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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..065bf9c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #56101 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56101) diff --git a/old/56101-8.txt b/old/56101-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 96fbc87..0000000 --- a/old/56101-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5209 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sweet Rocket, by Mary Johnston - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Sweet Rocket - -Author: Mary Johnston - -Release Date: December 1, 2017 [EBook #56101] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET ROCKET *** - - - - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - -SWEET ROCKET - - - - -BOOKS BY -MARY JOHNSTON - -SWEET ROCKET -MICHAEL FORTH -FOES -SIR MORTIMER - -HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK - -ESTABLISHED 1817 - - - - -SWEET ROCKET - -_by_ -MARY JOHNSTON - -AUTHOR OF -"SIR MORTIMER" "MICHAEL FORTH" -"TO HAVE AND TO HOLD" "FOES" ETC. - -[Illustration: Logo] - -Harper & Brothers Publishers -New York and London - - -SWEET ROCKET - -Copyright, 1920, by Mary Johnston -Printed in the United States of America -Published October, 1920 - - - - -SWEET ROCKET - - - - -I - - -The woman driving turned the phaeton from the highway into a narrow -road. Almost immediately the forest through which they had been passing -for a mile or more deepened. It was now a rich woodland, little cut, -seldom touched by fire. Apparently the road knew little use. Narrow and -in part grass-grown, soft from yesterday's rain, dimmed by many trees, -now it bent and now it ran straight, a dun streak, cut always in front -by that ancient, exquisite screen of bough and leaf. The highway dropped -out of sight and mind. The woman to whom this countryside was new, -sitting beside the woman driving, drew a breath of pleasure. "Oh, smell -it! It goes over you like balm!" - -"It washes the travel stains away. Take off your hat." - -The other obeyed, turning and placing it upon the back seat beside a -large and a small traveling bag. She drew off her gloves, too, then, -straightening herself, sighed again with happiness. "How deep it goes -... and quiet! It's thousands of miles away!" - -"Hundreds of thousands, and right at hand!" - -Leaves were beginning to turn. Maples had lighted fires, hickories were -making gold, dogwood and sumac dyeing with crimson. Ironweed, yet -blooming, blotched the roadside with purple. Joe-pye lifted heads of -ashy pink, goldenrod started forth, in places farewell-summer made a low -mist of lilac. The road dipped into a dell. The gray horse, the phaeton, -crossed a brown streamlet, sliding, murmuring. Mint filled the air. The -road lifted and ran on again into mystery. Blackbirds flew across, a -woodpecker tapped and tapped, a squirrel ran up an oak. But for all of -faint, stealthy rustle, perpetual low sound and small movements without -end, deep, deep, deep rest was the note. Rest and solitude. - -The old, strong, gray horse was named Daniel. This was his road since he -was a colt. Sometimes he might find upon it Whitefoot and Bess, the farm -horses, drawing the farm wagon, but oftenest it was solitary like -this--his road--Sweet Rocket road. The phaeton moving its wheels rolled -it, droned it forth--"Sweet Rocket road--Sweet Rocket road." - -"There are five miles of it," said Marget. Her tone added, "I love -it--its solitariness, its ownness!" - -"It's miraculously beautiful," answered her companion. "It aches, it is -so beautiful!" - -"Sweet Rocket road--Sweet Rocket road," said the wheels. "Way to Sweet -Rocket--way to Sweet Rocket." - -"It is straight and single-minded as an arrow. No one goes but one who -wishes to travel to Sweet Rocket. It is our road in and our road out. -There seems to be no other." - -"'Seems'?" - -"I mean that it is the only road made with spade and pick." - -They traveled again in silence. The visitor sat, a small, elderly woman, -with a thin, strong, intelligent face. Something about her, alike of -strength and of limitation, said, "Teacher for long years." She sat with -her hands in her lap, looking at that truly beautiful road and the -forest walls. But at last with a sigh of appreciation she turned to -talk. "Twenty years and more since we last met! But you keep young, -Marget. I had no difficulty in picking you out of the station crowd." - -"Nor I you, dear Miss Darcy! But then I've always kept you in mind and -heart. I owe you so much!" - -"Ah, Marget, not much!" - -"I owe you learning. It is a good deal to take a country girl, charge -scarcely anything for her and see that she gets knowledge and learns how -to get more--and more--" - -"You are of those who reward teaching. Don't let us talk about that -which was neither load nor task and so is no debt. The 'now' interests -me. You look well. Your face is a rose under clear brown." - -"I am well." - -"And happy?" - -"Yes, happy." - -"I know that you couldn't be happy unless you were helping." - -"I don't know how much I help. I help some." - -"You were never given to long letters. There really is much that I don't -at all know about you! And such as they are, I have had very few letters -of late years. It was the sheerest accident my finding out that this was -your part of the country. I might have gone to the Conference and never -known that you were not twenty miles away!" - -"The day before I had your card I knew that something pleasant was going -to happen." - -"Well, tell me what you do--" - -Marget Land looked over Daniel's ears, down the vista of the road. At -this point hemlocks grew to either hand, cones of a green that was -almost black. Between rose sycamores with pale arms and leaves like -silky brown hair. At the road edge the farewell-summer made a lacework, -and above it glowed the sumac torches. Blue sky roofed the autumn earth. -The air just flowed, neither hot nor cold, milk warm, happy. Summer and -winter had made a bargain, struck a compromise, achieved a diagonal. -Gold autumn, crimson autumn, violet autumn, dusky and tawny -autumn--autumn balm--autumn drawn up into a gracious figure--Keats's -autumn--a goddess! - -She drew a light, sighing breath. "I told you that I was happy.... Isn't -it strange--living? Isn't it strange and sweet the way things come -about? There's magic, all right! Sweet Rocket.... I was born in the -overseer's house at Sweet Rocket. That was ten years after the war and -there wasn't much nor many for my father to oversee. I love my father. -He was what the mountain folk call 'a getter-on.' He had ability and a -lot of goodness and a lot of kindness. Education from books had not come -his way, but he knew many things. He had worked hard and saved, and -after the war, when he gave up overseeing, or it gave him up, and when -he turned merchant in Alder, over there, he made money--as we looked at -it in Virginia in those days. Some money, that is. He had ten thousand -dollars in bank when old Major Linden died, and Mary Linden married and -went away, and Sweet Rocket was sold for debt. He bought it--though he -kept a steady face, he was so proud to buy it! I was nine years old when -we moved out of the overseer's house into the big house--my mother, my -father, my two brothers, and I. I loved it, loved it, loved it--love -it, love it, love it!" - -"I remember the very way in which you used to say it, 'Sweet Rocket!'" - -"We became at once land poor. And my father had an illness, and, though -he seemed to recover, never did quite recover. When it came to choosing -and bargaining, making and laying by, he was never again the man he had -been. My mother, too, who had worked so hard when she was young--too -hard--began to fail. Will, my elder brother, went West. Edgar, the -younger, wanted to go, too. He did not like it here. You see ... every -one still said: 'The old overseer bought it. They were all born in the -overseer's house. Now they rattle around in the Lindens' house! Bottom -rail--!' It was still called 'the Linden place.' As I grew old enough to -have cared for what they said I somehow escaped caring. But Edgar cared. -It was hard on the boy.... But I loved Sweet Rocket, loved it, love it! -I love the overseer's house and the big house--which isn't, of course, -very big, for the place was always a simple one--simple and still and -out of the way!" - -She seemed to pause somewhat deeply to vision something within. Miss -Darcy watched the moving walls, now standing close, now a little -receding, now opening as it were into gateways through which were seen -forest lawns and aisles. They shut in again. A golden bough brushed the -phaeton. She who had been speaking put out her hand and touched it. "How -could one help but love it? To me it is forever so old and forever so -new! I lock with it.... What was I saying? Well, Edgar did not like it, -and my mother failed, and father had less money and less money--and -still we went on ... five years, eight years, ten years. Then in one -year my father died and my mother died.... Will came home. He and Edgar -said that we must sell Sweet Rocket. I wasn't eighteen. We knew about -the mortgage, but we didn't know about some other debts. When it was -sold there was hardly anything to divide among us--" - -"The Lindens didn't buy it back, then?" - -"No, not then. Northern people bought it. Will went back to Wyoming, and -Edgar with him. I went to my mother's sister--Aunt Hester--who lived in -Richmond. I went to her with my two hundred and fifty dollars a year. -She's one of the best of women. I never had anything but kindness from -her--and one of the greatest was when she spoke of me to you!" - -She put her hand over Miss Darcy's hand. "I had been to school a little, -of course. There were some books at home, and I had borrowed where I -could. But in Richmond, to you, I really began to go to school." - -"You studied as very few study, Marget. You studied as though waves of -things were coming happily back into memory." - -"Yes. But you released something. Always fire is lit from fire. Always -one comes to any that sit in darkness.... Well, I went to school for -three years. Then off you go from that school to Canada, to England, to -I don't know where! I stayed in Richmond and went to a business school. -I learned typewriting and stenography. I began to earn my living." - -"You were with Baker and Owen?" - -"Yes. And then I passed into library work. I went to Washington. I was -in the library there for five years. I saved. I wrote a few papers that -were published. I took what they brought me and what I had saved, and I -left the library and I went around the world, second class and third -class--and at times fourth--and I learned and enjoyed. I taught English -here and there, and so I paid as I went. I came back in four years--back -to Richmond and Aunt Hester, until I might look about me and see what I -could do, for I must earn." - -"If you had written to me then in New York--" - -"I felt that. But there is something--don't you know there is -something?--that guides us.... I lay one night thinking of Sweet Rocket. -I could always come back here, just as really--come back from the ends -of the earth! I came back often. There has always been, along the -garden wall, sweet rocket--dame's violet, you know. Some of it is white -and some is purple--shining clusters growing above your waist. I could -gather them in my arms and feel them against my cheek. I could get -_into_ the dark cedars that come up from the river. I lay in Richmond, -more than half feeling, more than half seeing.... There's a country, you -know, out of which things come down to you.... It came down--knowledge! -I meant to go back to Sweet Rocket." - -She paused. "Look at that tree--" - -"It is so splendid! A sugar maple, isn't it? And that one?" - -"Mountain linden. It puts on a clear, pale gold, like the old saints' -haloes." - -"I hear water." - -"It is the little stream that we cross. See how sweet and clear and -sounding it goes! Hemlock Run. All right, Daniel!" - -Daniel bent mouth to water and drank. - -"No check rein?" - -"No." - -Gray horse and old phaeton moved again. The wood grew richer and deeper. -"We are nearing the river." - -"And then, in Richmond, you heard about Sweet Rocket?" - -"Aunt Hester had a letter from Alder. Richard Linden, old Major Linden's -nephew, had bought Sweet Rocket. I was glad that some one who must love -it was there. Aunt Hester said that he had visited it once or twice as a -young boy. He would remember it then as I remembered it. The second -letter said that he was almost blind, and alone on the place save for -the colored people. Then I saw his advertisement in the Richmond papers. -He wanted a secretary, one who could read aloud well. So I answered, and -was taken--five years ago." - -"How old a man is he?" - -"He is forty-seven and I am forty-four." - -"You have inner youth--higher youth." - -"Yes. Childhood there. So has he." - -"Do you love him, Marget?" - -"Love him? Yes! But not the once-time way, if that is what you mean. As -he loves me, but not the once-time way. So we shall not marry, in the -once-time way. But we live here together all the same." - -"Well, if it is as fair as this road--" - -"It is just a simple house in the bent arm of a little river and with -hills all around, and behind the hills, mountains. There are fields and -an orchard and garden. It is hidden like a lost place, and happy like a -place for evermore finding itself." - -"Tell me about Mr. Linden." - -"No, let us wait for that. Or I can tell outward things--how we live?" - -"Yes." - -"He has only a small, fixed income. It wouldn't at all go round the -year, so we farm. We have an excellent man, Roger Carter, who lives in -the overseer's house. Wheat, corn, buckwheat, hay, and apples! So we -live and can buy--though with an elegant spareness--books and red-seal -Victor records and more and more flowers for the flower garden." - -"Of course you have help about the house?" - -"There are two colored men and a boy, and Mimy the cook and Zinia the -housemaid. But with the home garden and cornfield and orchard and the -two cows and the chickens and ducks and Daniel and Whitefoot and Bess -there is more than enough to do. You will be surprised to see how much -he does himself." - -"How can he see?" - -"He can tell light from darkness, and the dim mass of things. And then, -when you