MINSTREL WEATHER 



useless snake and leopard, dressing their 

 breakfast in paradise plumes, puzzling 

 Victorian poets, and badly scaring the 

 urban manicurist, who returns after her 

 first country vacation with decided views 

 concerning the cheerful humanity of streets 

 compared with lodges in the wilderness. 



Were Nature careworn and personal, 

 where should we turn for consolation or 

 rest? Hers is the tonic gift of a strength 

 that, underlying all life, does not pity or 

 praise. As in the Cave of the Winds the 

 most restless spirit surely might find peace, 

 so in the eternal changefulness of the 

 forest under the touch of forces fierce or 

 serene we find the soul of quiet because 

 the powers at work are beyond our con- 

 trol, control us utterly, hold us in an im- 

 mense and soothing grasp where thought 

 and energy are fused and contend no more. 

 So those who live upon the ocean come 

 to possess that which they will not barter 

 for ease, and so the timber cruiser shortens 

 his visit to town. They would not tell 

 what they gain who relinquish readily the 

 things for which others pour out their 

 years upon the ground that commerce may 



grow. It is because words are not fash- 

 [98] 



