> AY 
:■ 
, 
A CHILD OF NATURE 
human making, or listened with the 
inward ear to the faint, far murmur 
of waters in the mountain brooks; 
in summer, when the windows were 
open, he seemed to hear all manner 
of sounds beating against the walls, 
as if Nature were trying to break 
down the barriers and flood the 
place with light and warmth. 
It was a great puzzle to the boy — 
this strange severance of the bare 
little building from the world 
which was so vast and beautiful, 
this unnatural divorce of the things 
he heard from the things he knew 
and felt. One Sunday, while he 
was still a child and this mystery 
perplexed and distressed him, a 
strange hand opened the book and 
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