CHAPTER III. 



ALONG THE ROAD. 



SINCE I turned the key on my study I have 

 almost forgotten the familiar titles on which my 

 eye rested whenever I took a survey of my book 

 shelves. Those friends stanch and true, with whom 

 I have held such royal fellowship when skies were 

 chill and winds were cold, will not forget me, nor 

 shall I become unfaithful to them. I have gone 

 abroad that I may return later with renewed zest and 

 deeper insight to my old companionships. Books 

 and nature are never inimical ; they mutually speak 

 for and interpret each other ; and only he who 

 stands where their double light falls sees things in 

 true perspective and in right relations. 



The road along whose winding course I have 

 been making a delightful pilgrimage to-day has 

 the double charm of natural beauty and of hu 

 man association ; it is old, as age is reckoned in 

 this new world ; it has grown hard under the 

 tread of sleeping generations, and the great 

 figures of history have passed over it in their jour 

 neys between the two great cities which mark its 



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