342 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SEALER 



shape. . . . For four hours with the throttle valve wide open 

 and a steady panting breath, the engine toils up the steep 

 and crooked way, gaining about five thousand feet in height, 

 eventually escaping from the gorge into the vast mountain 

 plains called the South Park. ..." 



And yet, notwithstanding his many entertaining and in- 

 structive contacts with men and things, contacts such as only 

 fall to the share of one who is on the lookout for natural phe- 

 nomena and human qualities alike, these long journeys over 

 great stretches of the earth's surface void of historic associa- 

 tions of an enriching kind, after the first novelty wore off were 

 tiresome to the last degree. There was one spiritual profit he 

 gained from them, and that was the enlargement of his sym- 

 pathies, although it scarcely seemed as if they needed further 

 amplification. Travelling, often alone, in far-off places and 

 lodging in strange inns served to arouse a feeling of compassion 

 for solitary people. The isolation of most human beings, as he 

 saw them in these wanderings, was borne in upon him, and he 

 pitied all who were driven, either by restlessness or by neces- 

 sity, from the shelter and affections of the home. 



In the early days the little sleeping-cars were, as he says, 

 "crammed with a motley lot of humanity, supercivilized and 

 savage in all degrees." From among this miscellaneous cargo 

 of human beings he picked up acquaintances easily. A racy 

 character when found was a boon which served to quicken the 

 slow-going hours. The defenceless and incompetent he be- 

 friended, especially women travelling alone, or any creature 

 who could not well stand by himself. Often when he would fain 

 have passed the time in silence and repose, his peace was broken 

 in upon by people whom he had met before old students who 

 turned up everywhere, vigilant young men, who, in the kindness 

 of their hearts, would make a point of keeping a close eye upon 

 their old master, lest he be lonesome, when solitude was really 

 the thing he most desired. 



During this fruitful period of which we are writing Mr. Shaler 



