiously1 ,insight4 ,a thousand had seen apples fall before ,newton4 ,but ,newton was dowered with the spirit of the ,open ,road6 ,sometimes as ,i walk1 seeking to see1 hear1 feel1 everything newly1 ,i devise secret words for the things ,i see3 words that convey to me alone the thought1 or impression1 or emotion of a peculiar spot4 ,all this1 ,i know1 to some will seem the acme of foolish illusion4 ,indeed1 ,i am not telling of it because it is practical2 there is no cash at the end of it4 ,i am reporting it as an experience in life2 those who understand will understand4 ,and thus out of my journeys ,i have words which bring back to me with indescribable poignancy the particular impression of a time or a place4 ,i prize them more highly than almost any other of my possessions1 for they come to me seemingly out of the air1 and the remembrance of them enables me to recall or live over a past experience with scarcely diminished emotion4 ,and one of these words--how it brings to me the very mood of a gray ,october day6 ,a sleepy west wind blowing4 ,the fields are bare1 the corn shocks brown1 and the long road looks flat and dull4 ,away in the marsh ,i hear a single melancholy crow4 ,a heavy day1 namelessly sad6 ,old sorrows flock to one's memory and old regrets4 ,the creeper is red in the swamp and the grass is brown on the hill4 ,it comes to me that ,i was a boy once---- ,so to the flat road and away6 ,and turn at the turning and rise with the hill4 ,will the mood change3 will the day8 ,i see a lone man in the top of a pasture crying ,coo-ee1 coo-ee4 ,i do not see at first why he cries and then over the hill come the ewes1 a dense gray flock of them1 huddling toward me4 ,the yokel behind has a stick in each hand4 ,coo-ee1 coo-ee1 he also cries4 ,and the two men1 gathering in1 threatening1 sidling1 advancing slowly1 the sheep turning uncertainly this way and that1 come at last to the boarded pen4 ,that's the idee1 says the helper4 ,a poor lot1 remarks the leader3 such is the farmer's life4 ,from the roadway they back their frame-decked wagon to the fence and unhook their team4 ,the leader throws off his coat and stands thick and muscular in his blue jeans--a roistering fellow with a red face1 thick neck and chapped hands4 ,i'll pass 'em up1 he says2 that's a man's work4 ,you stand in the wagon and put 'em in4 ,so he springs into the yard and the sheep huddle close into the corner1 here and there raising a timid head1 here and there darting aside in a panic4 ,hi there1 it's for you1 shouts the leader1 and thrusts his hands deep in the wool of one of the ewes4 ,come up here1 you ,southdown with the bare belly1 says the man in the wagon4 ,that's my old game--wrastling1 the leader remarks1 struggling with the next ewe4 ,stiddy1 stiddy1 now ,i got you1 up with you dang you6 ,that's the idee1 says the man in the wagon4 ,so ,i watch and they pass up the sheep one by one and as ,i go down the road ,i hear the leader's thick voice1 ,stiddy1 stiddy1 and the response of the other1 ,that's the idee4 ,and so on into the gray day6 ,my ,open ,road leads not only to beauty1 not only to fresh adventures in outer observation4 ,i believe in the ,open ,road in religion1 in education1 in politics3 there is nothing really settled1 fenced in1 nor finally decided upon this earth1 ,nothing that is not questionable4 ,i do not mean that ,i would immediately tear down well-built fences or do away with established and beaten roads4 ,by no means4 ,the wisdom of past ages is likely to be wiser than any hasty conclusions of mine4 ,i would not invite any other person to follow my road until ,i had well proven it a better way toward truth than that which time had established4 ,and yet ,i would have every man tread the ,open ,road2 ,i would have him upon occasion question the smuggest institution and look askance upon the most ancient habit4 ,i would have him throw a doubt upon ,newton and defy ,darwin6 ,i would have him look straight at men and nature with his own eyes4 ,he should acknowledge no common gods unless he proved them gods for himself4 ,the equality of men which we worship3 is there not a higher inequality8 ,the material progress which we deify3 is it real progress8 ,democracy--is it after all better than monarchy8 ,i would have him question the canons of art1 literature1 music1 morals3 so will he continue young and useful6 ,and yet sometimes ,i ask myself4 ,what do ,i travel for8 ,why all this excitement and eagerness of inquiry8 ,what is it that ,i go forth to find8 ,am ,i better for keeping my roads open than my neighbour is who travels with contentment the paths of ancient habit8 ,i am gnawed by the tooth of unrest--to what end8 ,often as ,i travel ,i ask myself that question and ,i have never had a convincing answer4 ,i am looking for something ,i cannot find4 ,my ,open ,road is open1 too1 at the end6 ,what is it that drives a man onward1 that scourges him with unanswered questions6 ,we only know that we are driven2 we do not know who drives4 ,we travel1 we inquire1 we look1 we work--only knowing that these activities satisfy a certain deep and secret demand within us4 ,we have ,faith that there is a ,reason3 and is there not a present ,joy in following the ,open ,road8 ,and ,o the joy that is never won1 ,but follows and follows the journeying sun4 ,and at the end of the day the ,open ,road1 if we follow it with wisdom as well as fervour1 will bring us safely home again4 ,for after all the ,open ,road must return to the ,beaten ,path4 ,the ,open ,road is for adventure2 and adventure is not the food of life1 but the spice4 ,thus ,i came back this evening from rioting in my fields4 ,as ,i walked down the lane ,i heard the soft tinkle of a cowbell1 a certain earthy exhalation1 as of work1 came out of the bare fields1 the duties of my daily life crowded upon me bringing a pleasant calmness of spirit1 and ,i said to myself3 ,lord be praised for that which is common4 ,and after ,i had done my chores ,i came in1 hungry1 to my supper4 ,,iv ,,on ,,being ,,where ,,you ,,belong ,sunday ,morning1 ,may #bjth4 ,on ,friday ,i began planting my corn4 ,for many days previously ,i went out every morning at sun-up1 in the clear1 sharp air1 and thrust my hand deep down in the soil of the field4 ,i do not know that ,i followed any learned agricultural rule1 but somehow ,i liked to do it4 ,it has seemed reasonable to me1 instead of watching for a phase of the moon 7for ,i do not cultivate the moon71 to inquire of the earth itself4 ,for many days ,i had no response2 the soil was of an icy1 moist coldness1 as of death4 ,i am not ready yet1 it said2 ,i have not rested my time4 ,early in the week we had a day or two of soft sunshine1 of fecund warmth1 to which the earth lay open1 willing1 passive4 ,on ,thursday morning1 though a white frost silvered the harrow ridges1 when ,i thrust my hand into the soil ,i felt1 or seemed to feel1 a curious response3 a strange answering of life to life4 ,the stone had been rolled from the sepulchre6 ,and ,i knew then that the destined time had arrived for my planting4 ,that afternoon ,i marked out my corn-field1 driving the mare to my home-made wooden marker1 carefully observant of the straightness of the rows2 for a crooked corn-row is a sort of immorality4 ,i brought down my seed corn from the attic1 where it had hung waiting all winter1 each ear suspended separately by the white1 up-turned husks4 ,they were the selected ears of last year's crop1 even of size throughout1 smooth of kernel1 with tips well-covered--the perfect ones chosen among many to perpetuate the highest excellencies of the crop4 ,i carried them to the shed next my barn1 and shelled them out in my hand machine3 as fine a basket of yellow dent seed as a man ever saw4 ,i have listened to endless discussions as to the relative merits of flint and dent corn4 ,i here cast my vote emphatically for yellow dent3 it is the best ,nature can do6 ,i found my seed-bag hanging1 dusty1 over a rafter in the shed1 and ,harriet sewed a buckle on the strip that goes around the waist4 ,i cleaned and sharpened my hoe4 ,now1 ,i said to myself1 give me a good day and ,i am ready to plant4 ,the sun was just coming up on ,friday1 looking over the trees into a world of misty and odorous freshness4 ,when ,i climbed the fence ,i dropped down in the grass at the far corner of the field4 ,i had looked forward this year with pleasure to the planting of a small field by hand--the adventure of it--after a number of years of horse planting 7with ,horace's machine7 of far larger fields4 ,there is an indescribable satisfaction in answering1 ,present6 to the roll-call of ,nature2 to plant when the earth is ready1 to cultivate when the soil begins to bake and harden1 to harvest when the grain is fully ripe4 ,it is the chief joy of him who lives close to the soil that he comes1 in time1 to beat in consonance with the pulse of the earth2 its seasons become his seasons2 its life his life4 ,behold me1 then1 with a full seed-bag suspended before me1 buckled both over the shoulders and around the waist1 a shiny hoe in my hand 7the scepter of my dominion71 a comfortable1 rested feeling in every muscle of my body1 standing at the end of the first long furrow there in my field on ,friday morning--a whole spring day open before me6 ,at that moment ,i would not have changed my place for the place of any king1 prince1 or president4 ,at first ,i was awkward enough1 for it has been a long time since ,i have done much hand planting2 but ,i soon fell into the rhythmic swing of the sower1 the sure1 even1 accurate step2 the turn of the body and the flexing of the wrists as the hoe strikes downward2 the deftly hollowed hole2 the swing of the hand to the seed-bag2 the sure fall of the kernels2 the return of the hoe2 the final determining pressure of the soil upon the seed4 ,one falls into it and follows it as he would follow the rhythm of a march4 ,even the choice of seed becomes automatic1 instinctive4 ,at first there is a conscious counting by the fingers--five seeds3 ,one for the blackbird1 ,one for the crow1 ,one for the cutworm1 ,two to grow4 ,but after a time one ceases to count five1 and feels five1 instinctively rejecting a monstrous six1 or returning to complete an inferior four4 ,i wonder if you know the feel of the fresh1 soft soil1 as it answers to your steps1 giving a little1 responding a little 7as life always does7--and is there not something endlessly good and pleasant about it8 ,and the movement of the arms and shoulders1 falling easily into that action and reaction which yields the most service to the least energy6 ,scientists tell us that the awkward young eagle has a wider wing-stretch than the old1 skilled eagle4 ,so the corn planter1 at noon1 will do his work with half the expended energy of the early morning3 he attains the artistry of motion4 ,and quite beyond and above this physical accomplishment is the ever-present1 scarcely conscious sense of reward1 repayment1 which one experiences as he covers each planting of seeds4 ,as the sun rose higher the mists stole secretly away1 first toward the lower brook-hollows1 finally disappearing entirely2 the morning coolness passed1 the tops of the furrows dried out to a lighter brown1 and still ,i followed the long planting4 ,at each return ,i refilled my seed-bag1 and sometimes ,i drank from the jug of water which ,i had hidden in the grass4 ,often ,i stood a moment by the fence to look up and around me4 ,through the clear morning air ,i could hear the roosters crowing vaingloriously from the barnyard1 and the robins were singing1 and occasionally from the distant road ,i heard the rumble of a wagon4 ,i noted the slow kitchen smoke from ,horace's chimney1 the tip of which ,i could just see over the hill from the margin of my field--and my own pleasant home among its trees--and my barn--all most satisfying to look upon4 ,then ,i returned to the sweat and heat of the open field1 and to the steady swing of the sowing4 ,illustration3 ,,often ,i ,,stood ,a ,,moment ,,by ,,the ,,fence ,joy of life seems to me to arise from a sense of being where one belongs1 as ,i feel right here2 of being foursquare with the life we have chosen4 ,all the discontented people ,i know are trying sedulously to be something they are not1 to do something they cannot do4 ,in the advertisements of the country paper ,i find men angling for money by promising to make women beautiful and men learned or rich--overnight--by inspiring good farmers and carpenters to be poor doctors and lawyers4 ,it is curious1 is it not1 with what skill we will adapt our sandy land to potatoes and grow our beans in clay1 and with how little wisdom we farm the soils of our own natures4 ,we try to grow poetry where plumbing would thrive grandly6--not knowing that plumbing is as important and honourable and necessary to this earth as poetry4 ,i understand it perfectly2 ,i too1 followed long after false gods4 ,i thought ,i must rush forth to see the world1 ,i must forthwith become great1 rich1 famous2 and ,i hurried hither and thither1 seeking ,i knew not what4 ,consuming my days with the infinite distractions of travel1 ,i missed1 as one who attempts two occupations at once1 the sure satisfaction of either4 ,beholding the exteriors of cities and of men1 ,i was deceived with shadows2 my life took no hold upon that which is deep and true4 ,colour ,i got1 and form1 and a superficial aptitude in judging by symbols4 ,it was like the study of a science3 a hasty review gives one the general rules1 but it requires a far profounder insight to know the fertile exceptions4 ,but as ,i grow older ,i remain here on my farm1 and wait quietly for the world to pass this way4 ,my oak and ,i1 we wait1 and we are satisfied4 ,here we stand among our clods2 our feet are rooted deep within the soil4 ,the wind blows upon us and delights us1 the rain falls and refreshes us1 the sun dries and sweetens us4 ,we are become calm1 slow1 strong2 so we measure rectitudes and regard essentials1 my oak and ,i4 ,i would be a hard person to dislodge or uproot from this spot of earth4 ,i belong here2 ,i grow here4 ,i like to think of the old fable of the wrestler of ,irassa4 ,for ,i am veritably that ,anteus who was the wrestler of ,irassa and drew his strength from the ground4 ,so long as ,i tread the long furrows of my planting1 with my feet upon the earth1 ,i am invincible and unconquerable4 ,hercules himself1 though he comes upon me in the guise of ,riches1 or ,fame1 or ,power1 cannot overthrow me--save as he takes me away from this soil4 ,for at each step my strength is renewed4 ,i forget weariness1 old age has no dread for me4 ,some there may be who think ,i talk dreams2 they do not know reality4 ,my friend1 did it ever occur to you that you are unhappy because you have lost connection with life8 ,because your feet are not somewhere firm planted upon the soil of reality8 ,contentment1 and indeed usefulness1 comes as the infallible result of great acceptances1 great humilities--of not trying to make ourselves this or that 7to conform to some dramatized version of ourselves71 but of surrendering ourselves to the fullness of life--of letting life flow through us4 ,to be used6--that is the sublimest thing we know4 ,it is a distinguishing mark of greatness that it has a tremendous hold upon real things4 ,i have seen men who seemed to have behind them1 or rather within them1 whole societies1 states1 institutions3 how they come at us1 like ,atlas bearing the world6 ,for they act not with their own feebleness1 but with a strength as of the ,whole of ,life4 ,they speak1 and the words are theirs1 but the voice is the ,voice of ,mankind4 ,i don't know what to call it3 being right with ,god or right with life4 ,it is strangely the same thing2 and ,god is not particular as to the name we know him by1 so long as we know ,him4 ,musing upon these secret things1 ,i seem to understand what the theologians in their darkness have made so obscure4 ,is it not just this at-one-moment with life which sweetens and saves us all8 ,in all these writings ,i have glorified the life of the soil until ,i am ashamed4 ,i have loved it because it saved me4 ,the farm for me1 ,i decided long ago1 is the only place where ,i can flow strongly and surely4 ,but to you1 my friend1 life may present a wholly different aspect1 variant necessities4 ,knowing what ,i have experienced in the city1 ,i have sometimes wondered at the happy 7even serene7 faces ,i have seen in crowded streets4 ,there must be1 ,i admit1 those who can flow and be at one with that life1 too4 ,and let them handle their money1 and make shoes1 and sew garments1 and write in ledgers--if that completes and contents them4 ,i have no quarrel with any one of them4 ,it is1 after all1 a big and various world1 where men can be happy in many ways4 ,for every man is a magnet1 highly and singularly sensitized4 ,some draw to them fields and woods and hills1 and are drawn in return2 and some draw swift streets and the riches which are known to cities4 ,it is not of importance what we draw1 but that we really draw4 ,and the greatest tragedy in life1 as ,i see it1 is that thousands of men and women never have the opportunity to draw with freedom2 but they exist in weariness and labour1 and are drawn upon like inanimate objects by those who live in unhappy idleness4 ,they do not farm3 they are farmed4 ,but that is a question foreign to present considerations4 ,we may be assured1 if we draw freely1 like the magnet of steel which gathers its iron filings about it in beautiful and symmetrical forms1 that the things which we attract will also become symmetrical and harmonious with our lives4 ,thus flowing with life1 self-surrendering to life a man becomes indispensable to life1 he is absolutely necessary to the conduct of this universe4 ,and it is the feeling of being necessary1 of being desired1 flowing into a man that produces the satisfaction of contentment4 ,often and often ,i think to myself3 ,these fields have need of me2 my horse whinnies when he hears my step2 my dog barks a welcome4 ,these1 my neighbours1 are glad of me4 ,the corn comes up fresh and green to my planting2 my buckwheat bears richly4 ,i am indispensable in this place4 ,what is more satisfactory to the human heart than to be needed and to know we are needed8 ,one line in the ,book of ,chronicles1 when ,i read it1 flies up at me out of the printed page as though it were alive1 conveying newly the age-old agony of a misplaced man4 ,after relating the short and evil history of ,jehoram1 ,king of ,judah1 the account ends--with the appalling terseness which often crowns the dramatic climaxes of that matchless writing3 ,and 7he7 departed without being desired4 ,without being desired6 ,i have wondered if any man was