Company and Solitude 103 



edge his alone, it may be that he is will- 

 ing to impart, how is he to know that I will 

 value it ? It may be that I am wrong, that 

 such a course, if general, would check the 

 world's progress ; but I am not convinced. 

 Who, indeed, are those that have furthered 

 progress so far, the chattering gad-about, 

 the caller, our " company," or those who 

 value their time and are not willing to sit 

 idly by and be talked at by anybody and 

 everybody who happens to call ? 



An honest meeting of man with man is 

 usually an accidental one. Often, seeing 

 them approach, for the lane is long and 

 straight, I have hastened to the hill-side, to 

 be rid of the obnoxious callers. Here, if in 

 summer, I let the songs of thrushes entertain 

 me, or, in winter, listen to the titmouse, that 

 is always cheerful, or watch the long lines 

 of roostward-flying crows. I have never yet 

 wearied of this, or found such conditions to 

 lose their suggestiveness. When to-day's 

 company had gone and madam's lefture was 

 ended, I hurried to the farm's most unfre- 

 quented corner and rested at the mossy stile, 

 over which so few pass these later years, for 

 the once well-worn foot-path is now torn 



