BILLY AND HANS 



me to enter in and make part of the 

 creation I had ignored till he taught 

 it to me, so that while life lasts I can 

 no longer idly inflict pain upon the 

 least of God's creatures. If it be 

 true that '* to win the secret of a plain 

 weed's heart " gives the winner a 

 clue to the hidden things of the 

 spiritual life, how much more the 

 conscient and reciprocal love which 

 Billy and I bore — and I could gladly 

 say still bear — each other, must 

 widen the sphere of spiritual sympa- 

 thy which, widening still, reaches at 

 last the eternal source of all life and 

 love, and finds indeed that one touch 

 of nature makes all things kin. To 

 me this fine contact with a subtle 

 mute nature, and the intense sympa- 

 thy between us, was the touching of 

 a hitherto hidden vein of life which 

 runs through the universe — it was as 



