Music of the Wild 



in the morning. You are going to succeed where 

 you failed yesterday. You are going to advance 

 so far beyond anything already achieved. God 

 is good to give to men a world full of beauty and 

 ringing with music, and scarcely realizing it you 

 resolve to be good as well. So you add your voice, 

 and travel the long road in the morning with a 

 light heart. 



But after all the evening road is better, for it 

 leads back to home and friends, and it is quite true 

 that there is "no place like home." In the red 

 glory of the setting sun there is the promise of 

 light for another day; the peaceful fields appear 

 satisfied with their growth; the birds sing vespers 

 with a depth of harmony altogether devotional; 

 the hermit thrush and the wood robin make your 

 heart ache with the holy purity of their notes. And 

 if the high hopes of the morning did not all come 

 true, the peace of evening brings the consoling 

 thought that perhaps you have grown enough dur- 

 ing the day to accomplish them on the morrow; or 

 perhaps it is best after all that success did not 

 come. Intangible, but springing from everywhere, 

 creeps the dark and the time of mystery; the 

 screech owl and the whip-poor-will raise their quav- 

 ering night songs, and without urging your horse 

 lifts his tired head and breaks into a swifter trot, 

 for night is coming, and he too is on the home 

 road. 



274 