are blind, you grow so skillful with the other senses! And of -course in a measure all of us are eyes to him. He has a great, strong -body. He hoes and digs. He knows always what is beneath his fingers. He -can weed a garden as well as I can. He gathers fruit and berries and -vegetables and knows the perfect from the imperfect. He does no end of -things. Perhaps he may work with his hands four hours a day." - -"And then?" - -"There are letters. I write them, and I keep his accounts, and, of -course, the house. Then we read. It is a sandwiched business, but we -must average three hours a day with books. He gets up very early and -walks before breakfast, and usually again in the afternoon. Sometimes I -drive him on this road. Sometimes I walk with him, sometimes he goes -alone. After supper we read, or listen to the Victor singing and -playing, or we talk, or sit by the fire, still and thinking. Or on the -porch steps when weather is warm, where I can see and he can image the -stars." - -"I see a good life." - -"We are not without neighbors, though it seems so lonely. And then folk -come to us. His blindness was an accident, you know. He has had life in -the world as I have had life in the world. We _have_ life in the world." - -"He is one, then, that may be loved?" - -"He is a great poet, though he would never call himself so. He just -feels and acts so.... I think his face is beautiful." - -"I think that your face is beautiful," thought Miss Darcy. - -The tawny road turned a little east. Trees yet green, trees that wore -the one color the year round, blended with golden trees and scarlet -trees. Wild grapes with twisted and shaggy stems and yellowing leaves, -with blue grapes hanging over, ran and mounted, held by the forest arms -up to the sun. Sumac that was somehow like the Indian, that seemed to -hold memories of the Indian in the land, grew in each minute clearing. -There arose a little, rustling wind, the ineffable blue air moving -lightly. Brown butterflies abounded. The sense grew strong of -remoteness, of calm that was not indolence, of beauty gathered and at -home. - -Miss Darcy moved a little. Marget Land turned toward her. "You feel it, -don't you?" - -"Yes." - -"They that come feel it. They are drawn. There are centers of -integration. This is one. I do not know who started it. Probably many, -working in at different times. But now it is in action." - -"Is that mysticism?" - -"No. It is fact." - -The forest stopped with clean decision. The road ran through fields -where the corn had been cut and shocked. The shocks stood in rows like -brown wigwams. Daniel and the phaeton came down to a little river, very -clear, falling and murmuring over stones above and below a ford, but at -the ford a mirror, reflecting autumn hills and heaven. Across the ford -stretched a little pebbly beach, crowned with trees and grass, and -behind the trees stood a brick house, old-red, not so large as large -houses go, but of excellent line. It had a porch with Doric pillars, -weather-softened. It stood among fine trees in a small valley shut in on -all sides by hills and mountains, all forested to the top. Only the road -and the river seemed to have way out and in, only road and river and -air and birds. Valley and colored mountain walls were proportioned, -modeled, tinted to some wide and deep artist's taste. The tone was rest -without weakness, movement without fury, solitude that had all company. - -"How could you help but love it!" said the visiting woman. - -"I don't try to help it.... If it burned down--if the hills sank and the -wood was destroyed--still it would endure, and still I could come here. -Now we cross the river. Look at the bright stones and the minnows, -gliding, darting!" - -Up from the river, across the pebbly shore, rose cedars dark and tall. -"They are like warders. Only there's nothing, really, to ward out. All -things may meet here. We go this way, to the back of the house." - -"It feels enchanted." - -"It is so simple. You might call it meek. There are people who pass who -say, 'How lonely!'" - -They were now at the back of the house, where the road skirted the -flower garden. Here was the back door, with three rounded, moss-grown -steps of stone. Daniel and the phaeton stood still. The two women left -the vehicle. A colored man appeared. "Miss Darcy, this is Mancy. Mancy, -this is Miss Darcy, come to stay with us as long as she will." - -Mancy, tall and spare, with an Indian great-grandmother, said that he -was glad to see her, and took her bags. In the brick kitchen in the -yard, Mimy was singing: - - - "Swing low, sweet chariot, - Coming for to carry me home--" - - - - -II - - -"I might stay a week." Anna Darcy spoke to herself, standing at the -window of the room where Marget had left her. She looked down upon -flowers and out to the southern wall that closed in the valley. The -mountains had the tints of desert sands at sunset. They had long wave -forms; they were not peaked, nor very high. They were so old, she -knew--Appalachians--older than Apennine or Himalaya. They were wearing -down here, disintegrating. The weather would be lowering them year by -year. They were removing and building elsewhere. They had granaries full -of memories, and they must have somewhere, springing like the winter -wheat, as many as the blades of wheat, anticipations. Down in the garden -she saw marigolds and zinnias, late blooming pansies, mignonette, -snapdragon and aster and heliotrope, larkspur, mourning bride, and -citronalis. A rosy light bathed garden and fields. This was the back of -the house. She saw two or three cabins and a barn, stacked hay, and a -rail fence worn and lichened, fostering a growth of trumpet vine and -traveler's joy. She heard cow bells. A boy with a good-natured ebony -face crossed the path below, carrying two milk pails. Chickens, turkeys, -and guineas walked about in the barnyard. From the kitchen, fifty feet -from the house, floated a smell of coffee and of bread in the oven. All -the place was clean, friendly. - -She turned to the large, four-windowed room. The walls had a paper of -lavender-gray, on which hung three prints. The bed was a four-poster, -with a linen, ball-fringed valance. Books stood ranged above an ancient -desk; a blue jug held asters. There was a large closet and--modern -blessing--a bathroom, white tubbed, pleasant and light. It had been, she -saw, an old dressing room between the two chambers upon this side of the -hall, with a door for each. Both doors being ajar, she saw Marget's -room, large like this one, furnished not unlike this one. But that, -something told her, was really the spare room, and this that she was to -dwell in was Marget's room. It had the feel of Marget. "It is the -pleasantest, and so she has given it to me." - -She bathed and changed her dress. All the time old, happy rhythms ran in -her head. Dressed, she sat down by one of the western windows, in the -yet warm light. She rested her head against the back of the chair, her -eyes closed. She was no longer a young woman, and she had had a tiring -year, and it was grateful to her to rest thus. Rest! It was the word, -it was the feeling, that was dwelling in this place. Rest, rest, deep -rest without idleness. - -The air was so rare and fine--mountain air. She remembered that they -said that the valley itself lay high. Mountain air. But even while she -thought that she had a sudden sense of sea air, fine and strong and -drenched with sun. - -There would be five or six rooms on this floor. All were large, and the -hall between was large. The stairway was very good, the woodwork -everywhere good. The ceilings were high. They used lamps and candles. -The day had been warm. Fire was not needed. But wood was laid in the -fireplace and the wood box beside it held chestnut and pine. - -This window gave upon the west. Here were grass and the red and gold -trees, and the pebbly beach and the sickle of the water, and the -lion-colored fields and the wood through which they had driven, and the -amethyst mountains. The sun had set, but the sky stayed aglow. The -fatigue went out of the old teacher's face. "'Cast thy bread upon the -waters, and after many days it shall return to thee!'" She did not -consciously repeat this, but the saying overhung her. - -She had slightly opened the door giving upon the hall, so that Marget, -returning, might know that she was ready. Stair and hall floor were bare -wood. A step sounded upon the one and then upon the other. She was -sensitive to the way folk trod. "That is Mr. Linden." - -He passed her door and she heard him enter his room across the hall. - -Marget presently came for her. "Let us go into the garden until the bell -rings." The garden lay spread in breadths of violet brocade. They walked -on brick paths and smelled box and mignonette. Then Zinia rang the -supper bell. - -The two entered the lower hall yet drenched with the afterglow. A man, -tall and big framed, turned at their step. "Miss Darcy, this is Mr. -Linden." He put out his hand; the visitor laid hers in it. It was a -strong hand, likable. His voice, when he spoke, was the voice for the -hand. "I am glad to see you, Miss Darcy! Marget and I are glad." - -There was light enough to show a strong-featured, clean-shaven face. The -eyes were blue-gray. They were not disfigured. She also came to think -his face a beautiful one. - -They went into the dining room, where two lamps were lighted. The -mahogany table had a blue bowl of larkspur. Zinia, in a blue cotton -dress and white apron, waited. There were coffee, delicate rolls, a -perfection of butter and of cream, a salad, coddled apples, and sugar -cakes. Marget sat behind the coffee urn and cups and saucers. Richard -Linden did not take the foot of the table, but sat beside her, at the -right. She aided him quietly, perfectly, nor did he need as much aid as -might be thought. He was so skillful; eyes must be in fingers. Zinia, -too, marked his needs, forestalled things. She called him Mr. Dick. She -had for him a low, rich, confidential whisper. "The salt, Mr. Dick." -"Cottage cheese, Mr. Dick." Marget called him Richard. - -The three talked of the ring of this valley and of the ring without and -around it, of Miss Darcy's doings and of Sweet Rocket's, and of -everybody's. It seemed that papers, magazines, the news, must come here. -Earth was the earth of the beginning of the third decade of the -twentieth century. There was news enough. - -Supper over, they went into the parlor that was opposite the dining -room, and was no more parlor than library. It stretched around, a big -room with old pictures, old furniture, with books. A fire flamed and -sang. They sat in the firelight, Richard Linden on one side of the -hearth and Marget on the other, and Miss Darcy beside the latter. Still -there was talk. The visitor would have gathered where they stood on -questions of the day, then suddenly saw that they stood all round and -through, and that the day to them was so old and young that it included -yesterday and to-morrow. That being so, their solutions were not always -those currently offered. - -She also found that though they talked they were not talkative. With -them conversation became a rhythmic thing--tranquil pause, deep -retirement, then again the word. And it startled her almost, how -completely they were one. - -When they had sat by the fire an hour Marget, rising, put violin music -upon a victrola. Hafitz played to them a Hebrew melody; Kreisler played, -and Maud Powell. The flames danced, the world heightened. Then, one -after the other, came three songs, and between each, as between the -violin pieces, they watched the fire, and the forest and the night wind -were felt around. - - - "Oh, that we two were maying!" - - -The song ended, the fire burned, they heard the river, the forest was -all around. A man's voice was lifted. - - - "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come into - His Presence!" - - -Again the wide and deep pause, and then the third song. - - - "And the world shall go up with a shout unto God." - - -Marget shut the victrola. Again they sat in that quiet. It was systole -and diastole, it was in and out, and inexpressibly it rested! And that -was what she wanted, rest. - -Marget lighted a lamp that stood upon the table. Linden said, "Hadn't -you rather not read, to-night?" - -"No. We won't read long." - -He turned to the visitor. "Do you mind listening?" - -Miss Darcy was glad to listen. Marget began to read. Her old teacher -remembered that she had read well twenty years ago. She read better now. -The book was Lafcadio Hearn's _West Indies_. "We travel so," said -Linden. "We take a right journeyer and journey with him." - -The fire flickered, then seemed to pass into actual fire of sun. They -were in Martinique, under Pelée, in Saint Pierre, in Grand Anse. Again -she was startled to feel how real it was. She touched, she knew, the -people of Martinique. - -Later, when the book had been closed, when they had said good night, one -to the other, when she lay in bed in the dark quiet, she experienced -strongly what a certain number of times in her life she had been able to -experience faintly. She experienced coherence that was wider than old -coherences. She interlocked with this place and her hosts. She held -them, they held her. At the end of the week she must go afar. "But never -any more so far that I lose the tune--never any more!" She went to sleep -with a strange, fair feeling of sea about her. Not that the forest, the -hills and mountains, were not there, but she felt the sea likewise. "Of -course it is there, but I never thought to look at it or taste it! The -sea and mountains and they and me, threaded together, talking together!" -She slept. - - - - -III - - -As she dressed, the next morning, she heard Mimy singing, but no stir of -her hosts. The sun was shining. In at window streamed life-giving air. -Her mind was upon the evening before and its current of happenings. As -she had gone to sleep with the sea, of which they had read, about her, -so now the three songs to which they had listened returned to mind, -returned almost to sense. That was one remarkable thing about this -place--the great vividness and depth of perception.... She knew the -difference between usual or even intent thinking and intuition. Her -intuitions had not been vigorous--she had looked at them with a kind of -gray wonder, as at pale children from afar. They came at long intervals, -but were never forgotten. It now seemed that this was a good clime for -them. - -She stood still in the middle of her room. Her mind opened. "'Oh, that -we two were maying!' That is man and woman love, time out of mind; love -and cry of love! It is Romeo and Juliet, it is Tristan and Isolde. 