36 ALONG THE WATERWAYS 



that he has given such careful directions for pre- 

 paring, the cheerful, spiritual philosophy that fitted 

 him for the friendship of Donne, and enabled him 

 to interpret the life of Herbert ? 



No, it was the voice that taught him. 



Each year when Spring has made her entry, the 

 errant streams, retreating to the established water- 

 ways, resume the discourse that frost ended by 

 a finger -touch. These waterways are the most 

 potent social influences of wild nature, and not to 

 know them is but half to learn the Magician's 

 alphabet. 



A riverless land is a treeless, birdless country 

 where homesickness flourishes; a motiveless waste, 

 where the wind whirls the sand until there are no 

 paths and no boundaries. Do you realize that, 

 while boundless liberty is the great desire of the 

 mind, the feet unconsciously seek for trodden 

 paths? The waterways were the first paths cut by 

 the Magician through primeval rock, and he still 

 loves to linger about them. Be it April or arid 

 August, go out into the near-by waterways; watch, 

 listen, and follow. 



From the waterways, seen or invisible, are the 

 colors irradiated that paint the landscape, and it 