ever cursed with a more terrible epitaph6 ,and so ,i planted my corn2 and in the evening ,i felt the dumb weariness of physical toil4 ,many times in older days ,i have known the wakeful nerve-weariness of cities4 ,this was not it4 ,it was the weariness which1 after supper1 seizes upon one's limbs with half-aching numbness4 ,i sat down on my porch with a nameless content4 ,i looked off across the countryside4 ,i saw the evening shadows fall1 and the moon come up4 ,and ,i wanted nothing ,i had not4 ,and finally sleep swept in resistless waves upon me and ,i stumbled up to bed--and sank into dreamless slumber4 ,v ,,the ,,story ,,of ,,anna ,it is the prime secret of the ,open ,road 7but ,i may here tell it aloud7 that you are to pass nothing1 reject nothing1 despise nothing upon this earth4 ,as you travel1 many things both great and small will come to your attention2 you are to regard all with open eyes and a heart of simplicity4 ,believe that everything belongs somewhere2 each thing has its fitting and luminous place within this mosaic of human life4 ,the ,true ,road is not open to those who withdraw the skirts of intolerance or lift the chin of pride4 ,rejecting the least of those who are called common or unclean1 it is 7curiously7 you yourself that you reject4 ,if you despise that which is ugly you do not know that which is beautiful4 ,for what is beauty but completeness8 ,the roadside beggar belongs here1 too2 and the idiot boy who wanders idly in the open fields2 and the girl who withholds 7secretly7 the name of the father of her child4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i remember as distinctly as though it happened yesterday the particular evening three years ago when ,i saw the ,scotch ,preacher come hurrying up the road toward my house4 ,it was ,june4 ,i had come out after supper to sit on my porch and look out upon the quiet fields4 ,i remember the grateful cool of the evening air1 and the scents rising all about me from garden and roadway and orchard4 ,i was tired after the work of the day and sat with a sort of complete comfort and contentment which comes only to those who work long in the quiet of outdoor places4 ,i remember the thought came to me1 as it has come in various forms so many times1 that in such a big and beautiful world there should be no room for the fever of unhappiness or discontent4 ,and then ,i saw ,mc,alway coming up the road4 ,i knew instantly that something was wrong4 ,his step1 usually so deliberate1 was rapid2 there was agitation in every line of his countenance4 ,i walked down through the garden to the gate and met him there4 ,being somewhat out of breath he did not speak at once4 ,so ,i said3 ,it is not1 after all1 as bad as you anticipate4 ,david1 he said1 and ,i think ,i never heard him speak more seriously1 it is bad enough4 ,he laid his hand on my arm4 ,can you hitch up your horse and come with me--right away8 ,mc,alway helped with the buckles and said not a word4 ,in ten minutes1 certainly not more1 we were driving together down the lane4 ,do you know a family named ,williams living on the north road beyond the three corners8 asked the ,scotch ,preacher4 ,instantly a vision of a somewhat dilapidated house1 standing not unpicturesquely among ill-kept fields1 leaped to my mind4 ,yes1 ,i said2 but ,i can't remember any of the family except a gingham girl with yellow hair4 ,i used to see her on her way to school1'' ,a girl6 he said1 with a curious note in his voice2 but a woman now4 ,he paused a moment2 then he continued sadly3 ,as ,i grow older it seems a shorter and shorter step between child and child4 ,david1 she has a child of her own1'' ,but ,i didn't know--she isn't-- ,a woods child1 said the ,scotch ,preacher4 ,i could not find a word to say4 ,i remember the hush of the evening there in the country road1 the soft light fading in the fields4 ,i heard a whippoorwill calling from the distant woods4 ,they made it hard for her1 said the ,scotch ,preacher1 especially her older brother4 ,about four o'clock this afternoon she ran away1 taking her baby with her4 ,they found a note saying they would never again see her alive4 ,her mother says she went toward the river4 ,i touched up the mare4 ,for a few minutes the ,scotch ,preacher sat silent1 thinking4 ,then he said1 with a peculiar tone of kindness in his voice4 ,she was a child1 just a child4 ,when ,i talked with her yesterday she was perfectly docile and apparently contented4 ,i cannot imagine her driven to such a deed of desperation4 ,i asked her3 ',why did you do it1 ,anna8' ,she answered1 ',i don't know3 ,i--,i don't know6' ,her reply was not defiant or remorseful3 it was merely explanatory4 ,he remained silent again for a long time4 ,david1 he said finally1 ,i sometimes think we don't know half as much about human nature as we--we preach4 ,if we did1 ,i think we'd be more careful in our judgments4 ,he said it slowly1 tentatively3 ,i knew it came straight from his heart4 ,it was this spirit1 more than the title he bore1 far more than the sermons he preached1 that made him in reality the minister of our community4 ,he went about thinking that1 after all1 he didn't know much1 and that therefore he must be kind4 ,as ,i drove up to the bridge1 the ,scotch ,preacher put one hand on the reins4 ,i stopped the horse on the embankment and we both stepped out4 ,she would undoubtedly have come down this road to the river1 ,mc,alway said in a low voice4 ,it was growing dark4 ,when ,i walked out on the bridge my legs were strangely unsteady2 a weight seemed pressing on my breast so that my breath came hard4 ,we looked down into the shallow1 placid water3 the calm of the evening was upon it2 the middle of the stream was like a rumpled glassy ribbon1 but the edges1 deep-shaded by overhanging trees1 were of a mysterious darkness4 ,in all my life ,i think ,i never experienced such a degree of silence--of breathless1 oppressive silence4 ,it seemed as if1 at any instant1 it must burst into some fearful excess of sound4 ,suddenly we heard a voice--in half-articulate exclamation4 ,i turned1 every nerve strained to the uttermost4 ,a figure1 seemingly materialized out of darkness and silence1 was moving on the bridge4 ,oh6--,mc,alway1 a voice said4 ,then ,i heard the ,scotch ,preacher in low tones4 ,have you seen ,anna ,williams8 ,she is at the house1 answered the voice4 ,get your horse1 said the ,scotch ,preacher4 ,i ran back and led the mare across the bridge 7how ,i remember1 in that silence1 the thunder of her hoofs on the loose boards67 ,just at the top of the little hill leading up from the bridge the two men turned in at a gate4 ,i followed quickly and the three of us entered the house together4 ,i remember the musty1 warm1 shut-in odour of the front room4 ,i heard the faint cry of a child4 ,the room was dim1 with a single kerosene lamp1 but ,i saw three women huddled by the stove1 in which a new fire was blazing4 ,two looked up as we entered1 with feminine instinct moving aside to hide the form of the third4 ,she's all right1 as soon as she gets dry1 one of them said4 ,the other woman turned to us half complainingly3 ,she ain't said a single word since we got her in here1 and she won't let go of the baby for a minute4 ,she don't cry1 said the other1 but just sits there like a statue4 ,mc,alway stepped forward and said3 ,well--,anna8 ,the girl looked up for the first time4 ,the light shone full in her face3 a look ,i shall never forget4 ,yes1 it was the girl ,i had seen so often1 and yet not the girl4 ,it was the same childish face1 but all marked upon with inexplicable wan lines of a certain mysterious womanhood4 ,it was childish1 but bearing upon it an inexpressible look of half-sad dignity1 that stirred a man's heart to its profoundest depths4 ,and there was in it1 too1 as ,i have thought since1 a something ,i have seen in the faces of old1 wise men3 a light 7how shall ,i explain it87 as of experience--of boundless experience4 ,her hair hung in wavy dishevelment about her head and shoulders1 and she clung passionately to the child in her arms4 ,the ,scotch ,preacher had said1 ,well--,anna8 ,she looked up and replied3 ,they were going to take my baby away4 ,were they6 exclaimed ,mc,alway in his hearty voice4 ,well1 we'll never permit that4 ,who's got a better right to the baby than you1 ,i'd like to know8 ,without turning her head1 the tears came to her eyes and rolled unheeded down her face4 99 99 99 99 99 ,yes1 sir1 ,dr4 ,mc,alway1 the man said1 ,i was coming across the bridge with the cows when ,i see her standing there in the water1 her skirts all floating around her4 ,she was hugging the baby up to her face and saying over and over1 just like this3 ',i don't dare6 ,oh1 ,i don't dare6 ,but ,i must4 ,i must1' ,she was sort of singin' the words3 ',i don't dare1 ,i don't dare1 but ,i must4' ,i jumped the railing and run down to the bank of the river4 ,and ,i says1 ',come right out o' there'2 and she turned and come out just as gentle as a child1 and ,i brought her up here to the house4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it seemed perfectly natural at this time that ,i should take the girl and her child home to ,harriet4 ,she would not go back to her own home1 though we tried to persuade her1 and the ,scotch ,preacher's wife was visiting in the city1 so she could not go there4 ,but after ,i found myself driving homeward with the girl--while ,mc,alway went over the hill to tell her family--the mood of action passed4 ,it struck me suddenly1 ,what will ,harriet say8 ,upon which my heart sank curiously1 and refused to resume its natural position4 ,in the past ,i had brought her tramps and peddlers and itinerant preachers1 all of whom she had taken in with patience--but this1 ,i knew1 was different4 ,for a few minutes ,i wished devoutly ,i were in ,timbuctu or some other far place4 ,and then the absurdity of the situation struck me all at once1 and ,i couldn't help laughing aloud4 ,it's a tremendous old world1 ,i said to myself4 ,why1 anything may happen anywhere6 ,the girl stirred1 but did not speak4 ,i was afraid ,i had frightened her4 ,are you cold8 ,i asked4 ,no1 sir1 she answered faintly4 ,i could think of nothing whatever to say1 so ,i said it3 ,are you fond of hot corn-meal mush8 ,yes1 sir1 very faintly4 ,with cream on it--rich yellow cream--and plenty of sugar8 ,yes1 sir4 ,well1 ,i'll bet a nickel that's what we're going to get6 ,yes1 sir4 ,we drove up the lane and stopped at the yard gate4 ,harriet opened the door4 ,i led the small dark figure into the warmth and light of the kitchen4 ,she stood helplessly holding the baby tight in her arms--as forlorn and dishevelled a figure as one could well imagine4 ,harriet1 ,i said1 this is ,anna ,williams4 ,harriet gave me her most tremendous look4 ,it seemed to me at that moment that it wasn't my sister ,harriet at all that ,i was facing1 but some stranger and much greater person than ,i had ever known4 ,every man has1 upon occasion1 beheld his wife1 his sister1 his mother even1 become suddenly unknown1 suddenly commanding1 suddenly greater than himself or any other man4 ,for a woman possesses the occult power of becoming instantly1 miraculously1 the ,accumulated and ,personified ,customs1 ,morals and ,institutions of the ,ages4 ,at this moment1 then1 ,i felt myself slowly but surely shrinking and shriveling up4 ,it is a most uncomfortable sensation to find one's self face to face with ,society-at-,large4 ,under such circumstances ,i always know what to do4 ,i run4 ,so ,i clapped my hat on my head1 declared that the mare must be unharnessed immediately1 and started for the door4 ,harriet followed4 ,once outside she closed the door behind her4 ,david1 ,david1 ,,david1 she said4 ,it occurred to me now for the first time 7which shows how stupid ,i am7 that ,harriet had already heard the story of ,anna ,williams4 ,and it had gained so much bulk and robustity in travelling1 as such stories do in the country1 that ,i have no doubt the poor child seemed a sort of devastating monster of iniquity4 ,how the country scourges those who do not walk the beaten path6 ,in the1 careless city such a one may escape to unfamiliar streets and consort with unfamiliar people1 and still find a way of life1 but here in the country the eye of ,society never sleeps6 ,for a moment ,i was appalled by what ,i had done4 ,then ,i thought of the ,harriet ,i knew so well3 the inexhaustible heart of her4 ,with a sudden inspiration ,i opened the kitchen door and we both looked in4 ,the girl stood motionless just where ,i left her3 an infinitely pathetic figure4 ,harriet1 ,i said1 that girl is hungry--and cold4 ,well1 it worked4 ,instantly ,harriet ceased to be ,society-at-,large and became the ,harriet ,i know1 the ,harriet of infinite compassion for all weak creatures4 ,when she had gone in ,i pulled my hat down and went straight for the barn4 ,i guess ,i know when it's wise to be absent from places4 ,i unharnessed the mare1 and watered and fed her2 ,i climbed up into the loft and put down a rackful of hay2 ,i let the cows out into the pasture and set up the bars4 ,and then ,i stood by the gate and looked up into the clear ,june sky4 ,no man1 ,i think1 can remain long silent under the stars1 with the brooding1 mysterious night around about him1 without feeling1 poignantly1 how little he understands anything1 how inconsequential his actions are1 how feeble his judgments4 ,and ,i thought as ,i stood there how many a man1 deep down in his heart1 knows to a certainty that he has escaped being an outcast1 not because of any real moral strength or resolution of his own1 but because ,society has bolstered him up1 hedged him about with customs and restrictions until he never has had a really good opportunity to transgress4 ,and some do not sin for very lack of courage and originality3 they are helplessly good4 ,how many men in their vanity take to themselves credit for the built-up virtues of men who are dead6 ,there is no cause for surprise when we hear of a foremost citizen1 the leader in all good works1 suddenly gone wrong2 not the least cause for surprise4 ,for it was not he that was moral1 but ,society4 ,individually he had never been tested1 and when the test came he fell4 ,it will give us a large measure of true wisdom if we stop sometimes when we have resisted a temptation and ask ourselves why1 at that moment1 we did right and not wrong4 ,was it the deep virtue1 the high ideals in our souls1 or was it the compulsion of the ,society around us8 ,and ,i think most of us will be astonished to discover what fragile persons we really are--in ourselves4 ,i stopped for several minutes at the kitchen door before ,i dared to go in4 ,then ,i stamped vigorously on the boards1 as if ,i had come rushing up to the house without a doubt in my mind--,i even whistled--and opened the door jauntily4 ,and had my pains for nothing6 ,the kitchen was empty1 but full of comforting and homelike odours4 ,there was undoubtedly hot mush in the kettle4 ,a few minutes later ,harriet came down the stairs4 ,she held up one finger warningly4 ,her face was transfigured4 ,david1 she whispered1 the baby's asleep4 ,so ,i tiptoed across the room4 ,she tiptoed after me4 ,then ,i faced about1 and we both stood there on our tiptoes1 holding our breath--at least ,i held mine4 ,david1 ,harriet whispered1 did you see the baby8 ,no1 ,i whispered4 ,i think it's the finest baby ,i ever saw in my life4 ,when ,i was a boy1 and my great-aunt1 who lived for many years in a little room with dormer windows at the top of my father's house1 used to tell me stories 7the best ,i ever heard71 ,i was never content with the endings of them4 ,what happened next8 ,i remember asking a hundred times2 and if ,i did not ask the question aloud it arose at least in my own mind4 ,if ,i were writing fiction ,i might go on almost indefinitely with the story of ,anna2 but in real life stories have a curious way of coming to quick fruition1 and withering away after having cast the seeds of their immortality4 ,did you see the baby8 ,harriet had asked4 ,she said no word about ,anna3 a ,,baby had come into the world4 ,already the present was beginning to draw the charitable curtains of its forgetfulness across this simple drama2 already ,harriet and ,anna and all the rest of us were beginning to look to the finest baby we ever saw in all our lives4 ,i might1 indeed1 go into the character of ,anna and the whys and wherefores of her story2 but there is curiously little that is strange or unusual about it4 ,it was just ,life4 ,a few days with us worked miraculous changes in the girl2 like some stray kitten brought in crying from the cold1 she curled herself up comfortably there in our home1 purring her contentment4 ,she was not in the least a tragic figure3 though down deep under the curves and dimples of youth there was something finally resistant1 or obstinate1 or defiant--which kept its counsel regarding the past4 ,it is curious how acquaintanceship mitigates our judgments4 ,we classify strangers into whose careers the newspapers or our friends give us glimpses as bad or good2 we separate humanity into inevitable goathood and sheephood4 ,but upon closer acquaintance a man comes to be not bad1 but ,ebenezer ,smith or ,j4 ,henry ,jones2 and a woman is not good1 but ,nellie ,morgan or ,mrs4 ,arthur ,cadwalader4 ,take it in our own cases4 ,some people1 knowing just a little about us1 might call us pretty good people2 but we know that down in our hearts lurk the possibilities 7if not the actual accomplishment7 of all sorts of things not at all good4 ,we are exceedingly charitable persons--toward ourselves4 ,and thus we let other people live6 ,the other day1 at ,harriet's suggestion1 ,i drove to town by the upper road1 passing the ,williams place4 ,the old lady has a passion for hollyhocks4 ,a ragged row of them borders the dilapidated picket fence behind which1 crowding up to the sociable road1 stands the house4 ,as ,i drive that way it always seems to look out at me like some half-earnest worker1 inviting a chat about the weather or the county fair2 hence1 probably1 its good-natured dilapidation4 ,at the gate ,i heard a voice1 and a boy about three years old1 in a soiled gingham apron1 a sturdy1 blue-eyed little chap1 whose face was still eloquent of his recent breakfast1 came running to meet me4 ,i stopped the mare4 ,a moment later a woman was at the gate between the rows of hollyhocks2 when she saw me she began hastily to roll down her sleeves4 ,why1 ,mr4 ,grayson6 ,how's the boy1 ,anna8 ,and it was the cheerful talk we had there by the roadside1 and the sight of the sturdy boy playing in the sunshine--and the hollyhocks1 and the dilapidated house--that brought to memory the old story of ,anna which ,i here set down1 