spicuous--the two clear points being
that They do everything in a whisper, and that Clytie ought to get rid of
Penny at once, since he could not be depended upon at great moments.

As to ever sleeping under a tree, Clytie discouraged him. She knew of
some Boys that once sat under a tree which was struck by lightning, all
being Killed save one, who had the rare good luck to be the son of a
Presbyterian clergyman. The little boy resolved next time to go beyond
the trees to sleep; perhaps if he went far enough he would come to the
other one of the Feet, and so have a safeguard against lightning, foreign
cows, and Those that walk with rustlings and whisper in the lonely places
at night.

The little boy fell asleep, half-persuaded again to virtue, because of its
superior comforts. The air about his head seemed full of ghostly "good
business hands," each with its accusing forefinger pointed at him for that
he had not learned to write one as Ralph Overton did.

Down the hall in his study the old man was musing backward to the
delicate, quiet girl with the old-fashioned aureole of curls, who would
now and then toss them with a little gesture eloquent of possibilities
for unrestraint when she felt the close-drawn rein of his authority. Again
he felt her rebellious little tugs, and the wrench of her final defiance
when she did the awful thing. He had been told by a plain speaker that her
revolt was the fault of his severity. And here was the flesh of her
flesh--was it in the same spirit of revolt against authority, a
thousandfold magnified? Might he not by according the boy a wise liberty
save him in after years from some mad folly akin to his mother's?

CHAPTER VI

THE GARDEN OF TRUTH AND THE PERFECT FATHER

It was a different summer from those that had gone before it.

A little passionate Protestant had sallied out to make bed with the gods;
and the souls of such the just gods do truly take into certain shining
realms whither poor involatile bodies of flesh may not follow. The
requirement is that one feel his own potential godship enough to rebel.
For, having rebelled, he will assuredly venture beyond mortal domains into
that garden where stands the tree of Truth--this garden being that one to
the west just beyond the second fence (or whichever fence); that point
where the mortal of invertebrate soul is beset with the feeling that he
has already dared too far--that he had better make for home mighty quick
if he d