h and watched the miracle of the sunset hour. And no word was spoken
by them, now, of life and its problems and its meanings. As one listens
to the song of a bird without thought of musical notes or terms; as one
senses the fragrance of a flower without thought of the chemistry of
perfume; as one feels the presence of spring in the air without thought
of the day of the week, so they were conscious of the beauty, the glory,
and the peace of the evening.

Only when the soft darkness of the night lay over the land, and river
and mountain and starry sky were veiled in dreamy mystery, did Auntie
Sue speak: "Oh, it is so good to have some one to share it with,--some
one who understands. I am very lonely, sometimes, Brian. I wonder if you
know?"

"Yes, Auntie Sue, I know, for I have been lonely, too."

And so the old gentlewoman, whose lifework was so nearly finished, and
the man in the flush of his manhood years, whose life had been so nearly
wrecked, were drawn very close by a something that came to them out of
the beauty and the mystery of that hour.

The next day, Brian told Auntie Sue that he would leave on the morrow.

"Leave?" she echoed in dismay. "Why, Brian, where are you going?"

"I don't exactly know," he returned; "but, of course, I must go
somewhere, out into the world again."

"And why must you 'go somewhere, out into the world again'?" she
demanded.

"To work," he answered, smiling. "If I am to go on, as you say, I must
go where I can find something to do."

"If that isn't just like you--you child!" cried the old teacher. "You
are all alike,--you boys and girls. You all must have something to do;
always, it is 'something to do'."

"Well," he returned, "and must we not have something to do?"

"You will do something, certainly," she answered; "but, before you
can DO anything that is worth doing, you must BE something. Life isn't
DOING;--it is BEING."

"I wonder if that was not the real reason for my wretched failures,"
said Brian, thoughtfully.

"It is the real reason for most of our failures," she returned. "And so
you are not going to fail again. You are not going away somewhere, you
don't know where, to do something you don't know what. You are going to
stay right here, and just BE something. Then, when the time comes, you
will do whatever is yours to do as naturally and as inevitably as the
birds sing, as the blossoms come in the spring, or as the river finds
its way to the sea."

And more t