in MAY-DAY ON THE EXE 59 



he can see, but to-day he can afford the 

 consolations of philosophy. 



His May-Day has brought him the two 

 great blessings of mankind, health and 

 happiness, and a third, which partakes of 

 the nature of both, the blissful consciousness 

 that, no matter how large a dinner he eats 

 (and he means to eat as large a dinner as he 

 can), he deserves it and will not regret it. 

 The old Greek poet has warned us to call 

 no man happy until he is dead ; but as we 

 watch this man walking gently back to the 

 village with the shadows lengthening from 

 the great hills on either side, his face as con- 

 tented as a man's can be, we feel that the 

 poet was wrong, and that here is one at least 

 to whom a long May-Day has been pure 

 gold without alloy. 