not because it carries any moral1 but because it is a common little piece out of real life in which ,harriet and ,i have been interested4 ,,vi ,,the ,,drunkard ,it is a strange thing3 ,adventure4 ,i looked for her high and ,i looked for her low1 and she passed my door in a tattered garment--unheeded4 ,for ,i had neither the eye of simplicity nor the heart of humility4 ,one day ,i looked for her anew and ,i saw her beckoning from the ,open ,road2 and underneath the tags and tatters ,i caught the gleam of her celestial garment2 and ,i went with her into a new world4 ,i have had a singular adventure1 in which ,i have made a friend4 ,and ,i have seen new things which are also true4 ,my friend is a drunkard--at least so ,i call him1 following the custom of the country4 ,on his way from town he used often to come by my farm4 ,i could hear him singing afar off4 ,beginning at the bridge1 where on still days one can hear the rattle of a wagon on the loose boards1 he sang in a peculiar clear high voice4 ,i make no further comment upon the singing1 nor the cause of it2 but in the cool of the evening when the air was still--and he usually came in the evening--,i often heard the cadences of his song with a thrill of pleasure4 ,then ,i saw him come driving by my farm1 sitting on the spring seat of his one-horse wagon1 and if he chanced to see me in my field1 he would take off his hat and make me a grandiloquent bow1 but never for a moment stop his singing4 ,and so he passed by the house and ,i1 with a smile1 saw him moving up the hill in the north road1 until finally his voice1 still singing1 died away in the distance4 ,once ,i happened to reach the house just as the singer was passing1 and ,harriet said3 ,there goes that drunkard4 ,it gave me an indescribable shock4 ,of course ,i had known as much1 and yet ,i had not directly applied the term4 ,i had not thought of my singer as that1 for ,i had often been conscious in spite of myself1 alone in my fields1 of something human and cheerful which had touched me1 in passing4 ,after ,harriet applied her name to my singer1 ,i was of two minds concerning him4 ,i struggled with myself3 ,i tried instinctively to discipline my pulses when ,i heard the sound of his singing4 ,for was he not a drunkard8 ,lord6 how we get our moralities mixed up with our realities6 ,and then one evening when ,i saw him coming--,i had been a long day alone in my fields--,i experienced a sudden revulsion of feeling4 ,with an indescribable joyousness of adventure ,i stepped out toward the fence and pretended to be hard at work4 ,after all1 ,i said to myself1 this is a large world1 with room in it for many curious people4 ,i waited in excitement4 ,when he came near me ,i straightened up just as though ,i had seen him for the first time4 ,when he lifted his hat to me ,i lifted my hat as grandiloquently as he4 ,how are you1 neighbour8 ,i asked4 ,he paused for a single instant and gave me a smile2 then he replaced his hat as though he had far more important business to attend to1 and went on up the road4 ,my next glimpse of him was a complete surprise to me4 ,i saw him on the street in town4 ,harriet pointed him out1 else ,i should never have recognized him3 a quiet1 shy1 modest man1 as different as one could imagine from the singer ,i had seen so often passing my farm4 ,he wore neat1 worn clothes2 and his horse stood tied in front of the store4 ,he had brought his honey to town to sell4 ,he was a bee-man4 ,i stopped and asked him about his honey1 and whether the fall flowers had been plenty2 ,i ran my eye over his horse1 and said that it seemed to be a good animal4 ,but ,i could get very little from him1 and that little in a rather low voice4 ,i came away with my interest whetted to a still keener edge4 ,how a man has come to be what he is--is there any discovery better worth making8 ,illustration3 ,,he ,,usually ,,came ,,in ,,the ,,evening ,after that day in town ,i watched for the bee-man1 and ,i saw him often on his way to town1 silent1 somewhat bent forward in his seat1 driving his horse with circumspection1 a ,dr4 ,jekyll of propriety2 and a few hours later he would come homeward a wholly different person1 straight of back1 joyous of mien1 singing his songs in his high clear voice1 a very ,hyde of recklessness4 ,even the old horse seemed changed3 he held his head higher and stepped with a quicker pace4 ,when the bee-man went toward town he never paused1 nor once looked around to see me in my field2 but when he came back he watched for me1 and when ,i responded to his bow he would sometimes stop and reply to my greeting4 ,one day he came from town on foot and when he saw me1 even though ,i was some distance away1 he approached the fence and took off his hat1 and held out his hand4 ,i walked over toward him4 ,i saw his full face for the first time3 a rather handsome face4 ,the hair was thin and curly1 the forehead generous and smooth2 but the chin was small4 ,his face was slightly flushed and his eyes--his eyes burned6 ,i shook his hand4 ,i had hoped1 ,i said1 that you would stop sometime as you went by4 ,well1 ,i've wanted to stop--but ,i'm a busy man4 ,i have important matters in hand almost all the time4 ,you usually drive4 ,yes1 ordinarily ,i drive4 ,i do not use a team1 but ,i have in view a fine span of roadsters4 ,one of these days you will see me going by your farm in style4 ,my wife and ,i both enjoy driving4 ,i wish ,i could here convey the tone of buoyancy with which he said these words4 ,there was a largeness and confidence in them that carried me away4 ,he told me that he was now working with the experts--those were his words--and that he would soon begin building a house that would astonish the country4 ,upon this he turned abruptly away1 but came back and with fine courtesy shook my hand4 ,you see1 he said1 ,i am a busy man1 ,mr4 ,grayson--and a happy man4 ,so he set off down the road1 and as he passed my house he began singing again in his high voice4 ,i walked away with a feeling of wonder1 not unmixed with sorrow4 ,it was a strange case6 ,gradually ,i became really acquainted with the bee-man1 at first with the exuberant1 confident1 imaginative1 home-going bee-man2 far more slowly with the shy1 reserved1 townward-bound bee-man4 ,it was quite an adventure1 my first talk with the shy bee-man4 ,i was driving home2 ,i met him near the lower bridge4 ,i cudgeled my brain to think of some way to get at him4 ,as he passed1 ,i leaned out and said3 ,friend1 will you do me a favour8 ,i neglected to stop at the post-office4 ,would you call and see whether anything has been left for me in the box since the carrier started8' ,certainly1 he said1 glancing up at me1 but turning his head swiftly aside again4 ,on his way back he stopped and left me a paper4 ,he told me volubly about the way he would run the post-office if he were in a place of suitable authority4 ,great things are possible1 he said1 to the man of ideas4 ,at this point began one of the by-plays of my acquaintance with the bee-man4 ,the exuberant bee-man referred disparagingly to the shy bee-man4 ,i must have looked pretty seedy and stupid this morning on my way in4 ,i was up half the night2 but ,i feel all right now4 ,the next time ,i met the shy bee-man he on his part apologised for the exuberant bee-man--hesitatingly1 falteringly1 winding up with the words1 ,i think you will understand4 ,i grasped his hand1 and left him with a wan smile on his face4 ,instinctively ,i came to treat the two men in a wholly different manner4 ,with the one ,i was blustering1 hail-fellow-well-met1 listening with eagerness to his expansive talk2 but to the other ,i said little1 feeling my way slowly to his friendship1 for ,i could not help looking upon him as a pathetic figure4 ,he needed a friend6 ,the exuberant bee-man was sufficient unto himself1 glorious in his visions1 and ,i had from him no little entertainment4 ,i told ,harriet about my adventures3 they did not meet with her approval4 ,she said ,i was encouraging a vice4 ,harriet1 ,i said1 go over and see his wife4 ,i wonder what she thinks about it4 ,thinks6 exclaimed ,harriet4 ,what should the wife of a drunkard think8 ,but she went over4 ,as soon as she returned ,i saw that something was wrong1 but ,i asked no questions4 ,during supper she was extraordinarily preoccupied1 and it was not until an hour or more afterward that she came into my room4 ,david1 she said1 ,i can't understand some things4 ,isn't human nature doing what it ought to8 ,i asked4 ,but she was not to be joked with4 ,david1 that man's wife doesn't seem to be sorry because he comes home drunken every week or two6 ,i talked with her about it and what do you think she said8 ,she said she knew it was wrong1 but she intimated that when he was in that state she loved--liked--him all the better4 ,is it believable8 ,she said3 ',perhaps you won't understand--it's wrong1 ,i know1 but when he comes home that way he seems so full of--life4 ,he--he seems to understand me better then6' ,she was heartbroken1 one could see that1 but she would not admit it4 ,i leave it to you1 ,david1 what can anyone do with a woman like that8 ,how is the man ever to overcome his habits8 ,it is a strange thing1 when we ask questions directly of life1 how often the answers are unexpected and confusing4 ,our logic becomes illogical6 ,our stories won't turn out4 ,she told much more about her interview3 the neat home1 the bees in the orchard1 the well-kept garden4 ,when he's sober1 she said1 he seems to be a steady1 hard worker4 ,after that ,i desired more than ever to see deep into the life of the strange bee-man4 ,why was he what he was8 ,and at last the time came1 as things come to him who desires them faithfully enough4 ,one afternoon not long ago1 a fine autumn afternoon1 when the trees were glorious on the hills1 the ,indian summer sun never softer1 ,i was tramping along a wood lane far back of my farm4 ,and at the roadside1 near the trunk of an oak tree1 sat my friend1 the bee-man4 ,he was a picture of despondency1 one long hand hanging limp between his knees1 his head bowed down4 ,when he saw me he straightened up1 looked at me1 and settled back again4 ,my heart went out to him1 and ,i sat down beside him4 ,have you ever seen a finer afternoon8 ,i asked4 ,he glanced up at the sky4 ,fine8 he answered vaguely1 as if it had never occurred to him4 ,i saw instantly what the matter was2 the exuberant bee-man was in process of transformation into the shy bee-man4 ,i don't know exactly how it came about1 for such things are difficult to explain1 but ,i led him to talk of himself4 ,after it is all over1 he said1 of course ,i am ashamed of myself4 ,you don't know1 ,mr4 ,grayson1 what it all means4 ,i am ashamed of myself now1 and yet ,i know ,i shall do it again4 ,no1 ,i said1 you will not do it again4 ,yes1 ,i shall4 ,something inside of me argues3 ,why should you be sorry8 ,were you not free for a whole afternoon8 ,free8 ,i asked4 ,yes--free4 ,you will not understand4 ,but every day ,i work1 work1 work4 ,i have friends1 but somehow ,i can't get to them2 ,i can't even get to my wife4 ,it seems as if a wall hemmed me in1 as if ,i were bound to a rock which ,i couldn't get away from1 ,i am also afraid4 ,when ,i am sober ,i know how to do great things1 but ,i can't do them4 ,after a few glasses--,i never take more--,i not only know ,i can do great things1 but ,i feel as though ,i were really doing them4 ,but you never do8 ,no1 ,i never do1 but ,i feel that ,i can4 ,all the bonds break and the wall falls down and ,i am free4 ,i can really touch people4 ,i feel friendly and neighbourly4 ,he was talking eagerly now1 trying to explain1 for the first time in his life1 he said1 how it was that he did what he did4 ,he told me how beautiful it made the world1 where before it was miserable and friendless1 how he thought of great things and made great plans1 how his home seemed finer and better to him1 and his work more noble4 ,the man had a real gift of imagination and spoke with an eagerness and eloquence that stirred me deeply4 ,i was almost on the point of asking him where his magic liquor was to be found6 ,when he finally gave me an opening1 ,i said3 ,i think ,i understand4 ,many men ,i know are in some respects drunkards4 ,they all want some way to escape themselves--to be free of their own limitations4 ,that's it6 ,that's it6 he exclaimed eagerly4 ,we sat for a time side by side1 saying nothing4 ,i could not help thinking of that line of ,virgil referring to quite another sort of intoxication3 ,with ,voluntary dreams they cheat their minds4 ,instead of that beautiful unity of thought and action which marks the finest character1 here was this poor tragedy of the divided life4 ,when ,fate would destroy a man it first separates his forces6 ,it drives him to think one way and act another2 it encourages him to seek through outward stimulation--whether drink1 or riches1 or fame--a deceptive and unworthy satisfaction in place of that true contentment which comes only from unity within4 ,no man can be two men successfully4 ,so we sat and said nothing4 ,what indeed can any man say to another under such circumstances8 ,as ,bobbie ,burns remarks out of the depths of his own experience3 ,what's done we partly may compute ,but know not what's resisted4 ,i've always felt that the best thing one man can give another is the warm hand of understanding4 ,and yet when ,i thought of the pathetic1 shy bee-man1 hemmed in by his sunless walls1 ,i felt that ,i should also say something4 ,seeing two men struggling shall ,i not assist the better8 ,shall ,i let the sober one be despoiled by him who is riotous8 ,there are realities1 but there are also moralities--if we can keep them properly separated4 ,most of us1 ,i said finally1 are in some respects drunkards4 ,we don't give it so harsh a name1 but we are just that4 ,drunkenness is not a mere matter of intoxicating liquors2 it goes deeper--far deeper4 ,drunkenness is the failure of a man to control his thoughts4 ,the bee-man sat silent1 gazing out before him4 ,i noted the blue veins in the hand that lay on his knee4 ,it came over me with sudden amusement and ,i said3 ,i often get drunk myself4 ,you8 ,yes--dreadfully drunk4 ,he looked at me and laughed--for the first time6 ,and ,i laughed1 too4 ,do you know1 there's a lot of human nature in people6 ,and when you think you are deep in tragedy1 behold1 humour lurks just around the corner6 ,i used to laugh at it a good deal more than ,i do now1 he said4 ,i've been through it all4 ,sometimes when ,i go to town ,i say to myself1 ',i will not turn at that corner1' but when ,i come to the corner1 ,i do turn4 ,then ,i say ',i will not go into that bar1' but ,i do go in4 ',i will not order anything to drink1' ,i say to myself1 and then ,i hear myself talking aloud to the barkeeper just as though ,i were some other person4 ',give me a glass of rye1' ,i say1 and ,i stand off looking at myself1 very angry and sorrowful4 ,but gradually ,i seem to grow weaker and weaker--or rather stronger and stronger--for my brain begins to become clear1 and ,i see things and feel things ,i never saw or felt before4 ,i want to sing4 ,and you do sing1 ,i said4 ,i do1 indeed1 he responded1 laughing1 and it seems to me the most beautiful music in the world4 ,sometimes1 ,i said1 when ,i'm on my kind of spree1 ,i try not so much to empty my mind of the thoughts which bother me1 but rather to fill my mind with other1 stronger thoughts---- ,before ,i could finish he had interrupted3 ,haven't ,i tried that1 too8 ,don't ,i think of other things8 ,i think of bees--and that leads me to honey1 doesn't it8 ,and that makes me think of putting the honey in the wagon and taking it to town4 ,then1 of course1 ,i think how it will sell4 ,instantly1 stronger than you can imagine1 ,i see a dime in my hand4 ,then it appears on the wet bar4 ,i smell the smell of the liquor4 ,and there you are6 ,we did not talk much more that day4 ,we got up and shook hands and looked each other in the eye4 ,the bee-man turned away1 but came back hesitatingly4 ,i am glad of this talk1 ,mr4 ,grayson4 ,it makes me feel like taking hold again4 ,i have been in hell for years---- ,of course1 ,i said4 ,you needed a friend4 ,you and ,i will come up together4 ,as ,i walked toward home that evening ,i felt a curious warmth of satisfaction in my soul--and ,i marvelled at the many strange things that are to be found upon this miraculous earth4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i suppose1 if ,i were writing a story1 ,i should stop at this point2 but ,i am dealing in life4 ,and life does not always respond to our impatience with satisfactory moral conclusions4 ,life is inconclusive3 quite open at the end4 ,i had a vision of a new life for my neighbour1 the bee-man--and have it yet1 for ,i have not done with him--but---- ,last evening1 and that is why ,i have been prompted to write the whole story1 my bee-man came again along the road by my farm2 my exuberant bee-man4 ,i heard him singing afar off4 ,he did not see me as he went by1 but as ,i stood looking out at him1 it came over me with a sudden sense of largeness and quietude that the sun shone on him as genially as it did on me1 and that the leaves did not turn aside from him1 nor the birds stop singing when he passed4 ,he also belongs here1 ,i said4 ,and ,i watched him as he mounted the distant hill1 until ,i could no longer hear the high clear cadences of his song4 ,and it seemed to me that something human1 in passing1 had touched me4 ,,vii ,,an ,,old ,,maid ,one of my neighbours whom ,i never have chanced to mention before in these writings is a certain ,old ,maid4 ,she lives about two miles from my farm in a small white house set in the midst of a modest1 neat garden with well-kept apple trees in the orchard behind it4 ,she lives all alone save for a good-humoured1 stupid nephew who does most of the work on the farm--and does it a little unwillingly4 ,harriet and ,i had not been here above a week when we first made the acquaintance of ,miss ,aiken1 or rather she made our acquaintance4 ,for she fills the place1 most important in a country community1 of a sensitive social tentacle--reaching out to touch with sympathy the stranger4 ,harriet was amused at first by what she considered an almost unwarrantable curiosity1 but we soon formed a genuine liking for the little old lady1 and since then we have often seen her in her home1 and often she has come to ours4 ,she was here only last night4 ,i considered her as she sat rocking in front of our fire2 a picture of wholesome comfort4 ,i have had much to say of contentment4 ,she seems really to live it1 although ,i have found that contentment is easier to discover in the lives of our neighbours than in our own4 ,all her life