'Oh, -that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come into His -presence!' That is religious love that goes up from man and woman love. -That is the onward going, the seeking of Great Lovers. 'And the world -shall go up with a shout unto God.' That is when we move and feel and -think, not as men and women, but as Humanity. The Great Mating." - -The little firmament closed like eyelids and hid the greater. She was a -small, gray woman, and she had beaten about in the intellect, and when -gleams came like this she had taken them and promptly, when the sky -closed, had doubted if they had ever existed. But to-day she was less -inclined to doubt. There remained a faint luminousness in mind, a sense -of depth behind feeling. She thought, "If I could stay in that garden I -should indeed know bloom and music!" She moved about the room. "The -point is that there _is_ such a garden." - -She finished dressing, and went downstairs. Zinia met her in the hall. -"Good mahning! I hope you slept well? Miss Marget says you're to have -breakfast on the porch. It's so warm and beautiful this mahning." - -"She has had hers?" - -"Yes'm. She said tell you Sweet Rocket was home. I put the table here. -But if it's too sunny I can move it." - -"It's not too sunny. I like sun," said Miss Darcy. - -"I like it, too," said Zinia, and departed kitchenward. Anna Darcy sat -and slowly ate Catawba grapes. The porch was wide, the table placed -between high, mellowed pillars. Beyond them the autumn turf ran to great -trees colored like Venetian glass. The river crescent sparkled in light. -Beyond it she saw the fields and the woods through which they had -driven. All was closed by the mountain wall, very soft and gracious in -the sun, in the still, warm air. - -Zinia brought coffee and rolls. There was honey upon the table, and an -old blue basket-dish filled with red-amber grapes. Zinia was very dark, -supple, and strong. She had large, kind, African eyes, and beautiful -teeth, and she moved with an ample and conscious majesty. Miss Darcy -loved to watch her. - -The evening before, a collie lay upon the steps. Miss Darcy asked of -him. - -"Tam? He's gone with Mr. Dick." - -Zinia stood by a pillar, watching with kind eyes the visitor's evident -enjoyment of her breakfast. Miss Darcy had noted before, and noted now, -the lack of any servility at Sweet Rocket. They all seemed too much a -part of one another for that. But there was also that fine courtesy and -feeling that did not speak out of the way when speech was not wanted. -They all seemed to sail upon some inner current of understanding. - -She finished breakfast, and, rising, helped Zinia to carry away the -table. Dining room and pantry shone clean and simple. Zinia had flowers -in the pantry, and upon the shelf below the china press an open book. -Miss Darcy glanced. "What are you reading?--_Pilgrim's Progress?_" - -"Yes'm," said Zinia, in her rich voice. "I like that girl Mercy." - -The house was clean and sunny; still, and yet singing somehow, like a -great shell held to ear. She walked about, and at last went out into the -high morning and the flower garden. The brick paths glistened. Box -smelled sweet, mignonette and citronalis. Around flowed bird life and a -vast insect life. Multitudinous song and hum and chirr fell into -harmony. She walked up and down the paths and partook of garden -amusements, then went out by a wicket gate and found herself near the -outdoor kitchen. A brown four-year-old was seated on the stone step. She -stopped before him. "Good morning!" - -"Mahning." - -"What is your name?" - -"Just So." - -"Just So?" - -"Yass'm." - -Mimy appeared in the doorway. Mimy was a small woman with a face like a -carved cherry stone for wrinkles. "He's my grandson, ma'am, Just So." - -"I heard you singing," said Miss Darcy. "I loved it." - -"Singing's like butter on the griddle," said Mimy. "It helps you turn -things!" She sighed portentously, and then she groaned. "I've had a lot -of things to turn! Yes'm, I've lived long and turned a lot of things!" - -Her voice was gloom, and yet carried more than a suspicion of rich -chuckle. She enjoyed her old woes, disaster had grown so shallow. "I, -too," thought the visitor, "have had a lot of things to turn! I, too, -have come to where I can stand back and see the drama and feel the play -thrill!" - -Just So was a solemn young one. He sat and gazed as though in -contemplation of the many things he would have to turn. Then a brown hen -came by, and he put out a brown toe and dug in the earth, and said, -"Shoo!" and laughed. Miss Darcy left him playing with a string of spools -and a broken coffee mill. Mimy in the kitchen was toasting coffee and -singing. The coffee smelled better than good, the singing was without -age in the voice. - - - "Who built the Ark? - Oh, Noah built the Ark! - It rained forty days, - And it rained forty nights! - 'There ain't any sun and there ain't any heights!' - Oh, Noah built the Ark!" - - -Miss Darcy's path led on to the barn. Cocks and hens, white and red, -held the barnyard. She watched them with pleasure, and the sun on the -gray walls and the barn swallows going in and out. Then she found Mancy -sitting under a shed, mending a wagon shaft. - -"Good morning!" - -"Good morning!" - -"It's a lovely day." - -"It is so, ma'am! You're from the city, aren't you?" - -"Yes." - -"I hope you like Sweet Rocket?" - -"I do. It makes you feel whole." - -Mancy glanced at her. He was a long, brown man, with features between -negro and Indian. What you liked very much was his smile. It dropped -over his face slowly, like sun on brown hills, out of quiet, cloudy -weather. "That's a true saying!" he offered. "That's what I think about -heaven. We'll just feel and know that we're well and whole." - -The school-teacher's mind said: "The negro is a religious character. He -is always willing to talk of the Lord and of heaven." - -"All the little torn bits coming together," finished Mancy. - -He sat mending the wagon shaft. It came to her, standing watching him, -to say something of the distracted and warring earth. His slow smile -stole again over his face. "Yes'm. We hurt ourselves right often." - -"You call it that--hurting oneself?" - -"Yes'm. What do you call it?" - -"I don't know.... I suppose it _is_ hurting one's self--suicidal mania!" -she thought. "Perhaps all the history I have ever taught has been the -story of self hurt and self heal--perhaps we fight our self in Europe -and Asia and America. Perhaps, in the tissue wide as space, centers here -and centers there are beginning to learn self heal above self hurt--" - -She stood looking at the mountains while Mancy worked on at the wagon -shaft. Presently she said, "You would say that this was a very lonely -place, but I have touched a thousand things since I came that run out -and touch everywhere!" - -"Mountains aren't walls," said Mancy. - -She left the barn and walked on to the orchard. The apples had been -gathered, but a few red orbs yet hung from the branches. She walked -beneath the trees and she thought of old, dull troubles and anxieties -that had attended her life. This morning light seemed at work among -them, disintegrating them. - -The sun came down between the trees. The air blew soft and fine. She -returned to the house, and upon the porch steps found Mrs. Cliff with -baskets to sell, woven of white-oak splits, in a mountain cabin, by her -son and herself. She was waiting for Marget and seemed content to wait -as long as the sun shone. She wore a faded calico and a brown sunbonnet, -and she dipped snuff. - -"Good morning!" - -"Mornin'!" - -Mrs. Cliff put her snuffbox in her pocket. "Don't you want to buy a -basket? These three are fer Miss Marget." - -Miss Darcy examined and admired. "I'd like this little one." Mrs. Cliff -put it aside. "I hain't seen you here before." - -"I've just come. You've got a lovely country." - -"Yaas. We think so. Do you see yon clearing on mountain? I come from -thar." Miss Darcy sat down, and she and the mountain woman talked of -basket weaving and of the times, which Mrs. Cliff said were hard. "What -do you think sugar is? An' what you got to give fer a pair of shoes? -You've got to sit an' fergit, even while you're rememberin', or you -don't git nowhar! I wish Jesus Christ would come on back!" - -"He is somewhat needed," Anna Darcy agreed. - -"I had a funny thing happen to me yesterday," said Mrs. Cliff. "I had -jest finished that basket. I was setting on the step an' awful tired, -an' I shet my eyes an' leaned my head back against the door. An jest -like that I thought, 'He's in little bits in all of us, an' we've got to -put him together.' An' jest thinking it, all in a minute I felt so big -and rested! But it couldn't last. I wish it would come again." - -Marget's voice was heard, speaking to Zinia. "She's come back. They're -mighty kind folk here!" - -"I know that." - -"They _like_ doin' you a good turn," said Mrs. Cliff, and, getting to -her feet, gathered up her baskets. - - - - -IV - - -In the afternoon the three and Tam went for a walk. They crossed the -river by a footbridge and walked a mile by waterside. This brought them -to valley end. The stream slipped on between close-standing hills, but -the strollers turned aside into a glade from which the greater forest -had been cut. Young trees and tall old trees were set with some -spareness. All wore robes like princes; all glowed in a dream of spring -behind winter. The ground had gray moss and green moss, and all manner -of minute and charming growths. The sun so came into this glade that the -wild grape found and took advantage. It leaned its wine-hued, shaggy -stem against trunks; it climbed and overran, and made bridges from tree -to tree. Its festoons shone aloft, its broad leaves and blue clusters -dreamed against autumn sky. The air breathed dry and fine. Sunshine lay -on ground in shafts and plaques of gold. - -Richard Linden used a staff. Marget kept near him and Tam just ahead. -Walking so, you would not think he was a blind man. Indeed, he seemed to -have a sixth sense, he moved so easily. The three walked without much -speech. The day was the sumptuous speaker; these woods, this feather -air, the admirable poise of the year before its journey from hearth -fire, the plain chant of the crickets, the trill of the bird. - -In a roll over his shoulder Linden carried a wide and thick plaid. -Presently Marget said: "Let us rest before we turn back. Miss Darcy -isn't the tramp that we are!" whereupon they pitched camp for half an -hour, spreading the plaid beneath a tree. Richard Linden, resting -against a chance bowlder, locked his hands behind his head and lifted -his face to the high, free sky. Marget took off her wide hat and lay -down beside Miss Darcy, who sat on a stone. Tam had the dry grass and -moss and the fringe of the plaid. - -Marget spoke. "We are under a young hickory, Richard. It is all gold. -There is a dogwood close by, and its leaves are red, and it is very full -of berries. Wild grape has started by the dogwood and crossed to the -hickory. It is far and near and up and down. The leaves are half green -and half yellow, and there are a thousand bunches of grapes." - -"I see!" he said; "and I hear a woodpecker." - -"It's yonder on a white oak. It's a flicker. There isn't a cloud in the -sky, and far, far up, small as a dragon fly, is a buzzard sailing. -There's a cedar waxwing in the dogwood stripping berries. There is -another--a third! We frightened them away, but they are coming back. -They're after the grapes. There will be fifty in a moment--" - -They kept still and watched, Marget's hand on Tam. Slender, graceful, -tawny, crested birds came in a flock. They entered the hickory and the -dogwood. With quick movements of head and body they stripped the grapes -and the scarlet dogwood berries. They perched and removed, and perched -again. They kept up a low talk among themselves and a perpetual flutter -of wings. It was as though a wind were in the trees, so continuous was -the sound. Blue grapes, dogwood berries, dropped upon the ground. For -ten minutes the flock fluttered and fed, while with intent, pleased -faces the human beings watched or listened. Then Tam became aware of a -rabbit down the glade and started up. Away flew the cedar waxwings. - -"Oh, wasn't it lovely?" - -They sat still. Richard Linden, resting against the rock, kept his face -raised to blue sky. "Their life!" he said. "As we enter upon their -life--" - -Tam came back, the rabbit having vanished. "Lie still, Tam, lie still! -Get into your life-to-be for a little, and be quiet shepherd on a hill -instead of shepherd's dog!" - -"Their life--" - -The visitor to Sweet Rocket sat still, with her eyes upon the gold -fretwork of the hickory. She was thinking of the birds. It was very -sunny, very still in the glade. Her companions also rested silent. They -seemed to be in reverie, to be going where they would in their inner -worlds. - -Miss Darcy followed the waxwings in their flight. She saw the flock that -had been here, and other flocks, stripping wild grape and dogwood and -cedar berries. They were far and near, in many a woodland glade. In -thousands they twined and turned, they talked in the clan, their wings -made a windy sound. And the woodpeckers! Hammer and hammer, through the -forests of the world! And the thrush that she had heard this morning, -and the humming bird in the garden--and the crows that had cawed from a -hillside, the hawk and the owl.... Suddenly she saw in some space an -eagle rise to its nest upon a crag edge. From the one she saw others. -Eagles in all the lands. For one instant she caught a far glimpse of the -Idea, the absolute eagle. There was the rush of a loftier sense. Then -she sank from that, but she saw eagles in all the lands. She saw the -great hawks and the condors. Green waves were beneath her; with sea -birds she skimmed them in the first light, and the cries of her kind -were about her. On the ice floes walked the penguins, the albatross -winnowed solitude. With heron and flamingo and crane she knew shore and -marsh. The white swan and