fronted with the mystery of death, alone in the
shapeless gloom; the very cries and stirrings and joyful dreams of
Nature bringing no help, but only deepening the shadow.

And there came too the thought of how little such easy speculations as
we had indulged in on the grassy mound, thoughts which seemed so
radiant with beauty and mystery, how little they could sustain or
comfort the sad spirit which had entered into the cloud.

So that bright first day of spring shaped itself for me into a day when
not only the innocent and beautiful flowers of the world rose into life
and sunshine; but a day when sadder thoughts raised their head too, red
flowers of suffering, and pale blooms of sadness; and yet these too can
be woven into the spirit's coronal, I doubt not, if one can but find
heart to do it, and patience for the sorrowful task.

IX

The Hare

I have just read a story that has moved me strangely, with a helpless
bewilderment and a sad anger of mind. When the doors of a factory, in
the heart of a northern town, were opened one morning, a workman, going
to move a barrel that stood in a corner, saw something crouching behind
it that he believed to be a dog or cat. He pushed it with his foot,
and a large hare sprang out. I suppose that the poor creature had been
probably startled by some dog the evening before, in a field close to
the town, had fled in the twilight along the streets, frightened and
bewildered, and had slipped into the first place of refuge it had
found; had perhaps explored its prison in vain, when the doors were
shut, with many dreary perambulations, and had then sunk into an uneasy
sleep, with frequent timid awakenings, in the terrifying unfamiliar
place.

The man who had disturbed it shouted aloud to the other workmen who
were entering; the doors were shut, and the hare was chased by an eager
and excited throng from corner to corner; it fled behind some planks;
the planks were taken up; it made, in its agony of fear, a great leap
over the men who were bending down to catch it; it rushed into a corner
behind some tanks, from which it was dislodged with a stick. For half
an hour the chase continued, until at last it was headed into a
work-room, where it relinquished hope; it crouched panting, with its
long ears laid back, its pretty brown eyes wide open, as though
wondering desperately what it had done to deserve such usage; until it
was despatched with a shower of blows, and the limp, bl