XXII 
GATHERING CHRISTMAS MISTLETOE 
Locus: Oklahoma. 
Tempus: Day before Christmas. 
Dramatis Persona: The Author hereof. 
NY day when a lover of outdoor things 
A finds a new outdoor thing is a holiday 
to the soul, and if it were reverently 
called a Holy Day there would be no flippancy 
of speech or spirit. I could make a rosary of 
such golden days, the beads whereof should be 
more than dandelions on an April field. The 
mere mention of such things makes me wistful 
as a November wind, full of the floating of fallen 
leaves. 
To hear some new melody sweet nature has 
composed is worth wandering across a hundred 
summers to listen to, and then it is recalled that 
there is no need for so long a wandering and 
waiting for its bubbling up like a bubbling song. 
I who never grow blasé in nature things need no 
inviting to take me out into the country where 
a witless stream wanders witlessly and heedlessly 
as having no need for haste or any thought of 
destination and where in the wide bend, a field 
of ripened corn unhusked blazed in the naked 
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