the black swan oared their way through still -waters. In their right circle moved the peacock and the pheasant, the -lyre bird, the bower bird, and the bird of paradise. The nightingale -sang in deep woods, and in southern thickets of yellow jessamine sang -the mocking bird. The lark mounted into the air, the cuckoo called from -the hedge, the wren built under the eaves. In the gray dawn, from a -thousand farms and hamlets, crowed the cocks. Over all the earth clucked -the hen, peeped the downy chick. The swallows crossed a saffron sky and -the whippoorwill cried in the night, and in the morning the quails said -"Bob White!" Migrating hordes, like scuds of clouds, drove before -favorable winds, north, south! She was plunged in the life of birds, -where they waded between deep water and solid shore, where they lived in -a world of green, where they flew aloft and afar, over land, over -sea--all their plumage, shapes, and magnitudes. She seemed to hear their -cheepings, cries and songs, to hear them and touch them, their -sleekness, lightness, threaded beauty! Over all the earth spread the -passionate wooing, the daylong song. Here were the nests, the -multitudes, and the eggs, green and blue and white and dark. The nests -and eggs became transfigured. The straw of the nests burned lines of -white fire, the cup was diamond light, the shell of the egg no more than -a window, and through it was seen the bird-past, and the bird desire and -will and power. Out of the egg the young--she heard the nightingales in -the woods, the lark in the sky! - -"See the love and beauty and power and daring! See the thought and -feeling pressing on--see them trooping into fuller being--see them men -and women, their tribes and nations! When we have gone far, far on, see -their human earth!" - -It was Linden, she thought, who said that. She came back with a great -throb of her heart to the earth beneath a golden hickory, to the October -sun, in a little Virginian valley. Yet the two reclining there seemed -still in a brown study, gone away. She thought: "I am come into a -strange country! Are they knowing, feeling all that life more intensely -than I, for all that they lie there so quietly, thinking, one would say, -of to-morrow's work, of a book they are reading, or of the cedar -waxwings?... It is all in the range of perception, could I run like -light all over the earth! There are those birds and their life. I only -saw what _is_!" - -But she felt that while she had had a wave of it those two had a whole -breadth of ocean. She felt that they were expert, adept. She felt again -the breath of wonder. It was at once wonder and homelikeness. -"Glad--glad--glad that I came! My gray road turns!" - -Richard Linden dropped his hands from behind his head and passed them -over his eyes. Marget rose to her knees. There was deep light in her -face. She lifted then let fall her arms. "Oh, the _beauty_ when life is -seen as a landscape, heard as a symphony, smelled as a garden, tasted as -nectar, dwelt in as a house!" She rose to her feet. "The sun is gone -from the grass. It is dawn in Tibet. Come, Tam, let us be going home!" - -They folded the plaid and left the hickory and the dogwood. The glade -was turning violet, but the hilltops showed golden and the mountains -stood in light. A rich scent breathed from the earth, while the air -carried a spear from the north. Leaving the wood, they took again the -path by the river, that sang toward them, that held pools of light. - -Walking so, Marget fell to talking of Anna Darcy's life, the manner of -it, her steadfast work from year to year, and all her kindnesses, and -all that she had given. At first Miss Darcy tried to stop her, but then -she could not try any longer, the appreciation was so sweet. Her life -had been difficult, isolated for all the stir around her, subject to -sorrows, a little withered and gray. She felt the exquisite caress of -their interest. It was more than that to her; it was recognition. - -How would it be if all were truly interested in all? If there were -general recognition? - -As she walked, the valley and the hills, the river and warm, dusky air, -the collie, the man and woman with her, herself, seemed to shift and -quiver into one. Walls vanished. There happened rest, understanding, -imperviousness to harm, blood warmth, and new and strange aspiration. - -It was impossible for her to hold the moment. She seemed to herself to -sink again to the rigid and small shape of Anna Darcy, like an Egyptian -figure graved on stone, a plane figure. But she did not wholly fit back -into the figure. She felt that above it was fullness and youth and song, -and that they were hers as well as another's. - - - - -V - - -Again, the next morning, she found neither of her hosts. "We breakfast -early and work early," Marget had said. Again Zinia served her alone, -again she walked in the flower garden, again she went farther afield. -The day was brilliantly, vividly clear, white clouds in the sky, and -between, great seas of cobalt. She went at once to the river path, but -turned this morning up the stream. The day hung joyous, the high and -moving clouds, the light and shadow had magnificence. She felt very -well; she really looked five years younger. Before her, beyond a spur of -orchard, she made out the roof of a building. When she came nearer she -felt an assurance that this was the overseer's house. "Where Marget was -born," she thought; "where she lived with her father and mother and -brothers." - -Presently she stood still to regard the place. - -The house was a small one, two-storied, frame, painted white with green -blinds. It had a small porch with a window to either side. At the back -she made out a wider porch, and there were outbuildings. The whole was -buried among locust trees and old shrubs, that when she came nearer she -recognized for lilac and althea and syringa. Door and windows stood -open. At first she thought she would turn from the river to the house, -but then she said, "No, not till she herself brings me here some day." -But the place was plain before her where she stood. When she had moved a -few paces she looked full to the door, between locust trees and bushes. -She was now beside a giant sycamore, very old, all copper colored as to -leaf, with dappled white and brown arms. Built around the bole was a -wooden bench, old and weather-worn. "She played here when she was a -child. They have all set here beneath this tree. She comes here now, I -fancy, often." - -She took her seat. No one came in or out of the house door a stone's -throw away. The place was sunny and deserted. There came, as it were, a -veil over it. She shut her eyes the better to look at child life here -with father and mother and Will and Edgar. The old overseer, who had -fought in the war for the old order, but who, when it came crash! had -built in the new; and the mother, Elizabeth Land, overworked and -uncomplaining; and the boys with their desires and broodings and -hopes--she felt them all. - -Sitting with her eyes shut, she passed into feeling them very strongly. -The place turned to be of thirty, forty years ago. She moved with the -overseer as he went to his work and came from it. With Marget Land's -mother she was cooking, sewing, cleaning. She was with the three -children, the boys older than the girl, at tasks and in play. Swim in -the river, swing under the locust tree, go for berries, for persimmons, -chinquapins, walnuts, for grapes and haws, go for the cow, work in the -garden patch, shell the peas, shuck the corn, look for eggs, pick the -currants and gooseberries, split the kindling, gather the chips, wash -the dishes, clean the lamps, sit by the fire and study reading, writing, -and arithmetic--she was deep in it, deep in a slow, steady current of -participation. It did not seem to curve, but now it was her own -childhood, her parents and brothers and sisters, an old town house and a -leafy town square--life, life, so varied and so the same! Deep, deep -wash of deep waves, and so pleasant, so sweet, all the pang and ill -lost! A past that was winnowed, understood, forgiven, appreciated, loved -by mind and heart of Farther On, and that was present, gone nowhere, -here, in finer space and finer time, a vast country capable of being -visited! Going into it was to find the deathless taste of eternity. It -was not dark; you could fill it with golden light. The forms there were -not immovable, not dead. As you understood, they lived and were -yourself. As you remembered, you saw that you were remembering, that you -were re-collecting from far and near, your Self. - -Anna Darcy sat very still. "I had to wait till I was fifty-eight years -old to see that." - -As on yesterday it had grown out of a commonplace of imagination and -memory. Memory and imagination had, by degrees, entered _their_ deeper -selves. - -Again, as on yesterday, she could not hold it. Increased energy, -increased perception, what the ancients called the Genius, and the -mystic called illumination, or voice of God, and the moderns higher -vibration, superconsciousness--whatever it was, and perhaps the name did -not much matter, she had touched it and then lost it. But she knew that -it had been touched, and that it was desirable to know it or its like -again. - -She was a member of the church, a praying woman. She bent her forehead -upon her hands: "O God, let thy kingdom come! As it comes near us, send -thy breezes!" - -Presently, rising, she went on up the stream. It was not wide; it just -came into the category of river, headwater, she knew, of a greater -river. October painted it with russets and golds and reds. Midcurrent -showed the ineffable blue of the sky, or when clouds drove by the -zenith, the clouds. She walked on until before her she saw the eastern -gate of the vale. The hills closed in, leaving a bit of grassy meadow on -either side the stream. This narrowed. The hills grew loftier, -insensibly became mountains. She was in a mountain pass, gray cliff to -the right, hemlocks overhanging the water that was broken now by -bowlders, débris of an ancient rock. The path was cool and dark and -washed by the scent of the conifers. Only here and there the climbing -sun sent splashing through an intensity of light that showed every -fallen needle, every cone or twig or leaf upon the path. Not far before -her the path turned and went up over the mountain. She thought, "That -will be the way to Mrs. Cliff's." - -She came upon a fisherman. He sat among the roots of a hemlock, and was -engaged in reeling in his line. He was a man neither old nor young, with -a long, easy frame, and a short, graying beard. His dress was that of a -fisherman who goes forth from the city to fish--but not for the first -nor the second nor the third time. Nothing that he had on was new, but -all was well cut. - -"Good morning!" he said. - -"Good morning!" - -He worked on at his reel. "Each time that I do this I say that it is the -last time." - -"Why?" - -"I grow too damned able--I beg your pardon!--to put myself in the fish's -place." - -"Have you caught any?" - -"This morning? Not a ghost of one! Yet they say this is a good stream! I -think that I warn them off the hook. 'Monsieur Black Bass, or Signor -Trout, as it may be, my desire not to take you is gaining, I feel, upon -my desire to take you! Your own desire naturally aiding the first, I -grow to feel that we make a strong combination!'" - -He laughed, putting up his rod. Then his mustaches went down and his -face became serious enough, "So much mangling! I've had my fill." - -"How did you come? Over the mountain?" - -"Yes. I am camping with a dozen New York and Washington fellows on -another little river over there. The others fish that stream. I'm like -Mrs. Elton. I adore exploring! I slept last night in a mountain -cabin--Cliff's. Can you tell me how far I am from Sweet Rocket farm?" - -"Less than a mile." - -"No! I didn't think from what the mountain folk said that it was so -near. I knew before I came that he was somewhere in these parts." - -"Do you know Mr. Linden?" - -"I was his classmate at the university. Then, fifteen years ago, I met -him in Southern Russia. We had a couple of weeks together, and then I -must hurry on to Constantinople, where I was due. He went into the -Caucasus. I lost sight of him. It was two years later that I heard of -that accident which blinded him, and I've heard since only second-and -third-hand things. The other day in the club a man told me that he was -living where his people had lived, down here in Virginia. I meant to go -to see him, but I meant to write first." - -"I am a visitor at Sweet Rocket. But I am sure that Mr. Linden would -wish you to come on to the house. Had you not better do so?" - -"Why, yes, then, I think that I shall." He stood up from the hemlock -roots. "You are very good. My name is Curtin--Martin Curtin." - -She gave her own. He took up fisherman's paraphernalia and a light coat. -They moved out of ravine into meadow strip; before them lay the jewel -valley. Mr. Curtin drew a deep breath. - -"And he hasn't eyes to look at it!" - -Anna Darcy found herself answering with certitude. "He sees it and a -thousand places beside." - -They walked on, Mr. Curtin gazing at river, hills, and mountains, and -quiet valley floor. "I have known of his doing some splendid things in -life--simple and splendid--the kind that steals into folk, and they do -likewise!" - -"Yes, I should think that." - -"What is that house?" - -"In old times it is the overseer's house. Now the young farmer who helps -him lives there." - -"'In old times it _is_'--that's an unusual phrase." - -"I mean that to me, for reasons, it stays that way and _is_." - -"I agree! When you turn to a thing it _is_. Turn with decision enough, -and your overseer would come out to meet you. That's a sycamore for you! -Do you ever feel the Indians by these streams? If you can see your -overseer you can see your Indians, too." - -They walked on. "Is that the house?" - -"Yes." - -"It's a simple place, too--but I like it. Houses, now! I make a -specialty of keeping them in duration." - -Anna Darcy thought, "A week ago I wouldn't have understood that." - -The house where she was born, the house facing, across a row of box and -a finely wrought iron paling, the old, leafy city square, walked bodily -into her. She was through it, up and down, like the air. It seemed to -her that there wasn't anything she didn't