long she has lived here in this community1 a world of small things1 one is tempted to say1 with a sort of expected and predictable life4 ,i thought last night1 as ,i observed her gently stirring her rocking-chair1 how her life must be made up of small1 often-repeated events3 pancakes1 puddings1 patchings1 who knows what other orderly1 habitual1 minute affairs8 ,who knows8 ,who knows when he looks at you or at me that there is anything in us beyond the humdrummery of this day8 ,in front of her house are two long1 boarded beds of old-fashioned flowers1 mignonette and petunias chiefly1 and over the small1 very white door with its shiny knob1 creeps a white clematis vine4 ,just inside the hall-door you will discover a bright1 clean1 oval rag rug1 which prepares you1 as small things lead to greater1 for the larger1 brighter1 cleaner rug of the sitting-room4 ,there on the centre-table you will discover ,snow ,bound1 by ,john ,greenleaf ,whittier2 ,tupper's ,poems2 a large embossed ,bible2 the family plush album2 and a book1 with a gilt ladder on the cover which leads upward to gilt stars1 called the ,path of ,life4 ,on the wall are two companion pictures of a rosy fat child1 in faded gilt frames1 one called ,wide ,awake the other ,fast ,asleep4 ,not far away1 in a corner1 on the top of the walnut whatnot1 is a curious vase filled with pampas plumes2 there are sea-shells and a piece of coral on the shelf below4 ,and right in the midst of the room are three very large black rocking-chairs with cushions in every conceivable and available place--including cushions on the arms4 ,two of them are for you and me1 if we should come in to call2 the other is for the cat4 ,when you sit down you can look out between the starchiest of starchy curtains into the yard1 where there is an innumerable busy flock of chickens4 ,she keeps chickens1 and all the important ones are named4 ,she has one called ,martin ,luther1 another is ,josiah ,gilbert ,holland4 ,once she came over to our house with a basket1 from one end of which were thrust the sturdy red legs of a pullet4 ,she informed us that she had brought us one of ,evangeline's daughters4 ,but ,i am getting out of the house before ,i am fairly well into it4 ,the sitting-room expresses ,miss ,aiken2 but not so well1 somehow1 as the immaculate bedroom beyond1 into which1 upon one occasion1 ,i was permitted to steal a modest glimpse4 ,it was of an incomparable neatness and order1 all hung about--or so it seemed to me--with white starchy things1 and ornamented with bright 7but inexpensive7 nothings4 ,in this wonderful bedroom there is a secret and sacred drawer into which1 once in her life1 ,harriet had a glimpse4 ,it contains the clothes1 all gently folded1 exhaling an odour of lavender1 in which our friend will appear when she has closed her eyes to open them no more upon this earth4 ,in such calm readiness she awaits her time4 ,upon the bureau in this sacred apartment stands a small rosewood box1 which is locked1 into which no one in our neighbourhood has had so much as a single peep4 ,i should not dare1 of course1 to speculate upon its contents2 perhaps an old letter or two1 a ring and a rose1 a ribbon that is more than a ribbon1 a picture that is more than art4 ,who can tell8 ,as ,i passed that way ,i fancied ,i could distinguish a faint1 mysterious odour which ,i associated with the rosewood box3 an old-fashioned odour composed of many simples4 ,on the stand near the head of the bed and close to the candlestick is a ,bible--a little1 familiar1 daily ,bible1 very different indeed from the portentous and imposing family ,bible which reposes on the centre-table in the front room1 which is never opened except to record a death4 ,it has been well worn1 this small nightly ,bible1 by much handling4 ,is there a care or a trouble in this world1 here is the sure talisman4 ,she seeks 7and finds7 the inspired text4 ,wherever she opens the book she seizes the first words her eyes fall upon as a prophetic message to her4 ,then she goes forth like some ,david with his sling1 so panoplied with courage that she is daunted by no ,goliath of the ,philistines4 ,also she has a worshipfulness of all ministers4 ,sometimes when the ,scotch ,preacher comes to tea and remarks that her pudding is good1 ,i firmly believe that she interprets the words into a spiritual message for her4 ,besides the drawer1 the rosewood box1 and the worn ,bible1 there is a certain ,black ,cape4 ,far be it from me to attempt a description1 but ,i can say with some assurance that it also occupies a shrine4 ,it may not be in the inner sanctuary1 but it certainly occupies a goodly part of the outer porch of the temple4 ,all this1 of course1 is figurative1 for the cape hangs just inside the closet door on a hanger1 with a white cloth over the shoulders to keep off the dust4 ,for the vanities of the world enter even such a sanctuary as this4 ,i wish1 indeed1 that you could see ,miss ,aiken wearing her cape on a ,sunday in the late fall when she comes to church1 her sweet old face shining under her black hat1 her old-fashioned silk skirt giving out an audible1 not unimpressive sound as she moves down the aisle4 ,with what dignity she steps into her pew6 ,with what care she sits down so that she may not crush the cookies in her ample pocket2 with what meek pride--if there is such a thing as meek pride--she looks up at the ,scotch ,preacher as he stands sturdily in his pulpit announcing the first hymn6 ,and many an eye turning that way to look turns with affection4 ,several times ,harriet and ,i have been with her to tea4 ,like many another genius1 she has no conception of her own art in such matters as apple puddings4 ,she herself prefers graham gems1 in which she believes there inheres a certain mysterious efficacy4 ,she bakes gems on ,monday and has them steamed during the remainder of the week--with tea4 ,and as a sort of dessert she tells us about the ,danas1 the ,aikens and the ,carnahans1 who are1 in various relationships1 her progenitors4 ,we gravitate into the other room1 and presently she shows us1 in the plush album1 the portraits of various cousins1 aunts and uncles4 ,and by-and-by ,harriet warms up and begins to tell about the ,scribners1 the ,mac,intoshes1 and the ,strayers1 who are our progenitors4 ,the ,aikens1 says ,miss ,aiken1 were always like that--downright and outspoken4 ,it is an ,aiken trait4 ,no ,aiken could ever help blurting out the truth if he knew he were to die for it the next minute4 ,that was like the ,macintoshes1 ,harriet puts in4 ,old ,grandfather ,macintosh---- ,by this time ,i am settled comfortably in the cushioned rocking-chair to watch the fray4 ,miss ,aiken advances a ,dana1 ,harriet counters with a ,strayer4 ,miss ,aiken deploys the ,carnahans in open order1 upon which ,harriet entrenches herself with the heroic ,scribners and lets fly a ,macintosh who was a general in the colonial army4 ,surprised1 but not defeated1 ,miss ,aiken withdraws in good order1 covering her retreat with two ,mayflower ancestors1 the existence of whom she establishes with a blue cup and an ancient silver spoon4 ,no one knows the joy of fighting relatives until he has watched such a battle1 following the complete comfort of a good supper4 ,if any one is sick in the community ,miss ,aiken hears instantly of it by a sort of wireless telegraphy1 or telepathy which would astonish a mystery-loving ,east ,indian4 ,she appears with her little basket1 which has two brown flaps for covers opening from the middle and with a spring in them somewhere so that they fly shut with a snap4 ,out of this she takes a bowl of chicken broth1 a jar of ambrosial jelly1 a cake of delectable honey and a bottle of celestial raspberry shrub4 ,if the patient will only eat1 he will immediately rise up and walk4 ,or if he dies1 it is a pleasant sort of death4 ,i have myself thought on several occasions of being taken with a brief fit of sickness4 ,in telling all these things about ,miss ,aiken1 which seem to describe her1 ,i have told only the commonplace1 the expected or predictable details4 ,often and often ,i pause when ,i see an interesting man or woman and ask myself3 ,how1 after all1 does this person live8 ,for we all know it is not chiefly by the clothes we wear or the house we occupy or the friends we touch4 ,there is something deeper1 more secret1 which furnishes the real motive and character of our lives4 ,what a triumph1 then1 is every fine old man6 ,to have come out of a long life with a spirit still sunny1 is not that an heroic accomplishment8 ,of the real life of our friend ,i know only one thing2 but that thing is precious to me1 for it gives me a glimpse of the far dim ,alps that rise out of the ,plains of ,contentment4 ,it is nothing very definite--such things never are2 and yet ,i like to think of it when ,i see her treading the useful round of her simple life4 ,as ,i said1 she has lived here in this neighbourhood--oh1 sixty years4 ,the country knew her father before her4 ,out of that past1 through the dimming eyes of some of the old inhabitants1 ,i have had glimpses of the sprightly girlhood which our friend must have enjoyed4 ,there is even a confused story of a wooer 7how people try to account for every old maid67--a long time ago--who came and went away again4 ,no one remembers much about him--such things are not important1 of course1 after so many years---- ,but ,i must get to the thing ,i treasure4 ,one day ,harriet called at the little house4 ,it was in summer and the door stood open2 she presumed on the privilege of friendship and walked straight in4 ,there she saw1 sitting at the table1 her head on her arm in a curious girlish abandon unlike the prim ,miss ,aiken we knew so well1 our ,old ,maid4 ,when she heard ,harriet's step she started up with breath quickly indrawn4 ,there were tears in her eyes4 ,something in her hand she concealed in the folds of her skirt then impulsively--unlike her1 too--she threw an arm around ,harriet and buried her face on ,harriet's shoulder4 ,in response to ,harriet's question she said3 ,oh1 an old1 old trouble4 ,no new trouble4 ,that was all there was to it4 ,all the new troubles were the troubles of other people4 ,you may say this isn't much of a clue2 well it isn't1 and yet ,i like to have it in mind4 ,it gives me somehow the other woman who is not expected or predictable or commonplace4 ,i seem to understand our ,old ,maid the better2 and when ,i think of her bustling1 inquisitive1 helpful1 gentle ways and the shine of her white soul1 ,i'm sure ,i don't know what we should do without her in this community4 ,,viii ,a ,,roadside ,,prophet ,from my upper field1 when ,i look across the countryside1 ,i can see in the distance a short stretch of the gray town road4 ,it winds out of a little wood1 crosses a knoll1 and loses itself again beyond the trees of an old orchard4 ,i love that spot in my upper field1 and the view of the road beyond4 ,when ,i am at work there ,i have only to look up to see the world go by--part of it going down to the town1 and part of it coming up again4 ,and ,i never see a traveller on the hill1 especially if he be afoot1 without feeling that if ,i met him ,i should like him1 and that whatever he had to say ,i should like to hear4 99 99 99 99 99 ,at first ,i could not make out what the man was doing4 ,most of the travellers ,i see from my field are like the people ,i commonly meet--so intent upon their destination that they take no joy of the road they travel4 ,they do not even see me here in the fields2 and if they did1 they would probably think me a slow and unprofitable person4 ,i have nothing that they can carry away and store up in barns1 or reduce to percentages1 or calculate as profit and loss2 they do not perceive what a wonderful place this is2 they do not know that here1 too1 we gather a crop of contentment4 ,but apparently this man was the pattern of a loiterer4 ,i saw him stop on the knoll and look widely about him4 ,then he stooped down as though searching for something1 then moved slowly forward for a few steps4 ,just at that point in the road lies a great smooth boulder which road-makers long since dead had rolled out upon the wayside4 ,here to my astonishment ,i saw him kneel upon the ground4 ,he had something in one hand with which he seemed intently occupied4 ,after a time he stood up1 and retreating a few steps down the road1 he scanned the boulder narrowly4 ,this1 ,i said to myself1 may be something for me4 ,so ,i crossed the fence and walked down the neighbouring field4 ,it was an ,indian summer day with hazy hillsides1 and still sunshine1 and slumbering brown fields--the sort of a day ,i love4 ,i leaped the little brook in the valley and strode hastily up the opposite slope4 ,i cannot describe what a sense ,i had of new worlds to be found here in old fields4 ,so ,i came to the fence on the other side and looked over4 ,my man was kneeling again at the rock4 ,i was scarcely twenty paces from him1 but so earnestly was he engaged that he never once saw me4 ,i had a good look at him4 ,he was a small1 thin man with straight gray hair2 above his collar ,i could see the weather-brown wrinkles of his neck4 ,his coat was of black1 of a noticeably neat appearance1 and ,i observed1 as a further evidence of fastidiousness rare upon the ,road1 that he was saving his trousers by kneeling on a bit of carpet4 ,what he could be doing there so intently by the roadside ,i could not imagine4 ,so ,i climbed the fence1 making some little intentional noise as ,i did so4 ,he arose immediately4 ,then ,i saw at his side on the ground two small tin cans1 and in his hands a pair of paint brushes4 ,as he stepped aside ,i saw the words he had been painting on the boulder3 ,,god ,,is ,,love ,a meek figure1 indeed1 he looked1 and when he saw me advancing he said1 with a deference that was almost timidity3 ,good morning1 sir4 ,good morning1 brother1 ,i returned heartily4 ,his face brightened perceptibly4 ,don't stop on my account1 ,i said2 finish off your work4 ,he knelt again on his bit of carpet and proceeded busily with his brushes4 ,i stood and watched him4 ,the lettering was somewhat crude1 but he had the swift deftness of long practice4 ,how long1 ,i inquired1 have you been at this sort of work8 ,ten years1 he replied1 looking up at me with a pale smile4 ,off and on for ten years4 ,winters ,i work at my trade--,i am a journeyman painter--but when spring comes1 and again in the fall1 ,i follow the road4 ,he paused a moment and then said1 dropping his voice1 in words of the utmost seriousness3 ,i live by the ,word4 ,by the ,word8 ,i asked4 ,yes1 by the ,word1 and putting down his brushes he took from an inner pocket a small package of papers1 one of which he handed to me4 ,it bore at the top this sentence in large type3 ,is not my word like fire1 saith the ,lord3 and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces8 ,i stood and looked at him a moment4 ,i suppose no one man is stranger than any other1 but at that moment it seemed to me ,i had never met a more curious person4 ,and ,i was consumed with a desire to know why he was what he was4 ,do you always paint the same sign8 ,i asked4 ,oh1 no1 he answered4 ,i have a feeling about what ,i should paint4 ,when ,i came up the road here this morning ,i stopped a minute1 and it all seemed so calm and nice--he swept his arm in the direction of the fields--that ,i says to myself1 ',i will paint ,god is ,love4' ,an appropriate text1 ,i said1 for this very spot4 ,he seemed much gratified4 ,oh1 you can follow your feelings6 he exclaimed4 ,sometimes near towns ,i can't paint anything but ',hell yawns1' and ',prepare to meet thy ,god4' ,i don't like 'em as well as ',god is ,love1' but it seems like ,i had to paint 'em4 ,now1 when ,i was in ,arizona---- ,he paused a moment1 wiping his brushes4 ,when ,i was in ,arizona1 he was saying1 mostly ,i painted ',repent ye4' ,it seemed like ,i couldn't paint anything else1 and in some places ,i felt moved to put ',repent ye' twice on the same rock4 ,i began to ask him questions about ,arizona1 but ,i soon found how little he1 too1 had taken toll of the road he travelled3 for he seemed to have brought back memories only of the texts he painted and the fact that in some places good stones were scarce1 and that he had to carry extra turpentine to thin his paint1 the weather being dry4 ,i don't know that he is a lone representative of this trait4 ,i have known farmers who1 in travelling1 saw only plows and butter-tubs and corn-cribs1 and preachers who1 looking across such autumn fields as these would carry away only a musty text or two4 ,i pity some of those who expect to go to heaven3 they will find so little to surprise them in the golden streets4 ,but ,i persevered with my painter1 and it was not long before we were talking with the greatest friendliness4 ,having now finished his work1 he shook out his bit of carpet1 screwed the tops on his paint cans1 wrapped up his brushes1 and disposed of them all with the deftness of long experience in his small black bag4 ,then he stood up and looked critically at his work4 ,it's all right1 ,i said2 a great many people coming this way in the next hundred years will see it4 ,that's what ,i want1 he said eagerly2 that's what ,i want4 ,most people never hear the ,word at all4 ,he paused a moment and then continued3 ,it's a curious thing1 ,mister--perhaps you've noticed it yourself--that the best things of all in the world people won't have as a gift4 ,i've noticed it1 ,i said4 ,it's strange1 isn't it8 he again remarked4 ,very strange1 ,i said4 ,i don't know's ,i can blame them1 he continued4 ,i was that way myself for a good many years3 all around me gold and diamonds and precious jewels1 and me never once seeing them4 ,all ,i had to do was to stoop and take them--but ,i didn't do it4 ,i saw that ,i had met a philosopher1 and ,i decided that ,i would stop and wrestle with him and not let him go without his story--something like ,jacob1 wasn't it1 with the angel8 ,do you do all this without payment8 ,he looked at me in an injured way4 ,who'd pay me8 he asked4 ,mostly people think me a sort of fool4 ,oh1 ,i know1 but ,i don't mind4 ,i live by the ,word4 ,no1 nobody pays me3 ,i am paying myself4 ,by this time he was ready to start4 ,so ,i said1 ,friend1 ,i'm going your way1 and ,i'll walk with you4 ,so we set off together down the hill4 ,you see1 sir1 he said1 when a man has got the best thing in the world1 and finds it's free1 he naturally wants to let other people know about it4 ,he walked with the unmistakable step of those who knew the long road--an easy1 swinging1 steady step--carrying his small black bag4 ,so ,i gradually drew him out1 and when ,i had his whole story it was as simple and common1 but as wonderful1 