152 VIRGINIA 



something nor nothing gives me any plea- 

 sure." He begins bravely, although the 

 trivial word "amusing" wakens a distrust 

 of his sincerity ; but what a pitiful conclu- 

 sion ! How quickly the boom collapses I It 

 is to be said for him, however, that he was 

 only twenty years old at the time, and a 

 relish for sentiment and reverie — that is to 

 say, for the pleasures of idleness — is apt 

 to be little developed at that immature age. 

 I had passed that point by some years ; I 

 was sure I could enjoy a week of dream- 

 ing ; and, unlike Bewick's wren, I took to 

 the woods. 



To that end I returned again and again 

 to the brookside path, on which I had so 

 fortunately stumbled. A man on my errand 

 could have asked nothing better, unless, 

 perchance, there had been a mile or two 

 more of it. Following it past two or three 

 tumble-down cabins, the stroller was at once 

 out of the world ; a single bend in the 

 course of the brook, and the hills closed in 

 behind him, and the town might have been 

 a thousand miles away. Life itself is such 

 a path as this, I reflected. The forest shuts 

 behind us, and is open only at our feet, with 