know about it, and it all came -together into an inner aroma, taste and tone, dry, warm, pungent and -likable, idiosyncratic, its very own. It had been a loss, a grief, when -the city had taken and torn down that house. And all the time it was -waiting for her, in a deep reality, to walk in and take possession! - -She thought: "What is happening? I shall never be lonely again!" - -Mr. Curtin looked from side to side of Sweet Rocket valley. "It's like a -beaker of Venetian glass! You'd say there was a magic drink in it.... -But how clean and drenched with sun is this air!" - -"Yes!" - -"He never married? Archer said he thought not." - -"No, he didn't marry." - -"He's rather the kind that marries the world." - -"Yes, I think so. We turn here to the house. Have you the time?" - -"It's almost noon." - -"He will be home, then. He works upon the farm as though he had eyes." - -They left the pebbly beach and went by the cedars up to the house. Tam -came to meet them, and Linden rose from the bench upon the porch. - - - - -VI - - -"And so he was killed," said Curtin, speaking with strongly controlled -emotion. "And I can tell you that when I heard it I felt physically that -shock and crash and mortal bruising. It wasn't only my heart that was -wounded. My nerves and my flesh felt it. Even now I think that there -must be but one body--I got away for a time after he was buried. I went -down to Hyères. I used to sit there by the sea. He was a lovable fellow, -square as they make them. We were brothers and friends, too. Well, that -is the way it runs! Life--death. Life--death! I would give a good -deal--" - -He had been thirty-odd hours at Sweet Rocket. They had sent up mountain -to Cliff, who took down to his camp news that he would be gone for some -days. They had given him the room next to Linden, and he had become at -once delightfully at home. - -When with Miss Darcy he had stepped upon the porch Linden had said: -"Don't think you take me by surprise! I saw you in my looking-glass this -morning!" - -"It is good to find you again, Linden! What do you mean by your -looking-glass?" - -Linden laughed, his hands upon the old classmate's shoulders. "Only that -I had been thinking of you. And the other night I was with you by the -Sea of Azof. I thought, 'I should like to see him again!' And you know -yourself that when you make a current boats appear upon it!" - -Now, as the four sat about the fire in the big parlor, before the lamp -was lighted, he had been telling of the death of his brother, an -aviator. There had followed silence; then, "Well, let us talk of -something else!" said Curtin. He took up the pipe he had laid upon the -hearth beside him, and raking out a coat from the fire, relit it. "What -do you think is going to happen now, Linden?" - -They sat and talked, and the flames leaped, many and small, in the -mahogany of the room. At ten they rose to separate for the night. - -"Come look at the sky," said Linden. "The first week in October, and -diamond clear!" They went out to the porch, and then, so majestic was -the night, to the sweep before the house, whence they might see the -great expanse. It was very still. The river sounded, but the air rested -a thin and moveless veil. It was not cold. Richard Linden stood -bareheaded, his face uplifted to the vault that writes forever its runes -before men. - -"By George! I forgot!" thought Curtin. "But doubtless he knows them so -well that he knows where they are, season by season." It seemed that it -might be so. Linden spoke as though he saw. "See the Pleiades and -Capella and Aldebaran! The Great Square is at its height. The Cross and -the Eagle and the Lyre. The mountains hide Fomalhaut." They walked a -little way upon the road. Immense and tingling was that view, looking -outward, looking inward, upon those stars. At last they came indoors and -said good night. - -Martin Curtin lay in a big four-poster bed and stared out of window. -Upon going to bed he had slept quickly and soundly. Now he was awake, -and he thought it might be past four of the morning. He felt the subtle -turn toward the day. He heard a dog bark and a cock crow. He was aware -that he had waked suddenly and completely. He was wide awake, and more -than that. There was a keenness, an awareness; keen, sharpened, but also -wide. His body lying very still, he began to remember, but it was -remembering with a deeper and fuller pulse than was ordinarily the case. -He remembered that younger brother who was dead, and not him alone, but -many another, kindred and friends and associates. The past lived again, -but lived with a difference. What multitudes of kindred, and friends, -and associates! The meeting went deep and wide. Had he touched all those -in one life or had it been in many lives? Was the whole texture coming -alive, and in effect did it include the whole past, the whole dead and -gone? However it might be, it was a world transmuted and without pain. -He lay still, regarding it. It was strong and light, and he and it grew -together with a sense of frictionlessness, of exquisite relief, even -with a kind of golden humorousness. None had been truly any better or -worse than another, nor in any way miraculously different, and now they -could understand and laugh together! The sense of union was exquisite, -and the sense of variousness hardly less so. The variousness was without -hostility. It glided and turned smoothly, much as personal thought and -mood might glide and turn. The sense of well-being flowed in every -realm. The perception included environment. Remembered, recalled persons -meant remembered, recalled houses, towns, country, forest and river, -fields and gardens, a thousand, thousand places! Where were they all? -They were all over the earth--light and golden--loved places and the -right people in them! There was nothing rigid--even the places -understood one another. Curtin felt a profound happiness. This one body, -lying at Sweet Rocket, was not wholly forgot nor relinquished. It came -into the pattern of variousness. But Curtin himself was moving in a -wider consciousness. All these people, all these selves of himself! and -he understood their old difficulties and he understood their old -misunderstandings. The _piece_ understood, the beautiful tissue! The -music understood, the notes moving so richly together! It was throbbing -in the present and in the understood, the appropriated past. He never -thought, "How grotesque the thought that we are dead!" The thought could -not even occur. - -For one flash, for less than an instant, the plane lifted. There started -forth a high, a tremendous sense of unity--Presence. It towered, it -overflowed him, he was of it--then the instant closed. As it had come -like a towering wave, so it sank like a wave. But there was left the -lasting thrill of it, and there was left undying aspiration. "Ah, to -find it again! Ah, if it will come again!" - -Where had been sense of the whole, again befell fragmentariness. -Loss--great loss--and yet was there falling sweetness, exquisiteness -still of order! He felt again the wide world that they said was dead, -and yet surely was no such thing. There happened again wide and subtle -change. Out of a stillness, a silence, an isolation, exquisite and -tingling, a state of clarity and poise, one spoke to him _within_, -"Martin!" - -He answered in that space. "Yes, John.... No, grief is absurd!... Just -because we're ignorant!" - -"You can be content. We can be content." - -"Yes, I see! We are all in one, who cannot be destroyed." - -There came no more, but the world was a rhythm, swinging, swinging. -There reigned great rest and calm. Out of this, with much of it yet -clinging, he sank to the square, clean, sparely furnished bedroom at -Sweet Rocket, with the cock crowing, with the old clock in the lower -hall striking five. Curtin lay very quiet in the big bed. Dawn was -coming, but his sense was that of an afterglow. He had felt beauty and -still wonder like this in high mountains, watching Alpine glow. It faded -and faded, but there was left with him assurance, rest, the sense of a -dawn to be, a consciousness behind this consciousness, another -consciousness towering, sun-gilt, in the future. He lay very still, at -rest, hardly wondering. The great things, the beautiful things, were the -natural things. The wholly full and blissful would be the finally -natural. Dawn came in rose and amethyst. - -When it was full light Curtin left his bed, dressed, and went -downstairs. He thought that he would walk by the river or in the garden. -The house was still, the front door open. Early though it was, he found -Linden on the porch starting forth with Tam. He had found, he said, that -he must see Roger Carter, who was riding to-day to Alder and would be -starting presently. "Will you walk with me? But you shouldn't miss your -breakfast. I've had bread and milk." - -"I won't go now," answered Curtin. "I'll walk up and down before the -house for a while. Something happened to me last night, or I happened -into something. I'd like to talk to you about it, Linden--but it won't -fade before you come back. I don't indeed think it will ever fade." - -There was that in Linden's remembered face, when Linden himself had gone -away toward Roger Carter's, that made Curtin think, walking now before -the house as they had walked the night before under the stars: "Does he -know what I felt? Could he even have helped--put a shoulder to the -wheel, seeing that I was grieved and uncertain?" Not so long ago he -might have answered, "That's fantastic!" but he did not so answer now. - -He went into the garden and walked up and down. Before seven Marget came -out to him. "I saw you walking in the dawn like a man in a ballad. Could -you not sleep?" - -"I slept till nearly five." - -They walked by the late asters and the stocks. Said Curtin: "I remember -a line of Masefield's: - - - "... the dim room had mind, and seemed to brood. - - -And again: - - - "And felt the hillside thronged by souls unseen - Who knew the interest in me and were keen - That man alive should understand man dead. - - -Miss Land, do you think that is true?" - -"Yes. Surely." - -"Do you think we can be reassured about the dead--all the dead--and -ourselves when we die?" - -"Yes, I do. Very safe, very sure." - -"Well, I think so this morning." - -They walked by the marigolds and larkspur. "Where do you meet the dead? -In this space?" He indicated it with a wide gesture. - -"No. In space that permeates this space. In added space. When and where -we make space. Though I think," said Marget, "that one day the edges -will have so flowed together that we shall say 'in this space.'" - -"You and Richard Linden both have that assurance?" - -"Yes. Many have it now." She added, "I think, perhaps, that it is more -easily felt in some places than in others." - -He thought, "As we put telescopes on heights." - -They walked by the wall with the ivy. Her quiet, dark eyes were upon -him, friendly, kindly. He thought: "No less than Linden she hoped such a -night for me. Perhaps--" - -A bell rang. "That is for us. Miss Darcy, too, comes down early now." - -They went indoors. Anna Darcy met them in the hall and they went -together into the bright dining room, to their pleasant breakfast, and -Zinia waiting, with "that girl Mercy" still at heart. - - - - -VII - - -The next day was Sunday. Zinia and Mimy and Mancy walked early to their -church, two miles down the river. Marget and Miss Darcy, Linden and -Curtin, went to Alder in the phaeton, drawn by Daniel and Bess. It was -as sunny and still a day as might be found in any autumn land, and most -beauteous was that forest through which they drove. Anna Darcy was glad -to see it again. It rested forever in her mind, a true magic approach. -Marget drove, Curtin sitting beside her, Miss Darcy and Richard Linden -behind them. The jewel miles went by and the pleasant, pleasant air. -Here rose Alder on a green hill, and Alder had three streets, a hundred -dwelling houses, and three white-spired churches. The houses were brick -or frame, with shady yards and late-blooming flowers. They drove by a -small, quaint courthouse, a rambling hotel, and several stores, closed -to-day. The trees were maples and Lombardy poplars and a few ancient -mulberries. Folk were going to church, and they spoke to Sweet Rocket -and Sweet Rocket to them. - -Before them rose a church of white frame, set in an ample churchyard, -all glowing maples with a mosaic of red and gold leaves underfoot. -Street before it and bordering lane held horses and buggies and Fords -and Buicks. The second bell had not rung. Men and boys waited around the -doors, talk and laughter at a Sunday pitch. Women were entering, some -with children in their hands. Sweet Rocket folk, leaving the phaeton, -walking up churchyard path, took and gave greeting. They entered the -church, Marget's hand upon Linden's arm, just guiding him to a pleasant -pew by a pleasant, open window, the weather being yet so warm. Curtin -took his seat, and, turning a little, watched the folk enter. He did not -know when he had been in a village church like this, nor, indeed, had he -been for long in any church at all, barring the cathedrals and churches -abroad, into which he went as artist. A clear, sweet sound, overhead, -rang the second bell. Men and youths came in; the building filled. A -simple place, it was well proportioned and to-day filled with a dreamy, -golden, softened light. In that soft, flowing atmosphere, men and women -and children were gathered as in a bouquet. The choir assembled, the -young woman who was the organist took her place. A woman in the pew -behind Curtin leaned over and gave him an opened hymn book. The minister -appeared, a kindly faced, small, elderly man. The bouquet became more -and more Sunday. - -Curtin glanced at Linden. He sat as always, with ease, and a certain -still power. He seemed to Curtin as simple and whole as a planet in the -sky. This village Methodist church seemed within his frontier, as, when -you thought of it, all other places seemed within it. Curtin remembered. -They were talking, he and Linden, in Odessa, in their hotel, after -having been to a great service in a great church. Linden was telling him -that Religion held all religions, and that he, Linden, belonged solely -to no one church, but liked at times to go sit in any one of them. He -had gone on to say other things, but Curtin--and Curtin