tl&lben Grass is Green 



we are tiresome and the wild woods are a bore. It 

 is a vast pity, and I went home occupied with my 

 own thoughts, as did Beatrice with hers. 



A week has passed, and I have had a letter from 

 Beatrice, and thus runs one of its sentences : "The 

 rattle of the street-cars and rumble of the wagons 

 here in New York were never so tiresome. How 

 I wish I could again go with you on Crosswicks 

 Creek and listen to your lectures ! I 'd even face 

 a weasel without screaming." 



Let the whole truth be told. Old as I am, I 

 have written for her to come again, and it will be 

 but a repetition of what occurred in the first place. 

 Puck was right : " What fools these mortals be ! " 



VIII 



WHEN you are entirely satisfied that you have ex- 

 hausted the subject, that there is nothing whatever 

 remaining to be said, thought or considered, then 

 remember it is time to go over it once more and 

 gather up the important matter you have over- 

 looked. I do not write this long sentence as a 

 nonsense saying, but as a sober truth, for I have 

 been taught the very important lesson that we are 

 never sure that " we know it all," as the popular 

 phrase runs. 



I thought I knew the whole history of my home 

 as it has been handed down from father to son 

 since the original grant, but to-day I met an old 

 137 