as daylight3 as fundamental as a tree or a rock4 ,you see1 ,mister1 he said1 ,i was a wild sort when ,i was young4 ,the drink1 and worse4 ,i hear folks say sometimes that if they'd known what was right they'd have done it4 ,but ,i think that conscience never stops ringing little bells in the back of a man's head2 and that if he doesn't do what is right1 it's because he wants to do what is wrong4 ,he thinks it's more amusing and interesting4 ,i went through all that1 ,mister1 and plenty more besides4 ,i got pretty nearly as low as a man ever gets4 ,oh1 ,i was down and out3 no home1 no family1 not a friend that wanted to see me4 ,if you never got down that low1 ,mister1 you don't know what it is4 ,you are just as much dead as if you were in your grave4 ,i'm telling you4 ,i thought there was no help for me1 and ,i don't know's ,i wanted to be helped4 ,i said to myself1 ',you're just naturally born weak and it isn't your fault1' ,it makes a lot of men easier in their minds to lay up their troubles to the way they are born4 ,i made all sorts of excuses for myself1 but all the time ,i knew ,i was wrong2 a man can't fool himself4 ,so it went along for years4 ,i got married and we had a little girl4 ,he paused for a long moment4 ,i thought that was going to help me4 ,i thought the world and all of that little girl---- ,he paused again4 ,well1 she died4 ,then ,i broke my wife's heart and went on down to hell4 ,when a man lets go that way he kills everything he loves and everything that loves him4 ,he's on the road to loneliness and despair1 that man4 ,i'm telling you4 ,one day1 ten years ago this fall1 ,i was going along the main street in ,quinceyville4 ,i was near the end of my rope4 ,not even money enough to buy drink with1 and yet ,i was then more'n half drunk1 ,i happened to look up on the end of that stone wall near the bridge--were you ever there1 ,mister8--and ,i saw the words ',god is ,love' painted there4 ,it somehow hit me hard4 ,i couldn't anyways get it out of my mind4 ',god is ,love4' ,well1 says ,i to myself if ,god is ,love1 he's the only one that is ,love for a chap like me4 ,and there's no one else big enough to save me--,i says4 ,so ,i stopped right there in the street1 and you may believe it or explain it anyhow you like1 ,mister1 but it seemed to me a kind of light came all around me1 and ,i said1 solemn-like1 ',i will try ,god4' ,he stopped a moment4 ,we were walking down the hill3 all about us on either side spread the quiet fields4 ,in the high air above a few lacy clouds were drifting eastward4 ,upon this story of tragic human life crept in pleasantly the calm of the countryside4 ,and ,i did try ,him1 my companion was saying1 and ,i found that the words on the wall were true4 ,they were true back there and they've been true ever since4 ,when ,i began to be decent again and got back my health and my job1 ,i figured that ,i owed a lot to ,god4 ,i wa'n't no orator1 and no writer and ,i had no money to give1 'but1' says ,i to myself1 ,i'm a painter4 ,i'll help ,god with paint4' ,so here ,i am a-travelling up and down the roads and mostly painting ',god is ,love1' but sometimes ',repent ye' and ',hell yawns4' ,i don't know much about religion--but ,i do know that ,his ,word is like a fire1 and that a man can live by it1 and if once a man has it he has everything else he wants4 ,he paused3 ,i looked around at him again4 ,his face was set steadily ahead--a plain face showing the marks of his hard earlier life1 and yet marked with a sort of high beauty4 ,the trouble with people who are unhappy1 ,mister1 he said1 is that they won't try ,god4 ,i could not answer my companion4 ,there seemed1 indeed1 nothing more to be said4 ,all my own speculative incomings and outgoings--how futile they seemed compared with this6 ,near the foot of the hill there is a little-bridge4 ,it is a pleasant1 quiet spot4 ,my companion stopped and put down his bag4 ,what do you think1 said he1 ,i should paint here8 ,well1 ,i said1 you know better than ,i do4 ,what would you paint8 ,he looked around at me and then smiled as though he had a quiet little joke with himself4 ,when in doubt1 he said1 ,i always paint ',god is ,love1' ,i'm sure of that4 ,of course ',hell yawns' and ',repent ye' have to be painted--near towns--but ,i much rather paint ',god is ,love4' ,i left him kneeling there on the bridge1 the bit of carpet under his knees1 his two little cans at his side4 ,half way up the hill ,i turned to look back4 ,he lifted his hand with the paint brush in it1 and ,i waved mine in return4 ,i have never seen him since1 though it will be a long1 long time before the sign of him disappears from our roadsides4 ,at the top of the hill1 near the painted boulder1 ,i climbed the fence1 pausing a moment on the top rail to look off across the hazy countryside1 warm with the still sweetness of autumn4 ,in the distance1 above the crown of a little hill1 ,i could see the roof of my own home--and the barn near it--and the cows feeding quietly in the pastures4 ,,ix ,,the ,,gunsmith ,harriet and ,i had the first intimation of what we have since called the gunsmith problem about ten days ago4 ,it came to us1 as was to be expected1 from that accomplished spreader of burdens1 the ,scotch ,preacher4 ,when he came in to call on us that evening after supper ,i could see that he had something important on his mind2 but ,i let him get to it in his own way4 ,david1 he said finally1 ,carlstrom1 the gunsmith1 is going home to ,sweden4 ,at last6 ,i exclaimed4 ,dr4 ,mc,alway paused a moment and then said hesitatingly3 ,he says he is going4 ,harriet laughed4 ,then it's all decided1 she said2 he isn't going4 ,no1 said the ,scotch ,preacher1 it's not decided--yet4 ,dr4 ,mc,alway hasn't made up his mind1 ,i said1 whether ,carlstrom is to go or not4 ,but the ,scotch ,preacher was in no mood for joking4 ,david1 he said1 did you ever know anything about the homesickness of the foreigner8 ,he paused a moment and then continued1 nodding his great shaggy head3 ,man1 man1 how my old mither greeted for ,scotland6 ,i mind how a sprig of heather would bring the tears to her eyes2 and for twenty years ,i dared not whistle ,bonnie ,doon or ,charlie ,is ,my ,darling lest it break her heart4 ',tis a pain you've not had1 ,i'm thinking1 ,davy4 ,we all know the longing for old places and old times1 ,i said4 ,no1 no1 ,david1 it's more than that4 ,it's the wanting and the longing to see the hills of your own land1 and the town where you were born1 and the street where you played1 and the house---- ,he paused1 ,ah1 well1 it's hard for those who have it4 ,but ,i haven't heard ,carlstrom refer to ,sweden for years1 ,i said4 ,is it homesickness1 or just old age8 ,there ye have it1 ,davy2 the nail right on the head6 exclaimed the ,scotch ,preacher4 ,is it homesickness1 or is he just old and tired8 ,with that we fell to talking about ,carlstrom1 the gunsmith4 ,i have known him pretty nearly ever since ,i came here1 now more than ten years ago--and liked him well1 too--but it seemed1 as ,dr4 ,mc,alway talked that evening1 as though we were making the acquaintance of quite a new and wonderful person4 ,how dull we all are6 ,how we need such an artist as the ,scotch ,preacher to mould heroes out of the common human clay around us6 ,it takes a sort of greatness to recognize greatness4 ,in an hour's time the ,scotch ,preacher had both ,harriet and me much excited1 and the upshot of the whole matter was that ,i promised to call on ,carlstrom the next day when ,i went to town4 ,i scarcely needed the prompting of the ,scotch ,preacher1 for ,carlstrom's gunshop has for years been one of the most interesting places in town for me4 ,i went to it now with a new understanding4 ,afar off ,i began to listen for ,carlstrom's hammer1 and presently ,i heard the familiar sounds4 ,there were two or three mellow strokes1 and ,i knew that ,carlstrom was making the sparks fly from the red iron4 ,then the hammer rang1 and ,i knew he was striking down on the cold steel of the anvil4 ,it is a pleasant sound to hear4 ,carlstrom's shop is just around the corner from the main street4 ,you may know it by a great weather-beaten wooden gun fastened over the doorway1 pointing in the daytime at the sky1 and in the night at the stars4 ,a stranger passing that way might wonder at the great gun and possibly say to himself3 ,a gunshop6 ,how can a man make a living mending guns in such a peaceful community6 ,such a remark merely shows that he doesn't know ,carlstrom1 nor the shop1 nor us4 ,i tied my horse at the corner and went down to the shop with a peculiar new interest4 ,i saw as if for the first time the old wheels which have stood weathering so long at one end of the building4 ,i saw under the shed at the other end the wonderful assortment of old iron pipes1 kettles1 tires1 a pump or two1 many parts of farm machinery1 a broken water wheel1 and ,i don't know what other flotsam of thirty years of diligent mending of the iron works of an entire community4 ,all this1 you may say--the disorder of old iron1 the cinders which cover part of the yard but do not keep out the tangle of goldenrod and catnip and boneset which at this time of the year grows thick along the neighbouring fences--all this1 you say1 makes no inviting picture4 ,you are wrong4 ,where honest work is1 there is always that which invites the eye4 ,i know of few things more inviting than to step up to the wide-open doors and look into the shop4 ,the floor1 half of hard worn boards half of cinders1 the smoky rafters of the roof1 the confusion of implements on the benches1 the guns in the corners--how all of these things form the subdued background for the flaming forge and the square chimney above it4 ,at one side of the forge you will see the great dusty bellows and you will hear its stertorous breathing4 ,in front stands the old brown anvil set upon a gnarly maple block4 ,a long sweep made of peeled hickory wood controls the bellows1 and as you look in upon this lively and pleasant scene you will see that the grimy hand of ,carlstrom himself is upon the hickory sweep4 ,as he draws it down and lets it up again with the peculiar rhythmic swing of long experience--heaping up his fire with a little iron paddle held in the other hand--he hums to himself in a high curious old voice1 no words at all1 just a tune of contented employment in consonance with the breathing of the bellows and the mounting flames of the forge4 ,as ,i stood for a moment in the doorway the other day before ,carlstrom saw me1 ,i wished ,i could picture my friend as the typical blacksmith with the brawny arms1 the big chest1 the deep voice and all that4 ,but as ,i looked at him newly1 the ,scotch ,preacher's words still in my ears1 he seemed1 with his stooping shoulders1 his gray beard not very well kept1 and his thin gray hair1 more than ordinarily small and old4 ,i remember as distinctly as though it were yesterday the first time ,carlstrom really impressed himself upon me4 ,it was in my early blind days at the farm4 ,i had gone to him with a part of a horse-rake which ,i had broken on one of my stony hills'4 ,can you mend it8 ,i asked4 ,if ,i had known him better ,i should never have asked such a question4 ,i saw1 indeed1 at the time that ,i had not said the right thing2 but how could ,i know then that ,carlstrom never let any broken thing escape him8 ,a watch1 or a gun1 or a locomotive--they are all alike to him1 if they are broken4 ,i believe he would agree to patch the wrecked chariot of ,phathon6 ,a week later ,i came back to the shop4 ,come in1 come in1 he said when he saw me4 ,he turned from his forge1 set his hands on his hips and looked at me a moment with feigned seriousness4 ,so6 he said4 ,you have come for your job8 ,he softened the j in job2 his whole speech1 indeed1 had the engaging inflection of the ,scandinavian tongue overlaid upon the ,english words4 ,so1 he said1 and went to his bench with a quick step and an air of almost childish eagerness4 ,he handed me the parts of my hay-rake without a word4 ,i looked them over carefully4 ,i can't see where you mended them1 ,i said4 ,you should have seen his face brighten with pleasure6 ,he allowed me to admire the work in silence for a moment and then he had it out of my hand1 as if ,i couldn't be trusted with anything so important1 and he explained how he had done it4 ,a special tool for his lathe had been found necessary in order to do my work properly4 ,this he had made at his forge1 and ,i suppose it had taken him twice as long to make the special tool as it had to mend the parts of my rake2 but when ,i would have paid him for it he would take nothing save for the mending itself4 ,nor was this a mere rebuke to a doubter4 ,it had delighted him to do a difficult thing1 to show the really great skill he had4 ,indeed1 ,i think our friendship began right there and was based upon the favour ,i did in bringing him a job that ,i thought he couldn't do6 ,when he saw me the other day in the door of his shop he seemed greatly pleased4 ,come in1 come in1 he said4 ,what is this ,i hear1 ,i said1 about your going back to ,sweden8 ,for forty years1 he said1 ,i've been homesick for ,sweden4 ,now ,i'm an old man and ,i'm going home4 ,but1 ,carlstrom1 ,i said1 we can't get along without you4 ,who's going to keep us mended up8 ,you have ,charles ,baxter1 he said1 smiling4 ,for years there had been a quiet sort of rivalry between ,carlstrom and ,baxter1 though ,baxter is in the country and works chiefly in wood4 ,but ,baxter can't mend a gun or a hay-rake1 or a pump1 to save his life1 ,i said4 ,you know that4 ,the old man seemed greatly pleased3 he had the simple vanity which is the right of the true workman4 ,but for answer he merely shook his head4 ,i have been here forty years1 he said4 and all the time ,i have been homesick for ,sweden4 ,i found that several men of the town had been in to see ,carlstrom and talked with him of his plans1 and even while ,i was there two other friends came in4 ,the old man was delighted with the interest shown4 ,after ,i left him ,i went down the street4 ,it seemed as though everybody had heard of ,carlstrom's plans1 and here and there ,i felt that the secret hand of the ,scotch ,preacher had been at work4 ,at the store where ,i usually trade the merchant talked about it1 and the postmaster when ,i went in for my mail1 and the clerk at the drug store1 and the harness-maker4 ,i had known a good deal about ,carlstrom in the past1 for one learns much of his neighbours in ten years1 but it seemed to me that day as though his history stood out as something separate and new and impressive4 ,when he first came here forty years ago ,i suppose ,carlstrom was not unlike most of the foreigners who immigrate to our shores1 fired with faith in a free country4 ,he was poor--as poor as a man could possibly be4 ,for several years he worked on a farm--hard work1 for which1 owing to his frail physique1 he was not well fitted4 ,but he saved money constantly1 and after a time he was able to come to town and open a little shop4 ,he made nearly all of his tools with his own hands1 he built his own chimney and forge1 he even whittled out the wooden gun which stands for a sign over the door of his shop4 ,he had learned his trade in the careful old-country way4 ,not only could he mend a gun1 but he could make one outright1 even to the barrel and the wooden stock4 ,in all the years ,i have known him he has always had on hand some such work--once ,i remember1 a pistol--which he was turning out at odd times for the very satisfaction it gave him4 ,he could not sell one of his hand-made guns for half as much as it cost him1 nor does he seem to want to sell them1 preferring rather to have them stand in the corner of his shop where he can look at them4 ,his is the incorruptible spirit of the artist6 ,what a tremendous power there is in work4 ,carlstrom worked4 ,he was up early in the morning to work1 and he worked in the evening as long as daylight lasted1 and once ,i found him in his shop in the evening1 bending low over his bench with a kerosene lamp in front of him4 ,he was humming his inevitable tune and smoothing off with a fine file the nice curves of a rifle trigger4 ,when he had trouble--and what a lot of it he has had in his time6--he worked2 and when he was happy he worked all the harder4 ,all the leisurely ones of the town drifted by1 all the children and the fools1 and often rested in the doorway of his shop4 ,he made them all welcome3 he talked with them1 but he never stopped working4 ,clang1 clang1 would go his anvil1 whish1 whish1 would respond his bellows1 creak1 creak1 would go the hickory sweep--he was helping the world go round6 ,all this time1 though he had sickness in his family1 though his wife died1 and then his children one after another until only one now remains1 he worked and he saved4 ,he bought a lot and built a house to rent2 then he built another house2 then he bought the land where his shop stands and rebuilt the shop itself4 ,it was an epic of homely work4 ,he took part in the work of the church and on election days he changed his coat1 and went to the town hall to vote4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,children 444 ,,often ,,rested ,,in ,,the ,,doorway ,,of ,,his ,,shop ,in the years since ,i have known the old gunsmith and something of the town where he works1 ,i have seen young men1 born ,americans1 with every opportunity and encouragement of a free country1 growing up there and going to waste4 ,one day ,i heard one of them1 sitting in front of a store1 grumbling about the foreigners who were coming in and taking up the land4 ,the young man thought it should be prevented by law4 ,i said nothing2 but ,i listened and heard from the distance the steady clang1 clang1 of ,carlstrom's hammer upon the anvil4 ,ketchell1 the store-keeper1 told me how ,carlstrom had longed and planned and saved to be able to go back once more to the old home he had left4 ,again and again he had got almost enough money ahead to start1 and then there would be an interest payment due1 or a death in the family1 and the money would all go to the banker1 the doctor1 or the undertaker4 ,of recent years1 said ,ketchell1 we thought he'd given up the idea4 ,his friends are all here now1 and if he went back1 he certainly would be disappointed4 ,a sort of serenity seemed1 indeed1 to come upon him3 his family lie on the quiet hill1 old things and old times have grown distant1 and upon that anvil of his before the glowing forge he has beaten out for himself a real place in this community4 ,he has beaten out the respect of a whole town2 and from the crude human nature with which he started he has fashioned himself wisdom1 and peace of mind1 and the ripe humour which sees that ,god is in