FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97  
98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   >>   >|  
ly, and it glows for you when you wish to be reflective. After a while, for I did not feel in the least sleepy, I stepped out of the woods to the edge of the pasture. All around me lay the dark and silent earth, and above the blue bowl of the sky, all glorious with the blaze of a million worlds. Sometimes I have been oppressed by this spectacle of utter space, of infinite distance, of forces too great for me to grasp or understand, but that night it came upon me with fresh wonder and power, and with a sense of great humility that I belonged here too, that I was a part of it all--and would not be neglected or forgotten. It seemed to me I never had a moment of greater faith than that. And so, with a sense of satisfaction and peace, I returned to my fire. As I sat there I could hear the curious noises of the woods, the little droppings, cracklings, rustlings which seemed to make all the world alive. I even fancied I could see small bright eyes looking out at my fire, and once or twice I was almost sure I heard voices--whispering--, perhaps the voices of the woods. Occasionally I added, with some amusement, a few dry pages of Montaigne to the fire, and watched the cheerful blaze that followed. "No," said I, "Montaigne is not for the open spaces and the stars. Without a roof over his head Montaigne would--well, die of sneezing." So I sat all night long there by the tree. Occasionally I dropped into a light sleep, and then, as my fire died down, I grew chilly and awakened, to build up the fire and doze again. I saw the first faint gray streaks of dawn above the trees, I saw the pink glow in the east before the sunrise, and I watched the sun himself rise upon a new day-- When I walked out into the meadow by daylight and looked about me curiously, I saw, not forty rods away, the back of a barn. "Be you the fellow that was daown in my cowpasture all night?" asked the sturdy farmer. "I'm that fellow," I said. "Why didn't you come right up to the house?" "Well--" I said, and then paused. "Well..." said I. CHAPTER VIII. THE HEDGE Strange, strange, how small the big world is! "Why didn't you come right into the house?" the sturdy farmer had asked me when I came out of the meadow where I had spent the night under the stars. "Well," I said, turning the question as adroitly as I could, "I'll make it up by going into the house now." So I went with him into his fine, comfortable house. "This
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97  
98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Montaigne

 

sturdy

 

meadow

 
farmer
 
fellow
 

watched

 
Occasionally
 

voices

 

streaks

 

Without


awakened
 

dropped

 

chilly

 

sneezing

 

strange

 
Strange
 

CHAPTER

 

turning

 

comfortable

 
question

adroitly

 
paused
 

walked

 

sunrise

 

daylight

 

looked

 

cowpasture

 
curiously
 

spectacle

 

infinite


oppressed

 

worlds

 

Sometimes

 

distance

 

forces

 

humility

 

belonged

 

understand

 

million

 

glorious


sleepy

 

reflective

 

stepped

 

silent

 

pasture

 

neglected

 
forgotten
 

bright

 

whispering

 

cheerful