WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



done ; an' then he writ it and read it to us. He'd 

 said in it all as we wanted to say, an' more as 

 we could 'a said like. An' then he 'rected it to 

 Tom so plain why, bless ye, I could see where 

 'twas goin' myself, an' I'm but a poor schollard." 

 Trifles are very large factors in making people 

 happy. No matter what they might tell me, I 

 never smiled at them ; indeed it is not in my 

 nature to smile much, I fear. And they, like 

 myself, were terribly in earnest about the matters 

 of daily life. For do not fresh problems present 

 themselves almost hourly the why and the where- 

 fore of those things that are continually taking 

 place around us ? When the mists covered the 

 hills and formed themselves into strange masses, 

 as the currents of air played on them, it was small 

 wonder if they likened one of the weird shapes 

 to some figure vividly described in a passage they 

 had recently pondered over. So closely were some 

 of them in touch with nature, that they might 

 have been called spiritualists of the woodlands. 

 The wild creatures to them were all definite 

 powers for good or evil in their direct relation- 

 ship to man ; and in nearly all cases that I was 



