II 



SPRINGS 



" I '11 show thee the best springs." TEMPEST. 



A MAN who came back to the place of his birth 



in the East, after an absence of a quarter of 

 a century in the West, said the one thing he most 

 desired to see about the old homestead was the 

 spring. This, at least, he would find unchanged. 

 Here his lost youth would come back to him. The 

 faces of his father and mother he might not look 

 upon ; but the face of the spring, that had mirrored 

 theirs and his own so oft, he fondly imagined would 

 beam on him as of old. I can well believe that, in 

 that all but springless country in which he had cast 

 his lot, the vision, the remembrance, of the fountain 

 that flowed by his father's doorway, so prodigal of 

 its precious gifts, had awakened in him the keenest 

 longings and regrets. 



Did he not remember the path, also ? for next 

 to the spring itself is the path that leads to it. In- 

 deed, of all foot-paths, the spring-path is the most 

 suggestive. 



This is a path with something at the end of it, 

 and the best of good fortune awaits him who walks 

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