remembered this -with a certain pang--had yawned, and said that it had been a tiring day -and that he would off to bed. "My God, I was crass in those years!" -thought Curtin. He still watched Linden, who could not know that he was -being watched; and at the thought Linden turned his head and smiled at -him. His face said as distinctly as if his voice had uttered it, "Yes, -that night at Odessa!" - -Again Curtin, startled at first, felt the startling vanish. He -thought--and, as on last night, his thought seemed to lay hold upon and -give form to a down-draught from some upper region--"Truly the startling -should be over mind broken from mind, not over mind beginning to heal!" - -He sat in a deep study. There came like a picture into his mind Jesus -of Nazareth's parable of the talents. "Ability to perceive thought! If -the world should take that talent and improve it, a different world we -should have anon!" - -"Let us pray," said the minister. When they had prayed, he said, "Let us -sing hymn number--" - -They sang: - - - "Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear, - It is not night if thou be near--" - - -"I will read," said the minister, "from the twenty-fifth chapter of the -Gospel according to Matthew." - -Curtin heard read the parable of the talents. He thought: -"Intercommunication. It widens and deepens and heightens perpetually. -Now it gets to be wireless, independent of gesture or the vocal cords, -or the handwriting." There thronged echoes of his experience of the -other night. "Intercommunication becomes communion. Communion becomes -identity. At last 'we know even as we are known.'" - -The reading ended. They sang - - - "Rock of Ages, cleft for me." - - -All the congregation sang; men, women, and children's piping voices. -They sat down. The minister took his text from the parable he had read. - -It was a good, plain sermon, in which the preacher said more than he -knew he said. The air came in at window, bees buzzed without, a brown -butterfly passed. The congregation breathed gently, rhythmically. The -sun gave life to the flowers upon the women's and the children's hats. -There were young faces and old faces, dull faces and quick faces, intent -faces and wandering faces. Some were rich flowers, and others little -flowers not far from weeds, but all were in the garden. Curtin thought: -"They are like the thoughts and moods of a man, many and various, but -all in the man. One Man.... It was Balzac who said, 'There is but one -animal.' One Man--his name Adam-Eve, or Humanity, as you choose--or, -perhaps, when he finds himself, his name is Christ." - -He looked again at Linden, sitting with that pleased and quiet light -upon his face. The sermon was not extraordinary, the congregation the -average village and country congregation, the church had no especial -grace of interior or exterior. Linden was not habit-bound to it, he did -not hug the letter of its creed. Any one of those around might say: "No, -he does not belong to any church--which is a great pity! No, it isn't -his church." Yet Curtin saw that Linden, sitting there, loved this -place, the feel of the folk around him, the sense of what they were -doing, were striving to do, and, on the whole, were slowly doing. He -comprehended that to Linden it was very simply his own, as were the -other two churches of Alder, and the colored church down the river, and -the Greek church at Odessa. He saw that Linden's possessive was -large--Linden's and Marget Land's. - -Miss Darcy sat very still, her thin hands crossed in her lap. At first -she had listened to the sermon, but now she was in the old church in the -old city, and there was another congregation around her, and another -clergyman, a kinsman, in the pulpit. At first it was like opening a -potpourri jar, and then warmth and light came back to the rose leaves. -"I am there, they are here! Never could I do this or feel this until -now--or I did it so weakly and palely that it did not seem to count!" - -The sermon ended. "Let us pray.... Let us sing." Benediction followed, -then a moment's pause, and then the folk turned from the pews and moved -slowly toward the doors. There were greetings for Sweet Rocket, and -Sweet Rocket greeted in return. All had a grace of friendliness. Anna -Darcy thought: "That is another thing that has come or is coming! What -does it matter now if your name is or is not on the register of a -church? It didn't use to be so. Something gracious and understanding, -invisibly binding, is coming!" She thought: "Those two are the most -beautiful here, but in their degree all are beautiful. And all move on -to completer beauty. Oh, life is coming alive!" - -They drove through Alder and by Alder highway, and at last upon that -lovely forest road to Sweet Rocket. Curtin and Linden fell to talk of -their student days, of such and such teachers and mates, and such and -such happenings. "I had forgotten that!" said Curtin, and again, "I had -forgotten that!" At last he said, abruptly, "You've got an astounding -memory!" - -Linden answered, "Oh, we learn how to use and deepen memory!" The smell -of the forest, the voice of the forest, circled and penetrated. "I -should like to know how you do it," said Curtin. - -"It is like all other things. Practice makes perfect." - -"It is not only remembering. You remember with a strange understanding -of things. You direct later light upon the past. The line is there, the -form is there, even the color and tone, but you make it understood as I -am very certain we did not understand it then! I see now what we were -doing! It's intelligent at last, and bigger." - -"All that you have," said Linden, "isn't too much to apply to the past. -The past has served you, now serve the past. Serve and redeem! Bring it -up, even and great, into the present! To understand past time is to have -present power. Only by understanding it can you love it, unless you wish -to remain infant and love with infant's love." - -The many-hued woods went on, the leafy, narrow, remote road, the scents -and sounds, the miracle of many centered into sole delight. The air was -so fine you could gather what the upper air must be. Daniel and Bess, -the phaeton, the four, stepped and rolled through a magic world, artist -world of the Ancient of Days. Here was the river and the flashing water -of the ford. - -That afternoon they walked upstream as far as the overseer's house. It -was shining, late afternoon. They saw, seated on the porch and the porch -steps, Roger Carter and his wife, with Guy, her brother, who worked on -the farm, and old Mr. and Mrs. Morrowcombe, her parents, paying their -Sunday visit. A little Roger, three years old, played absorbedly with a -chinquapin string and a rag doll that his grandmother had brought him. - -"Let us go across to them," said Marget. "Just so did my father and -mother use to sit." - -Carters and Morrowcombes made them welcome. Linden and Curtin sat upon -the porch steps, Tam beside them. Miss Darcy now played with the young -Roger and now listened to Mrs. Morrowcombe's gentle, flowing talk of -turkeys, and rag carpets, and Sam come home from the war. Mary Carter -had dark eyes and wavy hair, bright color in a round cheek, a shy and -tender smile--a Murillo face. She sat holding a year-old babe, and she -talked shyly and listened with intent eyes. There listened, too, old -Mr. Morrowcombe, with a long, white beard, and a gnarled hand resting on -a stick marvelously carved by himself in prison, long ago, in the old -war. Roger Carter proved a quick, dry talker, with not a little wit and -power of mimicry. He had a way of throwing what he saw and heard and -concluded into a homely story, both telling and amusing. He seemed to -love to make Linden and Marget laugh, and they loved to draw him out. -Curtin saw with what skill they opened fields to him where he might -rejoice in his talent. He saw how they understood fellowship. - -Presently Marget asked Mary if she might take Miss Darcy into the house -and out on the back porch and to the lilac hedge. "Certainly, Miss -Marget, you go right in! It's all straight. Go upstairs, too. Anywhere -you like." - -The two went. "This was mother's room. Here I was born. When I was a -little girl I slept in this tiny room next door. The rain on the roof -drummed me to sleep. This was the boys' room. This is the back porch, -where we did much of the work. It is so lovely and broad! There is the -old well. Yonder is the lilac clump where once, in May, I saw the Spirit -of the Lilac." - -When, half an hour later, they walked homeward along the river bank, -there renewed itself the question of prolonging a visit. "Well, I'm -going to stay, anyhow," declared Curtin. "I like it better here than at -that camp. If you will keep me a month--" - -"Oh, we will!" - -Anna Darcy said: "I can't stay that long. But I'll stay just as long as -I can." - -That matter settled, they walked on, quietly, in the amber and violet -hour. There was a sound of water, a smell of wood smoke. The house rose -before them, richly colored in the sunset. - - - - -VIII - - -The weather changed. On the heel of soft sunshine and quietude came -autumn storm, wind and rain, lashed trees, leaden and heavily sagging -cloud. In the late afternoon Zinia appeared at the parlor door. "Miss -Marget, there are two men on horseback. They've come over Rock Mountain -and missed their way. They say it's getting late, and they say, could we -take them in for the night?" - -"I'll go see," said Linden, and left the room. - -"Of course you will?" - -"Yes, of course," answered Marget. "I had better go see about the room." -Curtin and Miss Darcy, left alone, watched the flame. At last Curtin -said, abruptly, "Had you ever thought of humanity moving on into -superhumanity?" - -"I think that I have been blind and deaf to a great many things! I -suppose I thought that there would be slow, general improvement. But I -did not think of marked betterment here. I thought of the soul at death -springing alive into heaven." - -"Or hell?" - -"Yes, we were taught that." - -"And it was going to reach heaven or hell at one stride! No degree -here, no degree there!" - -"It was irrational!" - -"Naturally, being yet in Time, there are those ahead. Some cross the -line earlier than others." - -Marget returned. "They are two young men, foresters, I think, from the -government purchase on Rock Mountain. They are wet through. Mancy has -built them a fire and Richard is looking after them." She stood by the -window. "The gray rain is chanting up and down the mountains! Queen Rain -and King Wind!" - -Curtin put a chair for her as she came to the hearth. She sat down, and -bending herself, looked into the fire. She held her hands to the flame -and appeared to gather it into them. "The fire!" said Marget, "the -spirit that is fire, that is will--that are living, endless powers, the -Host of the Lord!" - -There fell a silence that was voice. Then said Anna Darcy: "I have -always said, 'I remember--I remember.' But since I came to Sweet Rocket -I have learned far and away more of how to remember." - -Marget turned toward her with a great sweetness. "When we have found a -good thing we so naturally wish to share it! Now you must learn the -Universal Man's present sharing--and his future sharing. You who have -always said, 'I remember,' and who have been unselfish, will have little -trouble." - -Her look included Curtin, who sat staring into the fire. He drew a long -breath. "Two weeks ago I should have said that adventure and youth had -passed from my life." - -"You are just beginning to find them! Henceforth you will find rest and -romance, salt in life and the true wine and the uncloying honey and the -bread of right wheat. You will find water of Moses's spring, and the -Burning Bush." - -The rain and the wind sang against the pane. The fire made shape upon -shape. The high, inward vibration lowered, but it left a memory of -itself. There was the Jericho rose in the sandal box to say, "When there -comes moisture again to my root, then shall I bloom again!" - -Linden entered the parlor with the two guests, now with dried clothing, -rested and refreshed. It was growing dusk. The room looked warm and -bright to them, a happy haven after a battering day. They were young -men; twenty-seven, twenty-nine, forestry graduates, resuming forestry -after an interlude of war. Linden presented them. "Mr. Randall--Mr. -Drew." - -The evening closed in stormy. They had supper, a small bright feast, -with talk and laughter. Randall proved lively, good company. Drew was -much the quieter of the two. Supper over, they returned to the big -parlor and the generous fire. The boy Jim had brought in a great armful -of wood. It was a night to heap logs, as the rain drummed against the -pane. Randall was talkative. He flowed like a mountain stream, trilled -like a care-free bird. - -Forests and forestry came into the room. It appeared that both had had -from childhood a taste, not to say a passion, for woodland life. Randall -had lived in the country, so it came natural. But Drew had lived in a -city. But forests were a passion with him; he had to get into them, and -did so at every chance, and at last left for good a clerkship in a -stockbroker's office, and scraped together enough for that course in a -forestry school. This gave him surface learning, but he exhibited a -deeper knowingness, gained somewhere. "Drew's like an Indian in the -woods!" - -"No. Not like an Indian," said Drew. - -Linden asked, "Like whom, then?" - -He sat in a corner of the great fireplace, Tam, who came indoors upon -nights like these, lying at his feet. "Drew," said Randall, "tell them -about that night in France! He's got a curious story. He won't tell it -to everybody. But I don't know--somehow we're all at home here." His -quick song went on. "You see, my folk and Drew's are English. We're just -a generation from fields and things that we've heard about all our -lives. So when England went in, we thought we'd better go over, and we -did. We were in the same company, and this was before Verdun. Go on, -now, Drew!" - -Drew began at once, without prelude, his eyes upon the blind man. "It -was something that happened to me. Sometimes I think that it was a -dream, and then I know that it wasn't. I'm more and more certain as time -goes on that it wasn't. I've got a kind of feeling about Reality, that -we are like swallows skimming it. I suppose that now and