e after
mile, in ever fresher loveliness to ever unsated eyes. Well might the
morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God shout for joy,
when first this grand and perfect world swung free from its moorings,
flung out its spotless banner, and sailed majestic down the thronging
skies. Yet, though but once God spoke the world to life, the miracle
of creation is still incomplete. New every spring-time, fresh every
summer, the earth comes forth as a bride adorned for her husband. Not
only in the dawn of our history, but now in the full brightness of its
noonday, may we hear the voice of the Lord walking in the garden. I
look out upon the gray degraded fields left naked of the snow, and
inwardly ask, Can these dry bones live again? And while the question
is yet trembling on my lips, lo! a Spirit breathes upon the earth, and
beauty thrills into bloom. Who shall lack faith in man's redemption,
when every year the earth is redeemed by unseen hands, and death is
lost in resurrection?

To Fontdale sitting among her beautiful meadows we are borne swiftly
on. There we must tarry for the night, for I will not travel in the
dark when I can help it. I love it. There is no solitude in the
world, or at least I have never felt any, like standing alone in the
doorway of the rear car on a dark night, and rushing on through the
darkness,--darkness, darkness everywhere, and if one could be sure of
rushing on till daylight doth appear! But with the frightful and not
remote possibility of bringing up in a crash and being buried under a
general huddle, one prefers daylight. You may not be able to get out
of the huddle even by daylight; but you will at least know where you
are, if there is anything of you left. So at Fontdale, Halicarnassus
branches off temporarily on a business errand, and I stop for the night
a-cousining.

You object to this? Some people do. For my part, I like it. You say
you will not turn your own house or your friend's house into a hotel.
If people wish to see you, let them come and make a visit; if you wish
to see them, you will go and make them one; but this touch and
go,--what is it worth? O foolish Galatians! much every way. For don't
you see, supposing the people are people you don't like, how much
better it is to have them come and sleep or dine and be gone than to
have them before your face and eyes for a week? An ill that is
temporary is tolerable. You could entertain the Evil One himself