OLD CLOTHES IN THE WOODS. 63 



clear air of the country has perhaps not fallen 

 on them for many a day. The rain drops may 

 not have pattered upon them with freedom since 

 they were unspun wool on the sheep's back in 

 some old pasture like this. How they must de- 

 light in getting back close to the grass and the 

 sod from whence they came. They cling to the 

 brambles. They clutch at the earth. They 

 would remain in the open forever. The ele- 

 ments in them long to be free again, to be re- 

 duced by fire or decay to the primal elements 

 of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen that they may 

 again have a chance to become a part of some 

 living thing, may again feel the thrill of the 

 moving sap or blood of life and that pleasure 

 which is perhaps theirs when a new cell is be- 

 gotten. For cells are living things whose life 

 work in part is to beget other cells like them- 

 selves. Elements make up cells and perchance 

 may have a longing to be again in action, to 

 feel again that affinity for one another which 

 is often shown in the laboratory where they 

 rush together to form new compounds. 



As long as the elements in my old clothes re- 

 main in the woolly fibre they are prisoners. 

 Any longing for a nsw chemical union which 

 they may possess cannot be realized. But set 

 them free or transform them into some more 

 easily separated compound like water or carbon 

 dioxide and they are eager to do and die again 



