her fault--she couldn't never have loved me--not in
the only way I wanted her to. And it ain't my fault--I couldn't help
but love her, an' the' was only one way that I could love her, an' that
was world without end. I'm not sorry I loved her; why, the' ain't
nothin' in life I'd take for this love of mine--and it is mine. The'
ain't nothin' can ever take it away from me, the' ain't nothin' can
ever put a limit to it; an' though it has burned in my heart like fire,
I reckon the worst it has ever done was to burn up the natural-born
evil I started out with. I ain't mean-hearted nor jealous--I can't even
understand it.

I can easy see how a feller would kill a man for ill-treatin' the woman
he loved; but I can't see how he could marry a girl who didn't love him
with all her heart. An' Jim, he's been square. They're happy, an' I
stand afar off watchin' 'em; an' some way when I'm out in the
starlight--when it seems that I ain't lyin' on the earth at all, but
floatin' slow an' easy like an eagle restin' on his wings--I seem to
share in their love, an' I don't seem to grow old.

I don't reckon I ever will grow old, 'cause love is--love is--some way
MY love is like the starlight itself; an' the starlight don't scorch
an' weaken an' pester like the sun; it soothes an' softens an' lifts a
man up where it's calm an' steady and--and pure.

The longer I live the fonder I grow o' the stars. It don't take as much
sleep for me now as it used to, an' I never was dopey; so the' 's
mighty few nights 'at I don't have a little visit with 'em. I know now
'at they keep whirlin' an' circlin' away up there; but they never
deceive a body. You can allus keep track of 'm, an' when the seasons
change an' you can't see 'em for a while, you know 'at they're tendin'
to their duties just the same; an' somehow it kind o' holds a man to
the trail when the trail is gettin' rougher than he thinks he can stand.

I've got a heap o' friends, men an' women of all kinds; an' when they
come to me ragin' an' bitter, I just take 'em out an' show 'em the
stars; tell 'em the ones who are about to go on a long journey, but who
will come back again when they're due, an' not a minute late. The' 's
something about the stars 'at allus seems to take the wickedness out of
a human. I've had 'em come to me--men an' women both--with murder in
their hearts; but after we've visited a while with the stars they
either sigh or sob--but they allus go away clean an' rested.

It