were it not that through
his perturbation there bubbled a stream of such amazing well-being as he
had not felt since childhood. Years had toppled from his shoulders. He
left one pound of solid matter behind at every stride. His very skin
grew flexuous, and he found a pleasure in taking long steps such as he
could not have accounted for by thought. Indeed, thought was the one
thing he felt unequal to, and it was not precisely that he could not
think but that he did not want to. All the importance and authority
of his mind seemed to have faded away, and the activity which had
once belonged to that organ was now transferred to his eyes. He saw,
amazedly, the sunshine bathing the hills and the valleys. A bird in
the hedge held him--beak, head, eyes, legs, and the wings that tapered
widely at angles to the wind. For the first time in his life he really
saw a bird, and one minute after it had flown away he could have
reproduced its strident note. With every step along the curving road
the landscape was changing. He saw and noted it almost in an ecstasy. A
sharp hill jutted out into the road, it dissolved into a sloping meadow,
rolled down into a valley and then climbed easily and peacefully into
a hill again. On this side a clump of trees nodded together in the
friendliest fashion. Yonder a solitary tree, well-grown and clean, was
contented with its own bright company. A bush crouched tightly on the
ground as though, at a word, it would scamper from its place and chase
rabbits across the sward with shouts and laughter. Great spaces of
sunshine were everywhere, and everywhere there were deep wells of
shadow; and the one did not seem more beautiful than the other. That
sunshine! Oh, the glory of it, the goodness and bravery of it, how
broadly and grandly it shone, without stint, without care; he saw its
measureless generosity and gloried in it as though himself had been the
flinger of that largesse. And was he not? Did the sunlight not stream
from his head and life from his finger-tips? Surely the well-being that
was in him did bubble out to an activity beyond the universe. Thought!
Oh! the petty thing! but motion! emotion! these were the realities. To
feel, to do, to stride forward in elation chanting a paean of triumphant
life!

After a time he felt hungry, and thrusting his hand into his wallet he
broke off a piece of one of his cakes and looked about for a place where
he might happily eat it. By the side of the road there