THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



such as it is, is distinctly a by-path talent, or at 

 most, a talent for green lanes and sequestered road- 

 sides; but that which has most interested me in life, 

 nature, can be seen from lanes and by-paths better 

 even than from the turnpike, where the dust and 

 noise and the fast driving obscure the view or dis- 

 tract the attention. I have loved the feel of the grass 

 under my feet, and the sound of the running streams 

 by my side. The hum of the wind in the tree- tops has 

 always been good music to me, and the face of the 

 fields has often comforted me more than the faces 

 of men. 



I am iu love with this world; by my constitution 

 I have nestled lovingly in it. It has been home. It 

 has been my point of outlook into the universe. 

 I have not bruised myself against it, nor tried to 

 use it ignobly. I have tilled its soil, I have gathered 

 its harvests, I have waited upon its seasons, and 

 always have I reaped what I have sown. While I 

 delved I did not lose sight of the sky overhead. 

 While I gathered its bread and meat for my body, 

 I did not neglect to gather its bread and meat for 

 my soul. I have climbed its mountains, roamed its 

 forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt 

 the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, 

 the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and 

 always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings 

 and comings. 



I have kept apart from the strife and fever of the 