then a swallow -tumbles into it. Well, it was a big, dark wood, fairly early in the war. -A detachment, sent we did not know by whom nor for what, moved through -it from one station to another. I was second lieutenant. Well, there -came news of a trap, and most of us turned off in a hurry, out of that -wood. But--I don't to this day know how it was--as many as twenty were -away from the rest, sent to find out something, somewhere. It was night, -and there was no path. We got the warning, too, and we swung round and -tried to get back to the main body. There came a spattering of shot. -There were men besides ourselves in that wood. They rose like partridges -and struck like hawks. We struck back. There was fighting. Something -came down on my head like a falling tree. I remember that I thought it -was a falling tree. Then everything went black, and it seemed both a -long time and a short time till dawn. - -"It came at last, dawn. I sat up, and it had been a falling tree. My -forehead had an aching lump and a gash, but luckily just a branch had -struck me and I had rolled clear. It was a very old oak, brought down -by the high wind. Upon the branch beside me was growing mistletoe. I -wouldn't touch it, for I thought, 'It is not for me to touch it, but -surely it saved my life!' There was gray light, and one red streak far -down the forest where, after a time, would be the sun. And then I -remembered that it was Lutwyn who had saved my life, crying out, and -pushing me away, where I had thrown myself down for one moment's rest. I -looked beyond the mistletoe and I saw that the tree had caught and -pinned down a man. I crept on hands and knees, for I was dizzy yet, and -I found Lutwyn. He lay pale and twitching, his leg and part of his body -under the trunk of the oak. It was very still and lonely in the forest, -and the first cold light made me shiver, and I was afraid of the -mistletoe, so near. I got Lutwyn from under the tree, and it took all my -strength to do it. The spring that we called Red Deer was hardly a spear -throw away. I had on a cap of otter skin, and I filled this with water -and brought it back to Lutwyn. When I had dashed it over his face and -put it between his lips, he sighed, and came to himself, opening his -eyes and trying to sit up. He said, 'I thought it would catch you, and I -tried to thrust you out of its way--' - -"I said: 'Are you badly hurt? Can you walk?' - -"He tried, but he could only drag himself a little way, holding by a -branch of the tree. The light had grown stronger, the red line down the -forest was a red splash. We were both thinking of Guthlac and his men, -who were after us because, being outlaws, we had set upon and stopped a -bullock wagon and helped ourselves. We had strong belief that when they -found us they would hang us. We had no great start of them. - -"Lutwyn said: 'You go on, Oswy! I'll make myself at home here, by the -mistletoe.' - -"That couldn't be. I couldn't carry him. He was, if anything, a little -taller and larger than I. He tried again to move, but it was not his leg -alone; his body had been hurt, terribly hurt, I now saw. He could not -make a step. It was I who drew him back to the tree. He settled down -into the hollow made by the trunk and a bough, and I looked at his -hurts, but could do little for them. I saw that they were filled with -danger. The mistletoe grew so near him. I looked at it, and I wished it -would heal. Lutwyn said: 'Now you go on, Oswy! I don't want you to be -hanged.' I said, 'Save your breath!' and sat down beside him. We rested -side by side against the tree, and he said that he was not in pain, but -only now and then drowsy. He was very clear in his mind and wanted to -talk. I listened for Guthlac and his men, and looked at the mistletoe. -The sun was up now and it was growing gold--the mistletoe--a great bunch -of it. I did not hear Guthlac. It was likely to be some time before -they found us, having to wait till day to see our track. Now and then I -felt Guthlac's rope around my neck. And then I looked at the mistletoe, -and it seemed to be growing by Woden's chair. Then Lutwyn came awake -again and we talked. We were twin brothers. We talked of when we were -boys, and of our mother, and Lutwyn the Strong, our father, and of -places we had seen and the earth we had trod. The Earth that was us, we -thought, springing up in us all toward Father Sun. And all the wrong -that we had done went away, and the mistletoe grew more golden. He -drowsed away for longer and longer times. - -"Far away I heard Guthlac's horn. It blew, and another answered. They -had found our track and were drawing together. Lutwyn waked, and heard -it, too. 'But there's another horn for me,' he said. 'Don't you hear -that one?' He had slipped from the hollow of the oak and his head was on -my knee. The horn blew louder and nearer. The mistletoe was all golden. -I could feel Guthlac's rope around my neck. But I was glad they would -not hang Lutwyn. He was dead. - -"The horn blew louder in the wood. I heard them shouting. The mistletoe -was burning gold. I said, 'Woden, Woden! we be brothers, Lutwyn and me!' -They broke upon us, shouting, and all went black--" - -Drew stopped speaking. He sat bent over, looking at the fire. Putting -down a hand he stroked Tam. Straightening himself, he looked at Linden -and Marget. "All that was actual," he said. "Just as actual, just as -real, just as day and night and earthly and conscious as this room and -the fire and we six and the dog!" - -He made a movement toward Randall. "You tell the rest." - -Randall's voice came in. "The detachment drove the Germans out of the -wood and chased them a good long way. It was dawn when we stopped and -went back to gather up our hurt and dead. There were a dozen dead, -Germans and us, and a good many hurt, all scattered through that wood -that was full of big trees. We found Drew propped against a very great, -old, fallen tree. He had been struck over the head in the hand-to-hand -fighting and had a cut or two besides. Nothing odd in that, but what was -odd was that he was cherishing a dead German--had his head lying on his -knee! Of course, enemies lying as close as lovers wasn't any novelty! -But Drew had crept some little way to this man, and had tried to stop -his bleeding, all there in the dark, and had given him water, and then -had gathered him into his arms. He said: 'Yes, he was Drew, but he was -one Oswy, too. Yes, that was a German, but it was Lutwyn, too.' He said -they were twin brothers. We were used to men out of their heads, so we -gathered him up and took him on. He wanted us to stop and bury the -German, but there wasn't time for that. The funny thing is that he -certainly isn't out of his head now! Yet he still believes that story, -though he won't tell it to every one...." - -The rain beat, the fire burned. "I've tried to get back," said Drew, -"back to Guthlac and the bullock wagon and why we were outlaws. If I -could find even now what we did--if I could get farther back still, to -the point where we decided to do it, and redecide, decide more wisely, -having long light upon it, I think that even now I could change in some -way the whole world! Changing it to Lutwyn and me would mean changing -the whole texture." - -"You are right," said Linden. "And seeing it that way you have begun to -put your change into operation." - -The fire shined, the rain beat upon the panes, the wind came with the -impact of sea in storm. Pictures shifted before the inner eye. Lands and -times held the earth. Now they seemed foreign pictures, now there was a -faintly conscious participation. "We are Earth, to-night," said Linden. -"All these are in our memory. Earth is growing conscious. A conscious -Spirit. That is what we mean to-day when we say, 'There is a new world -just beneath the horizon.'" - - - - -IX - - -In the night the storm ceased. The household woke to a high, clear, -stirring morning, the clouds riding in archipelagoes with, between -isles, a sea bluer than the Ægean. The shaken trees had spread a Persian -carpet. All the flowers hung heavy with wet, snails marched on the -paths, Sweet Rocket glistened. - -Randall and Drew must ride away, so at ten o'clock Jim brought their -horses. - -Marget and Anna Darcy walked through the flower garden. "I am going to -Mimy's house for a little. Will you come, too?" - -Marget had a basket upon her arm. "It is full of silk and cotton scraps -for Julia's quilts. The day I met you in Alder I begged of two or three -friends and they gave me all this! It is Julia's intense industry and -happiness, piecing quilts." - -"Who is Julia?" - -"Mimy's lame daughter. Lame in her body and just a little lame in her -mind." - -"Where does Just So come in?" - -"Oh, he's Susan's! Susan has been away upon a visit, but she's home -again. Zinia is Mimy's niece, and Jim is her grandson. Mimy and her -husband, old Uncle Jack, who is dead, 'belonged,' as they call it, to -the Lindens. When Richard bought Sweet Rocket she was living in Alder, -and she rode over in a wagon one day and told him she wanted to come -home--just like me!" said Marget, with a happy laugh. "The old cabins -were tumbling down. Richard built her a real house. He said that any who -came and said, 'This is home'--" Her dark eyes looked afar to the valley -rim. - -"Where does Mancy live?" - -"Over there, behind the big field. He and Delia, his wife, and William, -who is Roger Carter's right-hand man." - -Mimy, in the kitchen, was singing: - - - "Roll, Jordan, roll! - I want to go to heaven to hear Jordan roll. - Oh, roll, Jordan, roll!" - - -Marget stopped at the door. "We're going to your house, Aunt Mimy, with -quilt pieces for Julia." - -Mimy interrupted her singing. "Are you gwine take company?" - -"Well, she isn't company." - -"You'll find a mighty mess in that house! I don't think I ought to let -you go, Miss Marget! You see, Susan's been away, and Julia can't get -around, and when Zinia comes from the big house she wants to _read_! -instead of straightening up. I reckon you better not go." - -Marget laughed. "Aunt Mimy, you know how we'll find the house!" - -"Well, go along!" said Mimy, gloomily. "Julia'll be glad to get the -pieces." - -They left the kitchen behind them. - - - "And I want to go to heaven to hear Jordan roll!" - - -Marget's low, warm laughter sounded again. "Her house is like a pin, and -she's so proud of it, and she wouldn't for anything miss having you see -it! The same little rhyme is said to every guest we have. And '_read!_' -Mimy's so proud to see Zinia sit at a table and read! Jim can read, too, -but he doesn't like to. But Zinia is fond of books." - -Mimy's house rose beside the orchard, a pretty cottage with a dooryard -filled with cockscomb and larkspur and marigold. At the gate grew a bush -of myrrh, and the porch had over it a gourd vine. Just So sat in the -middle of the path, playing with red and blue blocks. At the sound of -voices Susan appeared, a clear-brown, neat, and active woman. "Just So, -don't you clutter up the path like that! Come this-a-way, Miss Marget!" -She took them across the porch, where the gourd vine made so pleasant a -pattern, into a little parlor, bright as a pin. They sat and talked, and -then Susan said that she would bring Julia, and, leaving the room, -reappeared, pushing a wheeled chair. In this sat Julia, who was almost a -middle-aged woman, and had a slender, pleasing face, and was only a -little lame in her mind. - -Marget emptied the basket. "Oh, my!" said Julia, and again, "Oh, my!" -With eager fingers she spread the bits of silk and velvet and satin and -striped or flowered ribbon. "Flower-garden pieces! It will be a -flower-garden quilt. I'll make a quilt like they have in heaven!" - -"Shoo! Julia!" exclaimed Susan. "They don't have quilts in heaven. It -ain't cold there!" - -Julia's face took on an imploring, almost a frightened look. She turned -to Marget. "If they don't have quilts I won't have anything to do!" - -With all that she knew of Marget Land, Miss Darcy could but wonder at -the luminous sweetness, the depth and the play with which Marget, seated -by Julia, dealt with the latter's fears. All the bright pieces were -spread over the knees of both. "In heaven you'll put rose and blue -together, and this violet and green. And look how these flowered pieces -go! Your quilts are for warmth and beauty, Julia, aren't they? Shut your -eyes and see warmth and beauty, warmth and beauty!" She put her hand -over the lame woman's hand. The latter's plaintive look changed, her -eyes brightened, and she nodded her head. "Yes! To keep us warm; and -they are lovely, like the flowers! Warm like the sun is!" - -"Yes. Warmth and beauty--warmth and beauty! So in heaven you're to keep -on with warmth and beauty. And you'll learn, too, how well wisdom goes -with them. Their quilts aren't just like these quilts, but you won't -care for that. You'll be putting together and giving beautiful, bright -things!" - -Julia caressed a length of flowered ribbon. "That's what I think. -They're warm and beautiful, warm and beautiful! And every one I give a -quilt to says, 'I'm so glad I've got one!'" - -"When you put that piece in, think 'warm and beautiful' for Mrs. Gray. -She gave it to you. And Miss Lucy Allen gave the beautiful blue piece." - -When they had quitted the porch with the gourd vine, and the dooryard, -and the gate by the myrrh bush, and were under the orchard trees, Marget -said: "She's been making quilts for twenty years. Perhaps two a year, -and into each one goes I do not know what dim thinking and feeling, -warmth and beauty, for such and such a one!" - -It was Miss Darcy's habit to rest a little in her own room after dinner. -In the midafternoon, coming downstairs, she found the door of Linden's -study open. Linden turned his head, hearing her step. "Come in! Here are -Marget and Curtin." - -It was the first time she had entered this room. Her eyes took it in as -she crossed the threshold, and found it a simple, grave place, as simple -and grave and charged with its own aroma and spirit as a pine wood. It -spread a large room, with plenty of space for pacing up and down. The -bookcases, the desk, the chairs, an old, long cane and wood sofa were -for use. The plain walls held a few prints. In one of the deep windows -stood a large globe. - -Curtin put Miss Darcy a chair. "I've just come in," he said. There had -grown between them, beginning the morning upon which she found him -fishing, or not fishing, in the gorge that closed the valley, a quiet -liking and friendship, with a sense, perhaps, of standing even in the -inner world. "Linden was saying--" - -Marget sat before the desk not far from the fireplace, in which burned a -light flame. She had been writing, and Linden dictating from his big -cane chair by the long window. She had turned from the desk and he had -moved his chair to where he sat, half in firelight, half in tawny -sunlight. To Anna Darcy's sense the room had strongly that luminousness -which in some sort she found in the whole of Sweet Rocket, in valleys, -hills, house, and folk. The whole made a sun-filled cluster that, acting -as a cluster, redoubled so all effects. But undoubtedly Linden and -Marget were the center of the cluster. - -"I am glad you have come in," said Curtin. "Linden was speaking of -their life here--" - -"I told you, you remember, driving through the woods, of our outer -life," Marget said. "Sitting here before the fire we had begun to talk -of that far larger life within the outer." - -Linden spoke. "Martin asked me, and I was telling him as clearly as I -could. It is not wholly clear, you must not think, to Marget and me, our -progression and our life. 