h she
had never seen more of them than a far blue line, had always pleased
her fancy. Now she seemed to be looking at them through that magical
doorway.... The country was not like anything she remembered in the
Kentucky bluegrass, still less like the shaggy woods of Indiana. The
turf was short and very green, and the hills fell into gracious folds
that promised homesteads in every nook of them. It was a "delectable"
country--yes, that was the meaning of the word that had puzzled her....
She had seen the picture before in her head. She remembered one hot
Sunday afternoon when she was a child hearing a Baptist preacher
discoursing on a Psalm, something about the "little hills rejoicing."
She had liked the words and made a picture in her mind. These were the
little hills and they were joyful.

There was a white road running straight through them till it disappeared
over a crest. That was right, of course. The road which the Pilgrims
travelled.... And there, too, was a Pilgrim.

He was a long way off, but she could see him quite clearly. He was a
boy, older than Abe, but about the same size--a somewhat forlorn figure,
who seemed as if he had a great way to go and was oppressed by the
knowledge of it. He had funny things on his legs and feet, which were
not proper moccasins. Once he looked back, and she had a glimpse of fair
hair. He could not be any of the Hanks or Linkhorn kin, for they
were all dark... . But he had something on his left arm which she
recognised--a thick ring of gold. It was her own ring, the ring she
kept in the trunk and she smiled comfortably. She had wanted it a little
while ago, and now there it was before her eyes. She had no anxiety
about its safety, for somehow it belonged to that little boy as well as
to her.

His figure moved fast and was soon out of sight round a turn of the
hill. And with that the landscape framed in the doorway began to waver
and dislimn. The road was still there, white and purposeful, but
the environs were changing.... She was puzzled, but with a pleasant
confusion. Her mind was not on the landscape, but on the people, for she
was assured that others would soon appear on the enchanted stage.

He ran across the road, shouting with joy, a dog at his heels and a bow
in his hand. Before he disappeared she marked the ring, this time on his
finger.... He had scarcely gone ere another appeared on the road, a slim
pale child, dressed in some stuff that gleamed like satin, and mo