228 In Touch with Nature. 



rail. Commune with a cloud or chat with a way- 

 side weed and you have done better, hour for hour, 

 than laboring under protest. At the end of your 

 term, in the latter case, you have gold as your 

 recompense ; but who, after an hour's wandering 

 afield, happily chancing upon Nature's flower- 

 garden, and strolling through its by-paths, loiter- 

 ing by its lilies, sauntering in its scented sunshine, 

 can return to the work-a-day world empty-handed ? 

 What of that wider vision of the universe, that 

 assurance of right roycil living which is ever at 

 hand ? A finer metal than gold is needed for its 

 purchase. Some joys that we have tasted will 

 return whenever called. Nature's torch grows 

 faster at the base than ever the top turns to ashes. 

 There is a new light for the idler every hour, and 

 a new thought to cheer when the burden is once 

 more to be shouldered. Who dare say that the 

 more we learn of this world the less will we have 

 to learn of the next ? I dare think it. The lilies 

 that float in the still water and the flaming lobelia 

 that surrounds them, — all this is no less a part of 

 the world because beyond the town's limits. 

 There is a homely phrase common to all, — 



