IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 101 



of sunshine and peace, and the solitary cottage, 

 from whose doorstep might be seen in one di- 

 rection the noble Mount Washington range, and 

 in another the hardly less noble Franconias. 

 How easy to live simply and well in such a 

 grand seclusion ! But soon there came a 

 thought of Wordsworth's sonnet, addressed to 

 just such a mood, " Yes, there is holy pleasure 

 in thine eye," and I felt at once the truth of his 

 admonition. What if the cottage really were 

 mine, mine to spend a lifetime in ? How 

 quickly the poetry would turn to prose ! 



An hour afterwards, on my way back to the 

 Sinclair House, I passed a group of men at 

 work on the highway. One of them was a lit- 

 tle apart from the rest, and out of a social im- 

 pulse I accosted him with the remark, " I sup- 

 pose, in heaven, the streets never will need 

 mending." Quick as thought came the reply : 

 " Well, I hope not. If I ever get there, I don't 

 want to work on the road" Here spoke uni- 

 versal human nature, which finds its strong 

 argument for immortality in its discontent with 

 matters as they now are. The one thing we 

 are all sure of is that we were born for some- 

 thing better than our present employment ; and 

 even those who school themselves most relig- 

 iously in the virtue of contentment know very 

 well how to define that grace so as not to ex- 