his world4 ,there are men ,i know who read many books1 hoping to learn how to be happy2 let me commend them to ,carlstrom1 the gunsmith4 ,i have often reflected upon the incalculable influence of one man upon a community4 ,the town is better for having stood often looking into the fire of ,carlstrom's forge1 and seeing his hammer strike4 ,i don't know how many times ,i have heard men repeat observations gathered in ,carlstrom's shop4 ,only the other day ,i heard the village school teacher say1 when ,i asked him why he always seemed so merry and had so little fault to find with the world4 ,why1 he replied1 as ,carlstrom1 the smith says1 'when ,i feel like finding fault ,i always begin with myself and then ,i never get any farther1' ,another of ,carlstrom's sayings is current in the country4 ,it's a good thing1 he says1 when a man knows what he pretends to know4 ,the more ,i circulated among my friends1 the more ,i heard of ,carlstrom4 ,it is odd that ,i should have gone all these years knowing ,carlstrom1 and yet never consciously until last week setting him in his rightful place among the men ,i know4 ,it makes me wonder what other great souls about me are thus concealing themselves in the guise of familiarity4 7,this stooped gray neighbour of mine whom ,i have seen so often working in his field that he has almost become a part of the landscape--who can tell what heroisms may be locked away from my vision under his old brown hat87 ,on ,wednesday night ,carlstrom was at ,dr4 ,mc,alway's house--with ,charles ,baxter1 my neighbour ,horace1 and several others4 ,and ,i had still another view of him4 ,i think there is always something that surprises one in finding a familiar figure in a wholly new environment4 ,i was so accustomed to the ,carlstrom of the gunshop that ,i could not at once reconcile myself to the ,carlstrom of ,dr4 ,mc,alway's sitting room4 ,and1 indeed1 there was a striking change in his appearance4 ,he came dressed in the quaint black coat which he wears at funerals4 ,his hair was brushed straight back from his broad1 smooth forehead and his mild blue eyes were bright behind an especially shiny pair of steel-bowed spectacles4 ,he looked more like some old-fashioned college professor than he did like a smith4 ,the old gunsmith had that pride of humility which is about the best pride in this world4 ,he was perfectly at home at the ,scotch ,preacher's hearth4 ,indeed1 he radiated a sort of beaming good will2 he had a native desire to make everything pleasant4 ,i did not realize before what a fund of humour the old man had4 ,the ,scotch ,preacher rallied him on the number of houses he now owns1 and suggested that he ought to get a wife to keep at least one of them for him4 ,carlstrom looked around with a twinkle in his eye4 ,when ,i was a poor man1 he said1 and carried boxes from ,ketchell's store to help build my first shop1 ,i used to wish ,i had a wheelbarrow4 ,now ,i have four4 ,when ,i had no house to keep my family in1 ,i used to wish that ,i had one4 ,now ,i have four4 ,i have thought sometimes ,i would like a wife--but ,i have not dared to wish for one4 ,the old gunsmith laughed noiselessly1 and then from habit1 ,i suppose1 began to hum as he does in his shop--stopping instantly1 however1 when he realized what he was doing4 ,during the evening the ,scotch ,preacher got me to one side and said3 ,david1 we can't let the old man go4 ,no1 sir1 ,i said1 we can't4 ,all he needs1 ,davy1 is cheering up4 ,it's a cold world sometimes to the old4 ,i suppose the ,scotch ,preacher was saying the same thing to all the other men of the company4 ,when we were preparing to go1 ,dr4 ,mc,alway turned to ,carlstrom and said3 ,how is it1 ,carlstrom1 that you have come to hold such a place in this community8 ,how is it that you have got ahead so rapidly8 ,the old man leaned forward1 beaming through his spectacles1 and said eagerly3 ,it ist ,america2 it ist ,america4 ,no1 ,carlstrom1 no--it is not all ,america4 ,it is ,carlstrom1 too4 ,you work1 ,carlstrom1 and you save4 ,every day since ,wednesday there has been a steady pressure on ,carlstrom2 not so much said in words1 but people stopping in at the shop and passing a good word4 ,but up to ,monday morning the gunsmith went forward steadily with his preparations to leave4 ,on ,sunday ,i saw the ,scotch ,preacher and found him perplexed as to what to do4 ,i don't know yet positively1 that he had a hand in it1 though ,i suspect it1 but on ,monday afternoon ,charles ,baxter went by my house on his way to town with a broken saw in his buggy4 ,such is the perversity of rival artists that ,i don't think ,charles ,baxter had ever been to ,carlstrom with any work4 ,but this morning when ,i went to town and stopped at ,carlstrom's shop ,i found the gunsmith humming louder than ever4 ,well1 ,carlstrom1 when are we to say good-by8 ,i asked4 ,i'm not going1 he said1 and taking me by the sleeve he led me over to his bench and showed me a saw he had mended4 ,now1 a broken saw is one of the high tests of the genius of the mender4 ,to put the pieces together so that the blade will be perfectly smooth1 so that the teeth match accurately1 is an art which few workmen of to-day would even attempt4 ,charles ,baxter brought it in1 answered the old gunsmith1 unable to conceal his delight4 ,he thought ,i couldn't mend it6 ,to the true artist there is nothing to equal the approbation of a rival4 ,it was ,charles ,baxter1 ,i am convinced1 who was the deciding factor4 ,carlstrom couldn't leave with one of ,baxter's saws unmended6 ,but back of it all1 ,i know1 is the hand and the heart of the ,scotch ,preacher4 ,the more ,i think of it the more ,i think that our gunsmith possesses many of the qualities of true greatness4 ,he has the serenity1 and the humour1 and the humility of greatness4 ,he has a real faith in ,god4 ,he works1 he accepts what comes4 ,he thinks there is no more honourable calling than that of gunsmith1 and that the town he lives in is the best of all towns1 and the people he knows the best people4 ,yes1 it is greatness4 ,x ,,the ,,mowing ,now ,i see the secret of the making of the best persons1 ,it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth4 ,this is a well earned ,sunday morning4 ,my chores were all done long ago1 and ,i am sitting down here after a late and leisurely breakfast with that luxurious feeling of irresponsible restfulness and comfort which comes only upon a clean1 still ,sunday morning like this--after a week of hard work--a clean ,sunday morning1 with clean clothes1 and a clean chin1 and clean thoughts1 and the ,june airs stirring the clean white curtains at my windows4 ,from across the hills ,i can hear very faintly the drowsy sounds of early church bells1 never indeed to be heard here except on a morning of surpassing tranquillity4 ,and in the barnyard back of the house ,harriet's hens are cackling triumphantly3 they are impiously unobservant of the ,sabbath day4 ,i turned out my mare for a run in the pasture4 ,she has rolled herself again and again in the warm earth and shaken herself after each roll with an equine delight most pleasant to see4 ,now1 from time to time1 ,i can hear her gossipy whickerings as she calls across the fields to my neighbour ,horace's young bay colts4 ,when ,i first woke up this morning ,i said to myself3 ,well1 nothing happened yesterday4 ,then ,i lay quiet for some time--it being ,sunday morning--and ,i turned over in my mind all that ,i had heard or seen or felt or thought about in that one day4 ,and presently ,i said aloud to myself3 ,why1 nearly everything happened yesterday4 ,and the more ,i thought of it the more interesting1 the more wonderful1 the more explanatory of high things1 appeared the common doings of that ,june ,saturday4 ,i had walked among unusual events--and had not known the wonder of them6 ,i had eyes1 but ,i did not see--and ears1 but ,i heard not4 ,it may be1 it may be1 that the ,future ,life of which we have had such confusing but wistful prophecies is only the reliving with a full understanding1 of this marvellous ,life that we now know4 ,to a full understanding this day1 this moment even--here in this quiet room--would contain enough to crowd an eternity4 ,oh1 we are children yet--playing with things much too large for us--much too full of meaning4 99 99 99 99 99 ,yesterday ,i cut my field of early clover4 ,i should have been at it a full week earlier if it had not been for the frequent and sousing spring showers4 ,already half the blossoms of the clover had turned brown and were shriveling away into inconspicuous seediness4 ,the leaves underneath on the lower parts of the stems were curling up and fading2 many of them had already dropped away4 ,there is a tide also in the affairs of clover and if a farmer would profit by his crop1 it must be taken at its flood4 ,i began to watch the skies with some anxiety1 and on ,thursday ,i was delighted to see the weather become clearer1 and a warm dry wind spring up from the southwest4 ,on ,friday there was not so much as a cloud of the size of a man's hand to be seen anywhere in the sky1 not one1 and the sun with lively diligence had begun to make up for the listlessness of the past week4 ,it was hot and dry enough to suit the most exacting hay-maker4 ,encouraged by these favourable symptoms ,i sent word to ,dick ,sheridan 7by one of ,horace's men7 to come over bright and early on ,saturday morning4 ,my field is only a small one and so rough and uneven that ,i had concluded with ,dick's help to cut it by hand4 ,i thought that on a pinch it could all be done in one day4 ,harriet1 ,i said1 we'll cut the clover to-morrow4 ,that's fortunate1 said ,harriet1 ,i'd already arranged to have ,ann ,spencer in to help me4 ,yesterday morning1 then1 ,i got out earlier than usual4 ,it was a perfect ,june morning1 one of the brightest and clearest ,i think ,i ever saw4 ,the mists had not yet risen from the hollows of my lower fields1 and all the earth was fresh with dew and sweet with the mingled odours of growing things4 ,no hour of the whole day is more perfect than this4 ,i walked out along the edge of the orchard and climbed the fence of the field beyond4 ,as ,i stooped over ,i could smell the heavy sweet odour of the clover blossoms4 ,i could see the billowy green sweep of the glistening leaves4 ,i lifted up a mass of the tangled stems and laid the palm of my hand on the earth underneath4 ,it was neither too wet nor too dry4 ,we shall have good cutting to-day1 ,i said to myself4 ,so ,i stood up and looked with a satisfaction impossible to describe across the acres of my small domain1 marking where in the low spots the crop seemed heaviest1 where it was lodged and tangled by the wind and the rain1 and where in the higher spaces it grew scarce thick enough to cover the sad baldness of the knolls4 ,how much more we get out of life than we deserve6 ,so ,i walked along the edge of the field to the orchard gate1 which ,i opened wide4 ,here1 ,i said1 is where we will begin4 ,so ,i turned back to the barn4 ,i had not reached the other side of the orchard when who should ,i see but ,dick ,sheridan himself1 coming in at the lane gate4 ,he had an old1 coarse-woven straw hat stuck resplendently on the back of his head4 ,he was carrying his scythe jauntily over his shoulder and whistling ,good-bye1 ,susan at the top of his capacity4 ,dick ,sheridan is a cheerful young fellow with a thin brown face and 7milky7 blue eyes4 ,he has an enormous ,adam's apple which has an odd way of moving up and down when he talks--and one large tooth out in front4 ,his body is like a bundle of wires1 as thin and muscular and enduring as that of a broncho pony4 ,he can work all day long and then go down to the lodge-hall at the ,crossing and dance half the night4 ,you should really see him when he dances6 ,he can jump straight up and click his heels twice together before he comes down again6 ,on such occasions he is marvellously clad1 as befits the gallant that he really is1 but this morning he wore a faded shirt and one of his suspender cords behind was fastened with a nail instead of a button4 ,his socks are sometimes pale blue and sometimes lavender and commonly1 therefore1 he turns up his trouser legs so that these vanities may not be wholly lost upon a dull world4 ,his full name is ,richard ,tecumseh ,sheridan1 but every one calls him ,dick4 ,a good1 cheerful fellow1 ,dick1 and a hard worker4 ,i like him4 ,hello1 ,dick1 ,i shouted4 ,hello yourself1 ,mr4 ,grayson1 he replied4 ,he hung his scythe in the branches of a pear tree and we both turned into the barnyard to get the chores out of the way4 ,i wanted to delay cutting as long as ,i could--until the dew on the clover should begin--at least--to disappear4 ,by half-past-seven we were ready for work4 ,we rolled back our sleeves1 stood our scythes on end and gave them a final lively stoning4 ,you could hear the brisk sound of the ringing metal pealing through the still morning air4 ,it's a great day for haying1 ,i said4 ,a dang good one1 responded the laconic ,dick1 wetting his thumb to feel the edge of his scythe4 ,i cannot convey with any mere pen upon any mere paper the feeling of jauntiness ,i had at that moment1 as of conquest and fresh adventure1 as of great things to be done in a great world6 ,you may say if you like that this exhilaration was due to good health and the exuberance of youth4 ,but it was more than that--far more4 ,i cannot well express it1 but it seemed as though at that moment ,dick and ,i were stepping out into some vast current of human activity3 as though we had the universe itself behind us1 and the warm regard and approval of all men4 ,i stuck my whetstone in my hip-pocket1 bent forward and cut the first short sharp swath in the clover4 ,i swept the mass of tangled green stems into the open space just outside the gate4 ,three or four more strokes and ,dick stopped whistling suddenly1 spat on his hands and with a lively ,here she goes6 came swinging in behind me4 ,the clover-cutting had begun4 ,at first ,i thought the heat would be utterly unendurable1 and1 then1 with dripping face and wet shoulders1 ,i forgot all about it4 ,oh1 there is something incomparable about such work--the long steady pull of willing and healthy muscles1 the mind undisturbed by any disquieting thought1 the feeling of attainment through vigorous effort6 ,it was a steady swing and swish1 swish and swing6 ,when ,dick led ,i have a picture of him in my mind's eye--his wiry thin legs1 one heel lifted at each step and held rigid for a single instant1 a glimpse of pale blue socks above his rusty shoes and three inches of whetstone sticking from his tight hip-pocket4 ,it was good to have him there whether he led or followed4 ,at each return to the orchard end of the field we looked for and found a gray stone jug in the grass4 ,i had brought it up with me filled with cool water from the pump4 ,dick had a way of swinging it up with one hand1 resting it in his shoulder1 turning his head just so and letting the water gurgle into his throat4 ,i have never been able myself to reach this refinement in the art of drinking from a jug4 ,and oh6 the good feel of a straightened back after two long swathes in the broiling sun6 ,we would stand a moment in the shade1 whetting our scythes1 not saying much1 but glad to be there together4 ,then we would go at it again with renewed energy4 ,it is a great thing to have a working companion4 ,many times that day ,dick and ,i looked aside at each other with a curious sense of friendliness--that sense of friendliness which grows out of common rivalries1 common difficulties and a common weariness4 ,we did not talk much3 and that little of trivial matters4 ,jim ,brewster's mare had a colt on ,wednesday4 ,this'll go three tons to the acre1 or ,i'll eat my shirt4 ,dick was always about to eat his shirt if some particular prophecy of his did not materialize4 ,dang it all1 says ,dick1 the moon's drawin' water4 ,something is undoubtedly drawing it1 said ,i1 wiping my dripping face4 ,a meadow lark sprang up with a song in the adjoining field1 a few heavy old bumblebees droned in the clover as we cut it1 and once a frightened rabbit ran out1 darting swiftly under the orchard fence4 ,so the long forenoon slipped away4 ,at times it seemed endless1 and yet we were surprised when we heard the bell from the house 7what a sound it was67 and we left our cutting in the middle of the field1 nor waited for another stroke4 ,hungry1 ,dick8 ,i asked4 ,hungry6 exclaimed ,dick with all the eloquence of a lengthy oration crowded into one word4 ,so we drifted through the orchard1 and it was good to see the house with smoke in the kitchen chimney1 and the shade of the big maple where it rested upon the porch4 ,and not far from the maple we could see our friendly pump with the moist boards of the well-cover in front of it4 ,i cannot tell you how good it looked as we came in from the hot1 dry fields4 ,after you1 says ,dick4 ,i gave my sleeves another roll upward and unbuttoned and turned in the moist collar of my shirt4 ,then ,i stooped over and put my head under the pump spout4 ,pump1 ,dick1 said ,i4 ,and ,dick pumped4 ,harder1 ,dick1 said ,i in a strangled voice4 ,and ,dick pumped still harder1 and presently ,i came up gasping with my head and hair dripping with the cool water4 ,then ,i pumped for ,dick4 ,gee1 but that's good1 says ,dick4 ,harriet came out with clean towels1 and we dried ourselves1 and talked together in low voices4 ,and feeling a delicious sense of coolness we sat down for a moment in the shade of the maple and rested our arms on our knees4 ,from the kitchen1 as we sat there1 we could hear the engaging sounds of preparation1 and busy voices1 and the tinkling of dishes1 and agreeable odours6 ,ah1 friend and brother1 there may not be better moments in life than this6 ,so we sat resting1 thinking of nothing2 and presently we heard the screen door click and ,ann ,spencer's motherly voice3 ,come in now1 ,mr4 ,grayson1 and get your dinner4 ,harriet had set the table on the east porch1 where it was cool and shady4 ,dick and ,i sat down opposite each other and between us there was a great brown bowl of moist brown beans with crispy strips of pork on top1 and a good steam rising from its depths2 and a small mountain of baked potatoes1 each a little broken to show the snowy white interior2 and two towers of such new bread as no one on this earth 7or in any other planet so far as ,i know7 but ,harriet can make4 ,and before we had even begun our dinner in came the ample ,ann ,spencer1 quaking with hospitality1 and bearing a platter--let me here speak of it with the bated breath of a proper respect1 for ,i cannot even now think of it without a sort of inner thrill--bearing a platter of her most famous