A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



flowers to Charlie. That affectation has died a 

 natural death. 



It is not possible for the mature man to obtain 

 this kind of vision without having some doubts 

 about it There were times when I told myself 

 that I had weakly given way to hallucination ; that 

 my ideal was the one-eyed person in the land of 

 the blind ; that my fancies, being starved, were 

 creating phantoms. Very interesting it was to 

 observe with what conclusive evidence I took my 

 own part against myself, and fell back on my 

 clear vision. Hallucinations be confounded. Did 

 I know comeliness when I saw it, or didn t I ? 

 Did I have to send to the city for an elite direc 

 tory ? Was I such a dolt that purity, innocence, 

 grace, and loveliness had to be stamped and au 

 thenticated before I could accept them ? What 

 was I up in the woods for if not for Nature ? A 

 nice poltroon I would be to turn up my nose at 

 her best offerings. 



The shortest way out of this was to take Gris- 

 elle into my confidence. When Gabe came over 

 and laid the carnations on the table, I asked how 

 the young lady s health was. This was very much 

 like asking how Venus liked the water. But Gabe 

 only grunted out, &quot; Oh, the gal s in pretty good 

 shape. She s out somewhere looking for Christ 

 mas greens,&quot; and he trundled out to fix up our 

 woodpile. 



&quot;Comrade,&quot; I said to Charlie, &quot;did you hear 

 that ? Griselle is looking for Christmas greens. 

 What are we thinking about ? &quot; 



274 



