A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



and went with us into the far-off spaces to round 

 our orbits and bring us back at some time ? 

 What did we then know of the deposits of light, 

 layer upon layer, that in the alchemy of serene 

 love was to turn our carbon into chlorophyl, and 

 make a golden age for us in the bottom of our 

 souls ? 



When I went off to the woods with my one 

 eight-year-old scion, I had something like fifty 

 thousand exigent things on my mind that enlisted 

 my interest and demanded concentration of 

 thought. It isn t necessary to make a list of 

 them. Refer to your own schedule. I was 

 really lopsided with events and sore with the 

 world s goings on. I used to get up in the morn 

 ing, heave a sigh, and take up the universal load. I 

 had to sympathize with the Armenians. I had 

 to denounce a Tory Government. I had to form 

 a theory of the latest murder mystery. I had to 

 keep my eye on the Berlin market. London 

 and Paris were tapping at my window before I 

 had taken my coffee. I had to circumvent 

 Tracy, and outbid Jackson, and balk Williams. 

 I had to make more money than I needed, 

 because there were several fellows who had more 

 than I had. I had to keep abreast of Wagner 

 and the latest novel, or I couldn t hold my own 

 with the ladies in the evening. I had some inter 

 ests in a mine and some in a railroad. They were 

 not fixed. Nothing was fixed. Uncertainty 

 about things in general was a devouring stimu 

 lant. I was getting to be permanently anxious 



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