THE SEARCH AND FINDING 



tide was out, showing half a dozen gushing 

 springs which pHed their work jauntily till the 

 ebb came, and then, after coquetting and toy- 

 ing with their lover, the sea— were lost in his 

 embrace, 



Only a fancy ! If there be such a look- 

 out from farm windows, the ships come and 

 go without my knowledge; and the springs 

 gush, and die in the flow of the tide, unknown 

 to me. 



Again, it seemed that answer would come 

 from some remote valley side, away from the 

 great highways of travel, where neither sail 

 nor steamer obtruded on the eye; — where in- 

 deed a sight of the sea only came to one who 

 climbed the tallest of the hills which sheltered 

 the valley. Half down the hills an old farm 

 house, with mossy porch, seemed to rest upon 

 a shelf of the land. A cackling, self-satisfied, 

 eager brood of fowls were in a party-colored 

 cloud about the big barn doors ; a burly mastiff 

 loitered in the sun by the house-steps; mild- 

 eyed cows were feeding beyond the pasture 

 gate; a brook that was half a river, came 

 sweeping down the meadows in full sight — 

 curving and turning upon itself, and fretting 

 over bits of stony bottom, and loitering in 

 deep places under alluvial banks, where I knew 



