figures. Within the wood are fairy and elf, goblin and gnome, half
seen in the filmy light. Here giant genie stand revealed, passing
in the dim perspective of mighty distances or leaning portentously
from the radiant sky. In the mirror-like pond I see all these
things repeated in an underworld that is as distinct and clear,
yet strangely distorted. The miles of soft blue distance that
stretch invitingly upward to the withdrawn stars of the zenith,
stretch as soft and blue, but fearsomely deep beneath my feet to
the nadir. Standing at the water's rim I am on the verge of a
vast, deep gulf that no plummet might fathom, into which at
another step I shall begin to fall, and once falling fall forever,
for there is no bottom. It is all very well to say to one's self
that an inch below the mirroring surface lies the good gray sand
which was there by daylight. The midsummer moon is past the full
and things are as they seem.

[Illustration: Rounding the Breakwater at Nantucket within the Call
of the Old Lisbon Bell]

By midnight the white genie of the sky had stalked off beyond the
horizon out of sight. The moon that had been so great among them
with its rim touching the eastern hills that it was like a great
map of itself hung on the margining sky, had concentrated to a
ball of white light near the zenith. Back in the wood I found the
invisible little people out in full force, rustling, flitting and
calling. But the white light had gone and under thick foliage of
deciduous trees the real night had come again, dappled, indeed, by
flecks of filtered moonlight which dazzled and made the shadows
more obscure. In the depths of the pines the veritable darkness of
Egypt smothered all sight. Here the path must be found by the feet
alone, and it is singular what potency of understanding thrills up
from the good brown earth through the boot-soles when it is
needed. Every footpath is a shallow canal through which you flow
as does water if you will but let it lead you. If the foot fall
but a little to the right or left of the wonted spot some slight
inequality of the earth that in the full daylight would never
reach your senses, now sends definite messages to you. By it you
swing with certainty to the right or the left and find the next
footfall near enough within the narrow way to continue the
guidance. No matter how winding the path, it will keep you within
its borders if you will but give up your will to it.

Stepping from this E