The Rambles of an Idler 



ever in motion. As in so much that concerns 

 mankind, there is a happy medium. It can be 

 set down as a rule that the walking man thinks, 

 and as he thinks, so does he walk. This is 

 Nature's law, not man's. The contemplative, 

 the angry and the frightened man are readily 

 distinguished by their walk. 



The fact that the definition of "walking," as 

 set forth in the various dictionaries, has to do 

 with locomotion, does not set aside the far more 

 important fact that we need not walk a great 

 distance to become far-traveled. It all depends 

 on what our interest centers. A wayside pool 

 of insignificant dimensions might keep one stir- 

 ring for a dozen years. Nature deals in riddles 

 as well as in plain print. 



But, is this walking! 



It is breathing the fresh air. It is having 

 moss or grass to tread upon. It is standing 

 more than sitting. It is motion more than rest. 

 It is the best of all the good things Nature 

 offers. You may call it not walking, but, if so, 

 it is a splendid substitute and the happy result 

 is that we gradually cease to be strangers in a 

 strange land; for until we know the world in 

 which we live, we are simply tolerated guests. 



22 



