g, struggling, failing,
sinning, repenting--all working and living according to a vast harmony,
which sometimes we can catch clearly and sometimes miss entirely. I
think, that morning, for a time, I heard the true music of the spheres,
the stars singing together.

Mr. Vedder took me to a quiet restaurant where we had a snug alcove all
to ourselves. I shall remember it always as one of the truly pleasant
experiences of my pilgrimage.

I could see that my friend was sorely troubled, that the strike rested
heavy upon him, and so I led the conversation to the hills and the
roads and the fields we both love so much. I plied him with a thousand
questions about his garden. I told him in the liveliest way of my
adventures after leaving his home, how I had telephoned him from the
hills, how I had taken a swim in the mill-pond, and especially how I had
lost myself in the old cowpasture, with an account of all my absurd and
laughable adventures and emotions.

Well, before we had finished our luncheon I had every line ironed from
the brow of that poor plagued rich man, I had brought jolly crinkles to
the corners of his eyes, and once or twice I had him chuckling down deep
inside (Where chuckles are truly effective). Talk about cheering up the
poor: I think the rich are usually far more in need of it!

But I couldn't keep the conversation in these delightful channels.
Evidently the strike and all that it meant lay heavy upon Mr. Vedder's
consciousness, for he pushed back his coffee and began talking about it,
almost in a tone of apology. He told me how kind he had tried to make
the mill management in its dealings with its men.

"I would not speak of it save in explanation of our true attitude of
helpfulness; but we have really given our men many advantages"--and he
told me of the reading-room the company had established, of the visiting
nurse they had employed, and of several other excellent enterprises,
which gave only another proof of what I knew already of Mr. Vedder's
sincere kindness of heart.

"But," he said, "we find they don't appreciate what we try to do for
them."

I laughed outright.

"Why," I exclaimed, "you are having the same trouble I have had!"

"How's that?" he inquired, I thought a little sharply. Men don't like to
have their seriousness trifled with.

"No longer ago than this morning," I said, "I had exactly that idea of
giving them advantages; but I found that the difficulty lies not with
the ability