HOMES XEAR TO NATURE. 



283 



THE ROAD AND THE BRIDGE TO THE ISLAND. 



to feel the heart of its owner. Some- cathedral and hear the pines and the 

 thing in the walls and furnishings, thrushes we think of our master and of 

 something in the air — is it a vibration his great work and love, and in silence 

 which dead things have gathered from 

 the living? — bids you welcome or 



: warns you to depart. It is the true 



I voice of the master. As Gordon came 



• into the wilderness he felt like one re- 

 turning to his father's house. In this 

 great castle the heart of its Master 

 seemed to speak to him with a tender- 

 ness fatherly and unmistakable." 



He compares a beautiful girl to the 

 woods : 



"She was like the spirit of the wood- 

 land — wild, beautiful, silent." 



He tells us that the lives of men 

 are like trees : 



" 'His character," Dunmore ans- 

 wered. Men are like trees. Some 

 are hickory, some are oak, some are 

 cedar, some are only basswood. Some 

 are strong, beautiful, generous, some 

 are small and sickly for want of air 

 and sunlight ; some are selfish and 

 quarrelsome as a thorntree. Every 

 year we must draw energy out of the 

 great breast of nature and put on a 

 fresh ring of wood. We must grow 

 or die. You know what comes to the 

 rotten-hearted ?' " 



To the woods we will go in the sor- 

 row or bereavement : 



"Always when we sit in our old in the outdoor study on the park. 



