42 Musings by Carnp-Fire and Wayside 



have. But then one can always get a drink of per- 

 fectly pure cold water at a tamarack root — and 

 usually he needs it. And thus it is with the gehen- 

 nas of society, whether in this world or life, or in 

 any other. 



We estimate the sky by what it covers, and the 

 land by what it contains, because man creates for 

 himself both the earth and the sky, and the invisible 

 heavens also. The world, its scenery, skies, and 

 people, is but the material out of which each indi- 

 vidual constructs a world for himself, which he 

 enjoys if it be enjoyable, or which gives him only 

 misery if it be miserable. We are each of us indi- 

 vidual color-screens, and our characters are known 

 by what we absorb or eliminate, and by what we 

 receive and reflect. Where hateful people are, 

 there everything is hateful. The sky above them 

 repels us, the landscape in which they dwell has no 

 beauty. We call it a God-forsaken place — the 

 devil's country. The very memory of it is repug- 

 nant to us. We desire to get away from it and to 

 forget it. One mean man will contaminate a whole 

 village by his presence, and one powerful rascal 

 curse a state and smirch its fair fame. Nature 

 possesses all the qualities, in the highest perfection, 

 which make people charming. She is herself the 

 ideal of perfect culture. But she has a gentle dig- 

 nity and a kindly but positive reserve. She with- 

 draws herself from the view of the coarse, the cruel. 