fried chicken4 ,harriet had sacrificed the promising careers of two young roosters upon the altar of this important occasion4 ,i may say in passing that ,ann ,spencer is more celebrated in our neighbourhood by virtue of her genius at frying chicken1 than ,aristotle or ,solomon or ,socrates1 or indeed all the big-wigs of the past rolled into one4 ,so we fell to with a silent but none the less fervid enthusiasm4 ,harriet hovered about us1 in and out of the kitchen1 and poured the tea and the buttermilk1 and ,ann ,spencer upon every possible occasion passed the chicken4 ,more chicken1 ,mr4 ,grayson8 she would inquire in a tone of voice that made your mouth water4 ,more chicken1 ,dick8 ,i'd ask4 ,more chicken1 ,mr4 ,grayson1 he would respond--and thus we kept up a tenuous1 but pleasant little joke between us4 ,just outside the porch in a thicket of lilacs a catbird sang to us while we ate1 and my dog lay in the shade with his nose on his paws and one eye open just enough to show any stray flies that he was not to be trifled with--and far away to the ,north and ,east one could catch glimpses--if he had eyes for such things--of the wide-stretching pleasantness of our countryside4 ,i soon saw that something mysterious was going on in the kitchen4 ,harriet would look significantly at ,ann ,spencer and ,ann ,spencer1 who could scarcely contain her overflowing smiles1 would look significantly at ,harriet4 ,as for me1 ,i sat there with perfect confidence in myself--in my ultimate capacity1 as it were4 ,whatever happened1 ,i was ready for it6 ,and the great surprise came at last3 a ,,short-,,cake3 a great1 big1 red1 juicy1 buttery1 sugary short-cake1 with raspberries heaped up all over it4 ,when ,it came in--and ,i am speaking of it in that personal way because it radiated such an effulgence that ,i cannot now remember whether it was ,harriet or ,ann ,spencer who brought it in--when ,it came in1 ,dick1 who pretends to be abashed upon such occasions1 gave one swift glance upward and then emitted a long1 low1 expressive whistle4 ,when ,beethoven found himself throbbing with undescribable emotions he composed a sonata2 when ,keats felt odd things stirring within him he wrote an ode to an urn1 but my friend ,dick1 quite as evidently on fire with his emotions1 merely whistled--and then looked around evidently embarrassed lest he should have infringed upon the proprieties of that occasion4 ,harriet1 ,i said1 you and ,ann ,spencer are benefactors of the human race4 ,go 'way now1 said ,ann ,spencer1 shaking all over with pleasure1 and eat your shortcake4 ,and after dinner how pleasant it was to stretch at full length for a few minutes on the grass in the shade of the maple tree and look up through the dusky thick shadows of the leaves4 ,if ever a man feels the blissfulness of complete content it is at such a moment--every muscle in the body deliciously resting1 and a peculiar exhilaration animating the mind to quiet thoughts4 ,i have heard talk of the hard work of the hay-fields1 but ,i never yet knew a healthy man who did not recall many moments of exquisite pleasure connected with the hardest and the hottest work4 ,i think sometimes that the nearer a man can place himself in the full current of natural things the happier he is4 ,if he can become a part of the ,universal ,process and know that he is a part1 that is happiness4 ,all day yesterday ,i had that deep quiet feeling that ,i was somehow not working for myself1 not because ,i was covetous for money1 nor driven by fear1 not surely for fame1 but somehow that ,i was a necessary element in the processes of the earth4 ,i was a primal force6 ,i was the indispensable ,harvester4 ,without me the earth could not revolve6 ,oh1 friend1 there are spiritual values here1 too4 ,for how can a man know ,god without yielding himself fully to the processes of ,god8 ,i lived yesterday4 ,i played my part4 ,i took my place4 ,and all hard things grew simple1 and all crooked things seemed straight1 and all roads were open and clear before me4 ,many times that day ,i paused and looked up from my work knowing that ,i had something to be happy for4 ,at one o'clock ,dick and ,i lagged our way unwillingly out to work again--rusty of muscles1 with a feeling that the heat would now surely be unendurable and the work impossibly hard4 ,the scythes were oddly heavy and hot to the touch1 and the stones seemed hardly to make a sound in the heavy noon air4 ,the cows had sought the shady pasture edges1 the birds were still1 all the air shook with heat4 ,only man must toil6 ,it's danged hot1 said ,dick conclusively4 ,how reluctantly we began the work and how difficult it seemed compared with the task of the morning6 ,in half an hour1 however1 the reluctance passed away and we were swinging as steadily as we did at any time in the forenoon4 ,but we said less--if that were possible--and made every ounce of energy count4 ,i shall not here attempt to chronicle all the events of the afternoon1 how we finished the mowing of the field and how we went over it swiftly and raked the long windrows into cocks1 or how1 as the evening began to fall1 we turned at last wearily toward the house4 ,the day's work was done4 ,dick had stopped whistling long before the middle of the afternoon1 but now as he shouldered his scythe he struck up ,my ,fairy ,fay with some marks of his earlier enthusiasm4 ,well1 ,dick1 said ,i1 we've had a good day's work together4 ,you bet1 said ,dick4 ,and ,i watched him as he went down the lane with a pleasant friendly feeling of companionship4 ,we had done great things together4 ,i wonder if you ever felt the joy of utter physical weariness3 not exhaustion1 but weariness4 ,i wonder if you have ever sat down1 as ,i did last night1 and felt as though you would like to remain just there always--without stirring a single muscle1 without speaking1 without thinking even6 ,such a moment is not painful1 but quite the reverse--it is supremely pleasant4 ,so ,i sat for a time last evening on my porch4 ,the cool1 still night had fallen sweetly after the burning heat of the day4 ,i heard all the familiar sounds of the night4 ,a whippoorwill began to whistle in the distant thicket4 ,harriet came out quietly--,i could see the white of her gown--and sat near me4 ,i heard the occasional sleepy tinkle of a cowbell1 and the crickets were calling4 ,a star or two came out in the perfect dark blue of the sky4 ,the deep1 sweet1 restful night was on4 ,i don't know that ,i said it aloud--such things need not be said aloud--but as ,i turned almost numbly into the house1 stumbling on my way to bed1 my whole being seemed to cry out3 ,thank ,god1 thank ,god6 ,,xi ,,an ,,old ,,man ,today ,i saw ,uncle ,richard ,summers walking in the town road3 and cannot get him out of my mind4 ,i think ,i never knew any one who wears so plainly the garment of ,detached ,old ,age as he4 ,one would not now think of calling him a farmer1 any more than one would think of calling him a doctor1 or a lawyer1 or a justice of the peace4 ,no one would think now of calling him ,squire ,summers1 though he bore that name with no small credit many years ago4 ,he is no longer known as hardworking1 or able1 or grasping1 or rich1 or wicked3 he is just ,old4 ,everything seems to have been stripped away from ,uncle ,richard except age4 ,how well ,i remember the first time ,uncle ,richard ,summers impressed himself upon my mind4 ,it was after the funeral of his old wife1 now several years ago4 ,i saw him standing at the open grave with his broad-brimmed felt hat held at his breast4 ,his head was bowed and his thin1 soft1 white hair stirred in the warm breeze4 ,i wondered at his quietude4 ,after fifty years or more together his nearest companion and friend had gone1 and he did not weep aloud4 ,afterward ,i was again impressed with the same fortitude or quietude4 ,i saw him walking down the long drive to the main road with all the friends of our neighbourhood about him--and the trees rising full and calm on one side1 and the still greenery of the cemetery stretching away on the other4 ,half way down the drive he turned aside to the fence and all unconscious of the halted procession1 he picked a handful of the large leaves of the wild grape4 ,it was a hot day2 he took off his hat1 and put the cool leaves in the crown of it and rejoined the procession4 ,it did not seem to me to be the mere forgetfulness of old age1 nor yet callousness to his own great sorrow4 ,it was rather an instinctive return to the immeasurable continuity of the trivial things of life--the trivial necessary things which so often carry us over the greatest tragedies4 ,i talked with the ,scotch ,preacher afterward about the incident4 ,he said that he1 too1 marveling at the old man's calmness1 had referred to it in his presence4 ,uncle ,richard turned to him and said slowly3 ,i am an old man1 and ,i have learned one thing4 ,i have learned to accept life4 ,since that day ,i have seen ,uncle ,richard ,summers many times walking on the country roads with his cane4 ,he always looks around at me and slowly nods his head1 but rarely says anything4 ,at his age what is there to say that has not already been said8 ,his trousers appear a size too large for him1 his hat sets too far down1 his hands are long and thin upon the head of his cane4 ,but his face is tranquil4 ,he has come a long way2 there have been times of tempest and keen winds1 there have been wild hills in his road1 and rocky places1 and threatening voices in the air4 ,all that is past now3 and his face is tranquil4 ,i think we younger people do not often realize how keenly dependent we are upon our contemporaries in age4 ,we get little understanding and sympathy either above or below them4 ,much of the world is a little misty to us1 a little out of focus4 ,uncle ,richard ,summer's contemporaries have nearly all gone--mostly long ago3 one of the last1 his old wife4 ,at his home--,i have been there often to see his son--he sits in a large rocking chair with a cushion in it1 and a comfortable high back to lean upon4 ,no one else ventures to sit in his chair1 even when he is not there4 ,it is not far from the window2 and when he sits down he can lean his cane against the wall where he can easily reach it again4 ,there is a turmoil of youth and life always about him2 of fevered incomings and excited outgoings1 of work and laughter and tears and joy and anger4 ,he watches it all1 for his mind is still clear1 but he does not take sides4 ,he accepts everything1 refuses nothing2 or1 if you like1 he refuses everything1 accepts nothing4 ,he once owned the house where he now lives1 with the great barns behind it and the fertile acres spreading far on every hand4 ,from his chair he can look out through a small window1 and see the sun on the quiet fields4 ,he once went out swiftly and strongly1 he worked hotly1 he came in wearied to sleep4 ,now he lives in a small room--and that is more than is really necessary--and when he walks out he does not inquire who owns the land where he treads4 ,he lets the hot world go by1 and waits with patience the logic of events4 ,often as ,i have passed him in the road1 ,i have wondered1 as ,i have been wondering to-day1 how he must look out upon us all1 upon our excited comings and goings1 our immense concern over the immeasurably trivial4 ,i have wondered1 not without a pang1 and a resolution1 whether ,i shall ever reach the point where ,i can let this eager and fascinating world go by without taking toll of it6 ,,xii ,,the ,,celebrity ,not for many weeks have ,i had a more interesting1 more illuminating1 and when all is told1 a more amusing experience1 than ,i had this afternoon4 ,since this afternoon the world has seemed a more satisfactory place to live in1 and my own home here1 the most satisfactory1 the most central place in all the world4 ,i have come to the conclusion that anything may happen here6 ,we have had a celebrity in our small midst1 and the hills1 as the ,psalmist might say1 have lifted up their heads1 and the trees have clapped their hands together4 ,he came here last ,tuesday evening and spoke at the ,school ,house4 ,i was not there myself2 if ,i had been1 ,i should not1 perhaps1 have had the adventure which has made this day so livable1 nor met the ,celebrity face to face4 ,let me here set down a close secret regarding celebrities3 ,they cannot survive without common people like you and me4 ,it follows that if we do not pursue a celebrity1 sooner or later he will pursue us4 ,he must2 it is the law of his being4 ,so ,i wait here very comfortably on my farm1 and as ,i work in my fields ,i glance up casually from time to time to see if any celebrities are by chance coming up the town road to seek me out4 ,oh1 we are crusty people1 we farmers6 ,sooner or later they all come this way1 all the warriors and the poets1 all the philosophers and the prophets and the politicians4 ,if they do not1 indeed1 get time to come before they are dead1 we have full assurance that they will straggle along afterward clad neatly in sheepskin1 or more gorgeously in green buckram with gilt lettering4 ,whatever the airs of pompous importance they may assume as they come1 back of it all we farmers can see the look of wistful eagerness in their eyes4 ,they know well enough that they must give us something which we in our commonness regard as valuable enough to exchange for a bushel of our potatoes1 or a sack of our white onions4 ,no poem that we can enjoy1 no speech that tickles us1 no prophecy that thrills us--neither dinner nor immortality for them6 ,and we are hard-headed ,yankees at our bargainings2 many a puffed-up celebrity loses his puffiness at our doors6 ,this afternoon1 as ,i came out on my porch after dinner1 feeling content with myself and all the world1 ,i saw a man driving our way in a one-horse top-buggy4 ,in the country it is our custom first to identify the horse1 and that gives us a sure clue to the identification of the driver4 ,this horse plainly did not belong in our neighbourhood and plainly as it drew nearer1 it bore the unmistakable marks of the town livery4 ,therefore1 the driver1 in all probability1 was a stranger in these parts4 ,what strangers were in town who would wish to drive this way8 ,the man who occupied the buggy was large and slow-looking2 he wore a black1 broad-brimmed felt hat and a black coat1 a man evidently of some presence4 ,and he drove slowly and awkwardly2 not an agent plainly4 ,thus the logic of the country bore fruitage4 ,harriet1 ,i said1 calling through the open doorway1 ,i think the ,honourable ,arthur ,caldwell is coming here4 ,mercy me6 exclaimed ,harriet1 appearing in the doorway1 and as quickly disappearing4 ,i did not see her1 of course1 but ,i knew instinctively that she was slipping off her apron1 moving our most celebrated rocking-chair two inches nearer the door1 and whisking a few invisible particles of dust from the centre table4 ,every time any one of importance comes our way1 or is distantly likely to come our way4 ,harriet resolves herself into an amiable whirlwind of good order1 subsiding into placidity at the first sound of a step on the porch4 ,as for me ,i remain in my shirt sleeves1 sitting on my porch resting a moment after my dinner4 ,no sir1 ,i will positively not go in and get my coat4 ,i am an ,american citizen1 at home in my house with the sceptre of my dominion--my favourite daily newspaper--in my hand4 ,let all kings1 queens1 and other potentates approach6 ,and besides1 though ,i am really much afraid that the ,honourable ,arthur ,caldwell will not stop at my gate but will pass on towards ,horace's1 ,i am nursing a somewhat light opinion of ,mr4 ,caldwell4 ,when he spoke at the ,school ,house on ,tuesday1 ,i did not go to hear him1 nor was my opinion greatly changed by what ,i learned afterward of the meeting4 ,i take both of our weekly county papers4 ,this is necessary4 ,i add the news of both together1 divide by two to strike a fair average1 and then ask ,horace1 or ,charles ,baxter1 or the ,scotch ,preacher what really happened4 ,the ,republican county paper said of the meeting3 ,the ,honourable ,arthur ,caldwell1 member of ,congress1 who is seeking a reelection1 was accorded a most enthusiastic reception by a large and sympathetic audience of the citizens of ,blandford township on ,tuesday evening4 ,strangely enough the ,democratic paper1 observing exactly the same historic events1 took this jaundiced view of the matter3 ,arty ,caldwell1 ,republican boss of the ,sixth ,district1 who is out mending his political fences1 spellbound a handful of his henchmen at the ,school ,house near ,blandford ,crossing on ,tuesday evening4 ,and here was ,mr4 ,caldwell himself1 ,member of ,congress1 ,leader of the ,sixth ,district1 ,favourably ,mentioned for ,governor1 drawing up at my gate1 deliberately descending from his buggy1 with dignity stopping to take the tie-rein from under the seat1 carefully tying his horse to my hitching-post4 ,i confess ,i could not help feeling a thrill of excitement4 ,here was a veritable ,celebrity come to my house to explain himself6 ,i would not have it known1 of course1 outside of our select circle of friends1 but ,i confess that although ,i am a pretty independent person 7when ,i talk7 in reality there are few things in this world ,i would rather see than a new person coming up the walk to my door4 ,we cannot1 of course1 let the celebrities know it1 lest they grow intolerable in their top-loftiness1 but if they must have us1 we cannot well get along without them--without the colour and variety which they lend to a gray world4 ,i have spent many a precious moment alone in my fields looking up the road 7with what wistful casualness67 for some new ,socrates or ,mark ,twain1 and ,i have not been wholly disappointed when ,i have had to content myself with the ,travelling ,evangelist or the ,syrian ,woman who comes this way monthly bearing her pack of cheap suspenders and blue bandana handkerchiefs4 ,good afternoon1 ,mr4 ,grayson1 said the ,honourable ,mr4 ,caldwell1 taking off his large hat and pausing with one foot on my step4 ,good afternoon1 sir1 ,i responded1 won't you come up8 ,he sat down in the chair opposite me with a certain measured and altogether impressive dignity4 ,i cannot say that he was exactly condescending in his manners1 yet he made me feel that it was no small honour to have so considerable a person sitting there on the porch with me4 ,at the same time he was outwardly not without a sort of patient deference which was evidently calculated to put me at my ease4 ,oh1 he had all the arts of the schooled politician6 ,he knew to the last shading just the attitude that he as a great man1 a leader in ,congress1 a dominant force in his party1 a possible candidate for ,governor 