streams that restore a lost world of beauty 

 in our souls. We have come back to 

 Nature, and she has not denied us, in spite 

 of our disloyalty. 



I know of nothing more full of deep 

 delight than this return of the old compan- 

 ionship, this restoration of the old intimacy. 

 How much there is to recall, how many 

 confidences there are to be exchanged ! 

 The days are not long enough for all we 

 would say and hear. Such hours come in 

 the pine woods ; hours so full of the strange 

 silence of the place, so unbroken by custom- 

 ary habits and thoughts, that no dial could 

 divide into fragments a day that was one 

 long unbroken spell of wonder and delight. 

 So remote seemed all human life that even 

 memory turned from it and lost herself in 

 silent meditation ; so vast and mysterious 

 was the life of Nature that the past and 

 the future seemed part of the changeless pres- 

 ent. The light fell soft and dim through 

 the thickly woven branches and among the 

 densely clustered trunks ; underneath, the 

 deep masses of pine needles and the rich 

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