NOTES FROM THE PRAIRIE 91 



one disguise or another; all one has to do is to 

 stop seeking it afar, or stop seeking it at all, 

 and say to this unwelcome attendant, " Be thou 

 my friend," when, lo, the mask falls, and the 

 angel is disclosed. Certain rare spirits in this 

 world have accepted poverty with such love 

 and pride that riches at once became contempti- 

 ble. 



My correspondent has the gift of observation. 

 In renouncing self she has opened the door for 

 many other things to enter. In cultivating the 

 present moment, she cultivates the present in- 

 cident. The power to see things comes of 

 that mental attitude which is directed to the 

 now and the here : keen, alert perceptions, 

 those faculties that lead the mind and take the 

 incident as it flies. Most people fail to see 

 things because the print is too small for their 

 vision; they read only the large-lettered events 

 like the newspaper headings, and are apt to 

 miss a part of these, unless they see in some 

 way their own initials there. 



The small type of the lives of bird and beast 

 about her is easily read by this cheerful invalid. 

 "To understand that the sky is everywhere 

 blue," says Goethe, "we need not go around 

 the world ; " and it would seem that this 

 woman has got all the good and pleasure there 

 is in natural history from the pets in her room, 

 and the birds that build before her window. I 

 had been for a long time trying to determine 

 whether or not the blue-jay hoarded up nuts 

 for winter use, but had not been able to settle 