7and yet always a seeker for the votes of the people67 must observe in approaching a free farmer--like me--sitting at ease in his shirt-sleeves on his own porch1 taking a moment's rest after dinner4 ,it was a perfect thing to see6 ,he had evidently heard1 what was not altogether true1 that ,i was a questioner of authority1 a disturber of the political peace1 and that 7concretely7 ,i was opposing him for relection4 ,and it was as plain as a pikestaff that he was here to lay down the political law to me4 ,he would do it smilingly and patiently1 but firmly4 ,he would use all the leverage of his place1 his power1 his personal appearance1 to crush the presumptuous uprising against his authority4 ,i confess my spirits rose at the thought4 ,what in this world is more enthralling than the meeting of an unknown adversary upon the open field1 and jousting him a tourney4 ,i felt like some modern ,robin ,hood facing the panoplied authority of the ,king's man4 ,and what a place and time it was for a combat--in the quietude of the summer afternoon1 no sound anywhere breaking the still warmth and sweetness except the buzzing of bees in the clematis at the end of the porch--and all about the green countryside1 woods and fields and old fences--and the brown road leading its venturesome way across a distant hill toward the town4 ,after explaining who he was--,i told him ,i had recognized him on sight--we opened with a volley of small shot4 ,we peppered one another with harmless comments on the weather and the state of the crops4 ,he advanced cabbages and ,i countered with sugar-beets4 ,i am quite aware that there are good tacticians who deprecate the use of skirmish lines and the desultory fire of the musketry of small talk4 ,they would advance in grim silence and open at once with the crushing fire of their biggest guns4 ,but such fighting is not for me4 ,i should lose half the joy of the battle1 and kill off my adversary before ,i had begun to like him6 ,it wouldn't do1 it wouldn't do at all4 ,it's a warm day1 observes my opponent1 and ,i take a sure measure of his fighting form4 ,i rather like the look of his eye4 ,i never saw the corn ripening better1 ,i observe1 and let him feel a little of the cunning of the arrangement of my forces4 ,there is much in the tone of the voice1 the cut of the words1 the turn of a phrase4 ,i can be your servant with a ,yes sir1 or your master with a ,no sir4 ,thus we warm up to one another--a little at a time--we mass our forces1 each sees the white of his adversary's eyes4 ,i can even see my opponent--with some joy--trotting up his reserves1 having found the opposition stronger than he at first supposed4 ,i hear1 said ,mr4 ,caldwell1 finally1 with a smile intended to be disarming1 that you are opposing my relection4 ,boom6 the cannon's opening roar6 ,well1 ,i replied1 also smiling1 and not to be outdone in the directness of my thrust1 ,i have told a few of my friends that ,i thought ,mr4 ,gaylord would represent us better in ,congress than you have done4 ,boom6 the fight is on6 ,you are a ,republican1 aren't you1 ,mr4 ,grayson8 ,it was the inevitable next stroke4 ,when he found that ,i was a doubtful follower of him personally1 he marshalled the ,authority of the ,institution which he represented4 ,i have voted the ,republican ticket1 ,i said1 but ,i confess that recently ,i have not been able to distinguish ,republicans from ,democrats--and ,i've had my doubts1 said ,i1 whether there is any real ,republican party left to vote with4 ,i cannot well describe the expression on his face1 nor indeed1 now that the battle was on1 horsemen1 footmen1 and big guns1 shall ,i attempt to chronicle every stroke and counter-stroke of that great conflict4 ,this much is certain3 there was something universal and primal about the battle waged this quiet afternoon on my porch between ,mr4 ,caldwell and me2 it was the primal struggle between the leader and the follower2 between the representative and the represented4 ,and it is a never-ending conflict4 ,when the leader gains a small advantage the pendulum of civilization swings toward aristocracy2 and when the follower1 beginning to think1 beginning to struggle1 gains a small advantage1 then the pendulum inclines toward democracy4 ,and always1 and always1 the leaders tend to forget that they are only servants1 and would be masters4 ,the unending audacity of elected persons6 ,and always1 and always1 there must be a following bold enough to prick the pretensions of the leaders and keep them in their places6 ,thus1 through the long still afternoon1 the battle waged upon my porch4 ,harriet came out and met the ,honourable ,mr4 ,caldwell1 and sat and listened1 and presently went in again1 without having got half a dozen words into the conversation4 ,and the bees buzzed1 and in the meadows the cows began to come out of the shade to feed in the open land4 ,gradually1 ,mr4 ,caldwell put off his air of condescension2 he put off his appeal to party authority2 he even stopped arguing the tariff and the railroad question4 ,gradually1 he ceased to be the great man1 ,favourably ,mentioned for ,governor1 and came down on the ground with me4 ,he moved his chair up closer to mine2 he put his hand on my knee4 ,for the first time ,i began to see what manner of man he was3 to find out how much real fight he had in him4 ,illustration3 ,,he ,,moved ,,his ,,chair ,,closer ,,to ,,mine ,you don't understand1 he said1 what it means to be down there at ,washington in a time like this4 ,things clear to you are not clear when you have to meet men in the committees and on the floor of the house who have a contrary view from yours and hold to it just as tenaciously as you do to your views4 ,well1 sir1 he gave me quite a new impression of what a ,congressman's job was like1 of what difficulties and dissensions he had to meet at home1 and what compromises he had to accept when he reached ,washington4 ,do you know1 ,i said to him1 with some enthusiasm1 ,i am more than ever convinced that farming is good enough for me4 ,he threw back his head and laughed uproariously1 and then moved up still closer4 ,the trouble with you1 ,mr4 ,grayson1 he said1 is that you are looking for a giant intellect to represent you at ,washington4 ,yes1 ,i said1 ,i'm afraid ,i am4 ,well1 he returned1 they don't happen along every day4 ,i'd like to see the ,house of ,representatives full of ,washingtons and ,jeffersons and ,websters and ,roosevelts4 ,but there's a ,lincoln only once in a century4 ,he paused and then added with a sort of wry smile3 ,and any quantity of ,caldwells6 ,that took me6 ,i liked him for it4 ,it was so explanatory4 ,the armour of political artifice1 the symbols of political power1 had now all dropped away from him1 and we sat there together1 two plain and friendly human beings1 arriving through stress and struggle at a common understanding4 ,he was not a great leader1 not a statesman at all1 but plainly a man of determination1 with a fair measure of intelligence and sincerity4 ,he had a human desire to stay in ,congress1 for the life evidently pleased him1 and while he would never be crucified as a prophet1 ,i felt--what ,i had not felt before in regard to him--that he was sincerely anxious to serve the best interests of his constituents4 ,added to these qualities he was a man who was loyal to his friends2 and not ungenerous to his enemies4 ,up to this time he had done most of the talking2 but now1 having reached a common basis1 ,i leaned forward with some eagerness4 ,you won't mind1 ,i said1 if ,i give you my view--my common country view of the political situation4 ,i am sure ,i don't understand1 and ,i don't think my neighbours here understand1 much about the tariff or the trusts or the railroad question--in detail4 ,we get general impressions--and stick to them like grim death--for we know somehow that we are right4 ,generally speaking1 we here in the country work for what we get---- ,and sometimes put the big apples at the top of the barrel1 nodded ,mr4 ,caldwell4 ,and sometimes put too much salt on top of the butter1 ,i added--all that1 but on the whole we get only what we earn by the hard daily work of ploughing and planting and reaping3 ,you admit that4 ,i admit it1 said ,mr4 ,caldwell4 ,and we've got the impression that a good many of the men down in ,new ,york and ,boston1 and elsewhere1 through the advantages which the tariff laws1 and other laws1 are giving them1 are getting more than they earn--a lot more4 ,and we feel that laws must be passed which will prevent all that4 ,now1 ,i believe that1 too1 said ,mr4 ,caldwell very earnestly4 ,then we belong to the same party1 ,i said4 ,i don't know what the name of it is yet1 but we both belong to it4 ,mr4 ,caldwell laughed4 ,and ,i'll appoint you1 ,i said1 my agent in ,washington to work out the changes in the laws4 ,well1 ,i'll accept the appointment1 said ,mr4 ,caldwell--continuing very earnestly1 if you'll trust to my honesty and not expect too much of me all at once4 ,with that we both sat back in our chairs and looked at each other and laughed with the greatest good humour and common understanding4 ,and now1 said ,i1 rising quickly1 let's go and get a drink of buttermilk4 ,so we walked around the house arm in arm and stopped in the shade of the oak tree which stands near the spring-house4 ,harriet came out in the whitest of white dresses1 carrying a tray with the glasses1 and ,i opened the door of the spring-house1 and felt the cool air on my face and smelt the good smell of butter and milk and cottage cheese1 and ,i passed the cool pitcher to ,harriet4 ,and so we drank together there in the shade and talked and laughed4 ,i walked down with ,mr4 ,caldwell to the gate4 ,he took my arm and said to me3 ,i'm glad ,i came out here and had this talk4 ,i feel as though ,i understood my job better for it4 ,let's organize a new party1 ,i said1 let's begin with two members1 you and ,i1 and have only one plank in the platform4 ,he smiled4 ,you'd have to crowd a good deal into that one plank1 he said4 ,not at all1 ,i responded4 ,what would you have it8 ,i'd have it in one sentence1 ,i said1 and something like this3 ,we believe in the passage of legislation which shall prevent any man taking from the common store any more than he actually earns4 ,mr4 ,caldwell threw up his arms4 ,mr4 ,grayson1 he said1 you're an outrageous idealist4 ,mr4 ,caldwell1 ,i said1 you'll say one of these days that ,i'm a practical politician4 99 99 99 99 99 ,well1 ,harriet1 ,i said1 he's got my vote4 ,well1 ,david1 said ,harriet1 that's what he came for4 ,it's an interesting world1 ,harriet1 ,i said4 ,it is1 indeed1 said ,harriet4 ,as we stood on the porch we could see at the top of the hill1 where the town road crosses it1 the slow moving buggy1 and through the open curtain at the back the heavy form of our ,congressman with his slouch hat set firmly on his big head4 ,we may be fooled1 ,harriet1 ,i observed1 on dogmas and doctrines and platforms--but if we cannot trust human nature in the long run1 what hope is there8 ,it's men we must work with1 ,harriet4 ,and women4 said ,harriet4 ,and women1 of course1 said ,i4 ,,xiii ,,on ,,friendship ,i come now to the last of these ,adventures in ,friendship4 ,as ,i go out--,i hope not for long--,i wish you might follow me to the door1 and then as we continue to talk quietly1 ,i may beguile you1 all unconsciously1 to the top of the steps1 or even find you at my side when we reach the gate at the end of the lane4 ,i wish you might hate to let me go1 as ,i myself hate to go6--,and when ,i reach the top of the hill 7if you wait long enough7 you will see me turn and wave my hand2 and you will know that ,i am still relishing the joy of our meeting1 and that ,i part unwillingly4 ,not long ago1 a friend of mine wrote a letter asking me an absurdly difficult question--difficult because so direct and simple4 ,what is friendship1 anyway8 queried this philosophical correspondent4 ,the truth is1 the question came to me with a shock1 as something quite new4 ,for ,i have spent so much time thinking of my friends that ,i have scarcely ever stopped to reflect upon the abstract quality of friendship4 ,my attention being thus called to the subject1 ,i fell to thinking of it the other night as ,i sat by the fire1 ,harriet not far away rocking and sewing1 and my dog sleeping on the rug near me 7his tail stirring whenever ,i made a motion to leave my place74 ,and whether ,i would or no my friends came trooping into my mind4 ,i thought of our neighbour ,horace1 the dryly practical and sufficient farmer1 and of our much loved ,scotch ,preacher2 ,i thought of the ,shy ,bee-man and of his boisterous double1 the ,bold ,bee-man2 ,i thought of the ,old ,maid1 and how she talks1 for all the world like a rabbit running in a furrow 7all on the same line until you startle her out1 when she slips quickly into the next furrow and goes on running as ardently as before74 ,and ,i thought of ,john ,starkweather1 our rich man2 and of the life of the girl ,anna4 ,and it was good to think of them all living around me1 not far away1 connected with me through darkness and space by a certain mysterious human cord4 7,oh1 there are mysteries still left upon this scientific earth67 ,as ,i sat there by the fire ,i told them over one by one1 remembering with warmth or amusement or concern this or that characteristic thing about each of them4 ,it was the next best thing to hearing the tramp of feet on my porch1 to seeing the door fly open 7letting in a gust of the fresh cool air671 to crying a hearty greeting1 to drawing up an easy chair to the open fire1 to watching with eagerness while my friend unwraps 7exclaiming all the while of the state of the weather3 ,cold1 ,grayson1 mighty cold67 and finally sits down beside me1 not too far away4 ,the truth is1--my philosophical correspondent--,i cannot formulate any theory of friendship which will cover all the conditions4 ,i know a few things that friendship is not1 and a few things that it is1 but when ,i come to generalize upon the abstract quality ,i am quite at a loss for adequate language4 ,friendship1 it seems to me1 is like happiness4 ,she flies pursuit1 she is shy1 and wild1 and timid1 and will be best wooed by indirection4 ,quite unexpectedly1 sometimes1 as we pass in the open road1 she puts her hand in ours1 like a child4 ,friendship is neither a formality nor a mode3 it is rather a life4 ,many and many a time ,i have seen ,charles ,baxter at work in his carpentry-shop--just working1 or talking in his quiet voice1 or looking around occasionally through his steel-bowed spectacles1 and ,i have had the feeling that ,i should like to go over and sit on the bench near him4 ,he literally talks me over6 ,i even want to touch him6 ,it is not the substance of what we say to one another that makes us friends1 nor yet the manner of saying it1 nor is it what you do or ,i do1 nor is it what ,i give you1 or you give me1 nor is it because we chance to belong to the same church1 or society or party that makes us friendly4 ,nor is it because we entertain the same views or respond to the same emotions4 ,all these things may serve to bring us nearer together but no one of them can of itself kindle the divine fire of friendship4 ,a friend is one with whom we are fond of being when no business is afoot nor any entertainment contemplated4 ,a man may well be silent with a friend4 ,i do not need to ask the wounded person how he feels1 says the poet1 ,i myself became the wounded person4 ,not all people come to friendship in the same way4 ,some possess a veritable genius for intimacy and will be making a dozen friends where ,i make one4 ,our ,scotch ,preacher is such a person4 ,i never knew any man with a gift of intimacy so persuasive as his4 ,he is so simple and direct that he cuts through the stoniest reserve and strikes at once upon those personal things which with all of us are so far more real than any outward interest4 ,good-morning1 friend1 ,i have heard him say to a total stranger1 and within half an hour they had their heads together and were talking of things which make men cry4 ,it is an extraordinary gift4 ,as for me1 ,i confess it to be a selfish interest or curiosity which causes me to stop almost any man by the way1 and to take something of what he has--because it pleases me to do so4 ,i try to pay in coin as good as ,i get1 but ,i recognize it as a lawless procedure1 ,for the coin ,i give 7being such as ,i myself secretly make7 is for them sometimes only spurious metal1 while what ,i get is for me the very treasure of the ,indies4 ,for a lift in my wagon1 a drink at the door1 a flying word across my fences1 ,i have taken argosies of minted wealth6 ,especially do ,i enjoy all travelling people4 ,i wait for them 7how eagerly7 here on my farm4 ,i watch the world drift by in daily tides upon the road1 flowing outward in the morning toward the town1 and as surely at evening drifting back again4 ,i look out with a pleasure impossible to convey upon those who come this way from the town3 the ,syrian woman going by in the gray town road1 with her bright-coloured head-dress1 and her oil-cloth pack2 and the ,old-ironman with his dusty wagon1 jangling his little bells1 and the cheerful weazened ,herb-doctor in his faded hat1 and the ,signman with his mouth full of nails--how they are all marked upon by the town1 all dusted with the rosy bloom of human experience4 ,how often in fancy ,i have pursued them down the valley and watched them until they drifted out of sight beyond the hill6 ,or how often ,i have stopped them or they 7too willingly7 have stopped me--and we have fenced and parried with fine bold words4 ,if you should ever come by my farm--you1 whoever you are--take care lest ,i board you1 hoist my pirate flag1 and sail you away to the ,enchanted ,isle where ,i make my rendezvous4 ,it is not short of miraculous how1 with cultivation1 one's capacity for friendship increases4 ,once ,i myself had scarcely room in my heart for a single friend1 who am now so wealthy in friendships4 ,it is a phenomenon worthy of consideration by all hardened disbelievers in that which is miraculous upon this earth that when a man's heart really opens to a friend he finds there room for two1 ,and when he takes in the second1 behold the skies lift1 and the earth grows wider1 and he finds there room for two more6 ,in a curious passage 7which ,i understand no longer darkly7 old mystical ,swedenborg tells of his wonderment that the world of spirits 7which he says he visited so familiarly7 should not soon become too small for all the swelling hosts of its ethereal inhabitants1 and was confronted with the discovery that the more angels there were1 the more heaven to hold them6 ,so let it be with our friendships6 ,,the ,,end