the lilacs from the yard and hear the drumming of the
rain as it fell on the roof of the porch.

"It's easy to explain," I said. "The fact is, it got to the point on my
farm that I wasn't quite sure whether I owned it or it owned me. And I
made up my mind I'd get away for a while from my own horses and cattle
and see what the world was like. I wanted to see how people lived up
here, and what they are thinking about, and how they do their farming."

As I talked of my plans and of the duty one had, as I saw it, to be a
good broad man as well as a good farmer, I grew more and more interested
and enthusiastic. Mr. Stanley took his pipe slowly from his mouth, held
it poised until it finally went out, and sat looking at me with a rapt
expression. I never had a better audience. Finally, Mr. Stanley said
very earnestly:

"And you have felt that way, too?"

"Why, father!" exclaimed Mrs. Stanley, in astonishment.

Mr. Stanley hastily put his pipe back into his mouth and confusedly
searched in his pockets for a match; but I knew I had struck down deep
into a common experience. Here was this brisk and prosperous farmer
having his dreams too--dreams that even his wife did not know!

So I continued my talk with even greater fervour. I don't think that the
boy Ben understood all that I said, for I was dealing with experiences
common mostly to older men, but he somehow seemed to get the spirit of
it, for quite unconsciously he began to hitch his chair toward me, then
he laid his hand on my chair-arm and finally and quite simply he rested
his arm against mine and looked at me with all his eyes. I keep learning
that there is nothing which reaches men's hearts like talking straight
out the convictions and emotions of your innermost soul. Those who hear
you may not agree with you, or they may not understand you fully, but
something incalculable, something vital, passes. And as for a boy or
girl it is one of the sorriest of mistakes to talk down to them; almost
always your lad of fifteen thinks more simply, more fundamentally, than
you do; and what he accepts as good coin is not facts or precepts, but
feelings and convictions--LIFE. And why shouldn't we speak out?

"I long ago decided," I said, "to try to be fully what I am and not to
be anything or anybody else."

"That's right, that's right," exclaimed Mr. Stanley, nodding his head
vigorously.

"It's about the oldest wisdom there is," I said, and with that I thought
of the volu