NOTES FROM THE PKAIKIE 89 



something of the breath of the fields and woods, 

 and who in return has given me many glimpses 

 of nature through eyes purified by suffering. 



Women are about the best lovers of nature, 

 after all; at least of nature in her milder and 

 more familiar forms. The feminine character, 

 the feminine perceptions, intuitions, delicacy, 

 sympathy, quickness, etc., are more responsive 

 to natural forms and influences than is the mas- 

 culine mind. 



My Western correspondent sees existence as 

 from an altitude, and sees where the comple- 

 ments and compensations come in. She lives 

 upon the prairie, and she says it is as the ocean 

 to her, upon which she is adrift, and always 

 expects to be, until she reaches the other shore. 

 Her house is the ship which she never leaves. 

 "What is visible from my window is the sea, 

 changing only from winter to summer as the 

 sea changes from storm to sunshine. But there 

 is one advantage, — messages can come to me 

 continually from all the wide world." 



One summer she wrote she had been hoping 

 to be well enough to renew her acquaintance 

 with the birds, the flowers, the woods, but 

 instead was confined to her room more closely 

 than ever. 



"It is a disappointment to me, but I decided 

 long ago that the wisest plan is to make the 

 best of things; to take what is given you, and 

 make the most of it. To gather up the frag- 

 ments that nothing may be lost, api)lies to 

 one's life as well as to other i/hiiigs. Though 



