New Walks in Old Ways 



dates as we were behind our own. 

 There are some things, though, out 

 here that travel with unerring cer- 

 tainty, regardless of the early or the 

 later rains, and so independent of all 

 solar vagaries that you may know 

 through all the centuries just where to 

 find them on a certain hour of any 

 given date. The fixed star changeth 

 not, and I did not need to go out to 

 the front gate beyond the trees, and 

 look toward the zenith the first night 

 of our arrival, to know that the most 

 beautiful sight in all the northern 

 summer sky was exactly where it 

 should be. You may talk Altair, An- 

 tares, Spica and Arcturus all you like 

 I stand by Vega. There are a few 

 people in this world, too, whom I am 

 just as sure about as I am of that steel- 

 blue sparkling diamond in the stellar 

 brooch called Lyra; but only a few 

 only a very few. Thrice blessed are 

 those who have even one they may 

 depend upon with perfect confidence. 

 [10] 



