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Show DAYSO}'F cimento on a Della Robbia hunt among the hill towns of Italy, and how you came by accident into that deep green valley where there are more nightingales with sweeter voices than anywhere else on earth? Your best trouvaille on that expedition was hidden in those undreamed-of nights of moonlight and music. And it was when you were chasing first editions of Tennyson, was it not, that you discovered your little bead of a marble faun, which you vow is by Donatello, or one of his pupils ? And what was it that you told me about the rare friend you found when you took a couple of days off in an ancient French town, on a .flying journey from Rome to London? Believe me, dear boy, all that we win by effort and intention is sometimes overtopped by a gift that is conferred upon us out of a secret and mysterious generosity. Wordsworth was right: " 'Think you, 'mid all this mighty sum Of things forever speaking, That nothing of itself will come, But we must still he seeking? ' " "You talk,'' said I, "as if you thought it was a man's duty to be happy." . 16 DAYS Ol<'F "I do," he answered firmly, "that is precisely and definitely what I think. It is not his chief duty, nor his only duty, nor his duty all the time. But the normal man is not intended to go through this world without learning what happiness means. If he does so he misses something that he needs to complete his nature and perfect his experience. 'Tis a poor, frail plant that can not endure the wind and the rain and the winter's cold. But is it a good plant that will not respond to the quickening touch of spring and send out its sweet odours in the embracing warmth of the summer night? Suppose that you had made a house for a child, and given him a corner of the gardea ~o l:eep, and set him lessons and tasks, :nd provider: him , ,.jth teachers and masters. Would you !le satisfied woth that child, however di:igen~ and obedient, if you found that he was never happy, never enjoyed a holiday, never said to himself and to you, 'What a good place this is, and how glad I am to live here'?" "Probably not," I answered, "but that is because I should be selfish enough to find a pleasure of my own in his· happiness. I should like to take a day 17 |