A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



his world had gone to pieces. He fell into an 

 apathy of discouragement, and presently they 

 laid him in the grave beside his wife. 



I stood one day with Griselle at that little plot, 

 and with great difficulty pushed away the wild 

 blackberry vines to find the almost obliterated 

 grave of that mother. Eternity is very jealous 

 of the honours done to its favourites. Take good 

 care of your warriors and champions, it seems to 

 say I will take care of mine in silence. 



But, as I looked at the handsome maid, with 

 her elbow on the old hand-rail, and the western 

 sun glorifying her bronze hair as she leaned pen 

 sively on her hand, I could not help saying to 

 myself how absurd it is to speak of the perish 

 ing influences of a mother when they live and 

 speak so vitally in the third generation. I was 

 quite sure that the grandmother was looking at 

 me out of those clear eyes with a waiting com 

 posure. Some kind of patience and nobility, I 

 thought, biding their time. 



How ridiculous was the Doctor s theory that a 

 woman hugs and conceals her secrets, even from 

 herself, now that I was in the presence of a 

 woman who had no secrets. Something in the 

 old porch, perhaps, that transmuted the Hotch- 

 kiss pedigree into a fairy tale. I have told you 

 that it was often impossible there to tell where 

 the flower ended and the wings began. 



If that girl made me feel that I was a good 

 deal of a void myself, can you blame me ? Man 

 is sent into this world unfinished. Nature seems 



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