A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



&quot;But he didn t send me over. I thought your 

 letter might be important. Is it ? &quot; 



Here the twinkle spread all over her eye. 



&quot;Yes very important, quite urgent, Miss 

 Hotchkiss,&quot; I said, &quot; I will go over immediately 

 and see your uncle. Are you going back that 



3 



way r 



All she said was, &quot; Oh, dear, is it as important 

 as that ? &quot; 



But her eye discoursed, and as I walked over 

 to the window, she added : &quot; Perhaps you will not 

 feel like giving thanks. Some people don t.&quot; 



&quot; The only way to determine that,&quot; I said, &quot; is 

 to go over at once.&quot; 



It was one of those clear, crisp November 

 mornings that make all the sluggish corpuscles 

 leap. I could feel the pressure of the blood in 

 my finger-tips. Such a morning is both a sur 

 prise and a suspense. It is like those circum 

 stances in life which come with a flashing sharpness 

 of peril, and touch all the senses with a new appre 

 hension. We see clearly for a moment through 

 awakening crises. There was an insistent and 

 uncertain west wind blowing. My nerves shrank 

 a little at first, as if there were peril in it. But it 

 blew all that out of me, and I presently felt that 

 this preluding of the cold was another revel. 

 The blasts came like Gargantuan gusts of laugh 

 ter, and made Griselle hold her hat on with both 

 hands, and it wrapped her frock about her with a 

 satyr s rudeness and a sculptor s skill. But she 

 only laughed, as if heaven were romping with 



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