A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



One Sunday morning Griselle had insisted on 

 taking Charlie to church. She had come over in 

 extra muslins, looking very crisp and blossomy. 

 Together we had polished up the boy, and then 

 they had gone away hand in hand, very happy, 

 without even looking back or giving me a thought. 

 Charlie s last instruction to me was, &quot; Don t for 

 get to give that apple on the table to Marmion 

 when he comes in, and give him the other one 

 when he comes back.&quot; This led to the explana 

 tion from Charlie that the animal always carried 

 the first apple away, and ate the second one con 

 tentedly on the lawn, because he had young ones 

 somewhere. I rolled the two apples out on the 

 wire grass, took my stick, went off for a solitary 

 walk, and, coming to an inviting cloister on the 

 edge of the wood, I sat down under a cedar 

 canopy to take some deep breaths of Sunday 

 solitude and to ask myself what inscrutable bar 

 there was to my going to church with Griselle. 

 The tinkling bell of the distant chapel added a 

 faint melancholy rhythm to the air as it mingled 

 with the low inarticulate psalm that went up from 

 the earth, &quot; making a cathedral of immensity for 

 the everlasting worship without words.&quot; Every 

 thing was at rest and breathing a Te Deum. 



Suddenly there broke in upon it all the dis 

 cordant sound of men s voices, harsh and jarring, 

 accompanied by eager dog barks that blend 

 of screams and yaps that indicates intense animal 

 excitement, and I started off to find out what was 

 the matter. It was not long before I came up 



44 



