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Show FISHERMAN'S LUCK to hear the bark of a raccoon, or see the eyes of a wildcat gleaming through the leaves. For more than an hour I was pushing my way through this miniature wilderness of half a mile; and then I emerged suddenly, to find myself face to face with-a railroad embankment and the afternoon express, with its parlour-cars, thundering down to Southampton! It was a strange and startling contrast. The explorer's joy, the sense of adventure, the feeling of wildness and freedom, withered and crumpled somewhat preposterously at the sight of the parlour-cars. My scratched hands and wet boots and torn coat seemed unkempt and disreputable. Perhaps some of the well-dressed people looking out at the windows of the train were the friends with whom we were to dine on Saturday. Bateche! What would they say to such a costume as mine? What did I care what they said! But, all the same, it was a shock, a disenchantment, to find that civilization, with all its absurdities and conventionalities, was so threateningly close to my new-found wilderness. My first enthu- ~~0 A LAZY, IDLE BROOK siasm was not a little chilled as I walked back, along an open woodland path, to the bridge where Graygown was placidly reading. Reading, I say, though her book was closed, and her brown eyes were wandering over the green leaves of the thicket, and the white clouds drifting, drifting lazily across the blue deep of the sky. II A BETTER ACQUAINTANCE On the voyage home, she gently talked me out of my disappointment, and into a wiser frame of mind. It was a surprise, of course, she admitted, to ~nd that our wilderness was so little, and to discover the trail of a parlour-car on the edge of Paradise. But why not turn the surprise around, and make it pleasant instead of disagreeable? Why not look at the contrast from the side that we liked best? It was not necessary that everybody should take the same view of life that pleased us. The world would not get on very well without people who preferred parlour-cars to canoes, and patent-leather ~21 |
