HOPE AND TOIL. 193 



cording to the number of traps I had out; some 

 better than others because the traps were set in 

 better places. In the morning I would go forth 

 with high hopes which were not fully blasted 

 till the last trap was in sight. We hope every 

 minute to get a strike and catch a four-pound 

 bass, to get a glimpse of a deer or a fox squirrel 

 through an opening in the wood, to find a rich 

 lead or a big pocket of gold, to devise some 

 patent or happen onto something which will 

 ' ' make our fortune. ' ' Too many, far too many, 

 of us go through life hoping ever and doing not. 

 The two should always be combined because 

 only by doing can our hopes be realized doing 

 the little things at hand, the duties faithfully 

 which to-day seem onerous. He who hopes and 

 toils not spends his days "in letting buckets 

 into empty wells and growing old in drawing 

 nothing up,' ? but he who hopes and meanwhile 

 toils doth ever bring a bucket brimful to the 

 tcp, a bucket of content, of daily happiness ; for 



"Joy's soul lies in the doing, 

 And the rapture of pursuing 

 Is the prize." 



Tuesday, July 11. Up at 4:45. The morn- 

 ing clear and crisp and cool, the blue-grass lush 

 with moisture from the rain of yesterday. Down 

 to the three poles set close to camp I go, down 

 with expectation in my soul. From the high 



13 B28 