'Man is a bridge,' says Nietzsche. A living -bridge that crosses from himself to himself. Always the provisional, the -halfway, gone afar even while we say, 'Here am I!' How to name a thing -that travels so fast! The life of Marget and me changes and grows, as -does yours and yours. The history of one--the history of all. There is -at once divine difference, divine sameness. No hand and no word will -hold our life!" - -"I don't know anyone like you," said Curtin. - -"No. But you will presently begin to know more and more who differ from -us and yet who belong in the order--the order of those who are aware -that present man is a bridge and who begin consciously to act, feel, and -know in a larger existence." - -"And that is still inward?" - -"The world still calls it inward. To those in that existence inward and -outward, past, present, and future, come into one. The old words, then, -are but retained words of convenience. As to the ultimate mind Martin -and Richard, Marget, Anna, are but words of convenience, names for -strands of experience. All are comprehended, combined, surpassed." - -The sun lighted his hair, his bronzed face, his quiet eyes, the sight of -which he seemed so little to miss. After a moment's pause he spoke on: -"To-day many and many are aware of the richness of destiny. Some more -so, some less so, but aware! Faculties that in a host are but germinal -build in and for others realities. The momentary, superficial present, -not being the true present, there _are_, not 'there have been' since the -dawn of history, many such men and women. Very many; a host. There are -many to-day; to-morrow there will be more. If you regard with intentness -you may see the new Humanity forming." - -"What of those who neither dream, nor divine, nor wish, who come on so -slow?" - -"Their not divining nor dreaming nor wishing is more apparent than real. -All come on. The slowest, who thinks he has no direction, is drawn -unconscious until the day when he discovers the compass." - -"Will any never cross?" - -"I don't think so." - -"And when the last human being has crossed?" - -"Then will the others come on into humanity--they that we call the -animals. And those behind them will lift to where they were. But our -wave goes on into the spiritual world that is the world of subtler -matter, vaster energy, understanding at last, love at last, beauty at -last. Well, Marget and I are conscious travelers thitherward, as are you -and you." - -"Ah, you are ahead of me!" - -"And of me!" - -"In some ways we may be ahead. And in others you may have store of -energy and experience that sets you ahead. That matters not in the -least. Whitman said that when he said: - - - "By my side or back of me, Eve following, - Or in front, and I following her, just the same. - - -Like him, too: - - - "Content with the present and content with the past, - - -yet lassoing the past and the present with the future!" - -Curtin shook his head. "You have powers that are not mine." - -"If we have them, they will be yours. Marget and I think that we have, -as it were, a blueprint. But not yet do we walk in the full and great -temple! We do faintly and weakly what one day we shall do with all -vigor. And many things that we do not yet dream we shall do! And you -also, you and Anna. When you begin to feel continuity, when no matter -where you move you take possession of yourself--" - -He rose from his chair, and, standing before them, put a hand upon -Curtin's shoulder and a hand upon Anna Darcy's. "'With all your getting, -get understanding.' 'The kingdom of heaven is within you.' God is _I -am_." - -The sun struck through the western window, the fire burned, the room was -lighted and warmed. Flame and stirring air made a low singing. - - - - -X - - -The next day Drew came back. Curtin, seated on the porch, saw him cross -the river and ride up by the cedars. Shutting his book, he descended the -steps to meet him. "Good day, Drew! Glad to see you back! Nothing -wrong?" - -Drew dismounted. "No. I wanted to talk to Mr. Linden." - -Jim, coming around the house, took the horse. "He's out somewhere on the -place," said Curtin. "Miss Land, too. But they will be back by twelve. -Did you ride from Rock Mountain this morning?" - -"Yes. It's not so far once you know the way." - -He took the chair that Curtin hospitably pushed forward, and sat -apparently in a brown study, while the other speculated. At last said -Drew: "This is a good, big farm with room, I shouldn't be surprised, for -another worker. At any rate, I've ridden over to ask Mr. Linden to -employ me." - -"Do you like farming better than forestry?" - -"I like it better plus some other things." His eyes swept the hills -that shut in the vale. "There is rich forest here. Any woodland that he -has I could cut and replant. I know something of farming, too, and I can -learn more. I'd give good work in return for the other things that they -can teach me, and that I want." - -He regarded Curtin with brooding eyes. "Ever since I could remember I -have been beset by the past. A man told me once that I was conscious -there, but hadn't co-ordinated it with the present and the future. It -was some time ago, and he went away at once and I never found his like -again--until I came here. I don't think there are many of them, living -at any one time. The only wisdom I've got is the wisdom of going where I -think I may find help." - -"How about Randall?" - -"I'm very fond of Randall. But he can't help me here, nor I him. He -thinks it's just my 'queerness.' There's a man in Washington who will be -mighty glad to get my job. He's a friend, too, of Randall's. I want to -stay here for a year. Then I may go foresting again with Randall. I -don't want to lose him. If Mr. Linden can't use another man this winter -perhaps he will take me in the spring. In that case I'll go, and come -again. I've talked it all out with Malcolm Smith, our chief at Rock -Mountain. Brown in Washington will come down right away." - -At twelve appeared Linden. He stood in the hall door. "Is it you, Drew? -I will be down in a moment to shake hands." They heard his step going up -to his room. "Blind, and not blind!" said Curtin. "There's some profound -development of sensibility." - -"I am not a scholar," said Drew. "I haven't got the names to give to -things. That's a part of my need." - -Marget and Miss Darcy came up from the river path. They had been, it -seemed, to the overseer's house. Marget gave her hand to Drew. "I am -glad to see you again!" There was no surprise in her warm and happy -voice. "Your room is all ready for you." - -They had dinner. When it was over Drew went with Linden into his study. -The three others lingered a little in the pleasant, wide hall. The day -was again right October; amber and garnet and sapphire; balm with -nothing of lethargy. - -Said Curtin, "When we come and come, what do you do at last?" - -Marget laughed. "Oh, you come and go! You never really go, you know! But -you have to take your bodies here and there over earth. But once come, -we keep you and you keep us!" - -"You know people all over the earth?" - -"Yes." - -"Do they write?" - -"Oh, now one and now another writes! But we hardly need letters. That -is, they are needed, of course, for minute information, for news of -bodily movement. But there is communion whether we write or not." - -Marget returned to the dining room to talk with Zinia. Anna Darcy went -up to her chamber for her rest, and Curtin took his book to the porch. - -The books at Sweet Rocket. He fell to pondering them. There were, -perhaps, five thousand, not in one room, but up and down. Many were old, -and many neither old nor new, and many new. They seemed to touch all -subjects. - -Curtin, pondering, going deeper and deeper, fell into some border -country of Reality. With swiftness, with electric shock, he touched, not -thousands of leaves of paper printed over, but conscious, intelligent, -and powerful life. Or rather, it seemed to touch, to descend upon him, -to well through him, coming down, coming from within, occupying space -internal to all this tranquil, outer, October space. It was presence, it -was personality, overwhelming. Books! What were true books? Will, -Desire, Intelligence, living, active, not unclothed or unbodied, living -Presence, present Activity, being in mass, active being, present and -active here in this valley and present and active elsewhere, present and -active throughout he knew not what infinity! He felt again that wide and -deep shock of reality. The world lived!--had always lived--only he had -not known it. - -Vigor streamed into vein and nerve. He sprang to his feet, and, leaving -the porch, moved down past the cedars to the river path, and along it. -"It is not Richard Linden and Marget Land, nor the one nor the other! It -is all of us. It is the Whole. The Whole has found them and is bringing -them in accord." He felt exquisitely a touch of bliss. "It will bring me -in accord, too. Drew and Miss Darcy and me--and many others." He felt a -satisfaction such as he had never dreamed. "All others. One by one, all -accorded, all remembered. The Already Remembered, forever increasing in -strength, gathering, drawing, the scattered and fragmentary and -incipient!" - -He walked, hardly knowing that he walked. "Goodness and largeness! The -dawn of them is synchronous with the dawn of Allness. All our words, -mercy, justice, love, wisdom, power, joy, are but terms for the natural, -habitual feeling of the One who is Whole. It is not that they are -'virtues'! They are the hue and tone and sense of health!" - -He went up the river as far as the overseer's house. Here, upon the -bench built around the sycamore, he found old Mr. Morrowcombe, who had -stayed over with the Carters. In his old brown clothes, with hair and -long beard, pale as the pale patches of the sycamore trunk and boughs, -leaning forward upon his stick, he looked, as it were, the huge old tree -come forth into human form. - -Curtin sat down beside this old man. The cane upon which the elder -leaned was now close to his eye and he saw that it was covered with -finely cut words. Thick, and shaped like a shepherd's crook, the graving -ran all over it. "May I look?" - -"Surely!" said Mr. Morrowcombe, and gave it into his hand. "The year I -was in prison at Camp Chase I carved around it the twenty-third psalm." - -Curtin examined the quite beautifully done work. "Trust and Consolation -in your hand--walking with them for fifty years!" He sat musing. - -Mr. Morrowcombe's old, gentle voice began like the zephyr in the -sycamore, whose beginning you could hardly guess. "Yes, sir! That -staff's me now. Just as a good dog that goes with you gets to be you. -It's helped me, week days and Sundays; that staff I made myself. I made -it myself, and I didn't make it. I didn't make the tree that grew it and -I didn't make the psalm; nor David that made the psalm. But I cut the -staff from the tree and I carved the words there. So I reckon I have my -part." - -"You cut it in prison?" - -"Do you see that piece just thar?" The old finger traced the line. -"'_Thou settest me a table in the presence of mine enemies._' I cut that -deep and fierce!" - -He looked at the river and then again at Curtin. "Now, whatever it -means, I know it doesn't mean what then I wanted it to mean!" - -His old, gentle face grew meditative, contemplative. A more tranquil -form and face it would have been hard to find. "I kind of sense the -meaning, but I can't put it into words. But when you feel at last with -folks and things you can't feel against them. When I was young I must -have hated a lot of folk! I don't now." - -"What is your healing herb?" - -"Put yourself in his place. Don't oust him from the place, but -understand him. Flow into him deep! Then you'll find that there is -Something inside or above you and him which understands and straightens -out both of you. Next thing you find is that you haven't got any real -controversy." - -"Do you call that something God?" - -"That's what I call it. I used to think that you _had_ to call it God. I -don't now. But it's a mighty good word! We've hallowed it. It's the -biggest word we've got." - -"Mr. Morrowcombe, when we join God, don't you think we shall say 'I'?" - -"_That_ will say 'I.' Yes." - -They sat gazing at the river and the colored hills. "Ain't this a lovely -place?" said Mr. Morrowcombe. "It's like Beulah Land!" - -"Do you ever talk to Mr. Linden?" - -"Surely! Him and Marget Land. They're of those in our time who are -remembered early." - -He glided into one of his gentle silences. Curtin pondered that matter -of re-membering, re-collecting, re-storing. - -Said Mr. Morrowcombe, "I knew Marget Land when she was a little girl and -came to Sunday school. She was baptized in our church, but she ain't now -one of our church members. That used to grieve and puzzle me--make me a -little angry, too, I reckon! Now I don't bother about it. She's in the -Living Church, all right." - -He looked up into the bronze and silver sycamore. "I've sat on this -bench in old Major Linden's time, when John Land was overseer and lived -in the house yonder. His wife, Elizabeth, was just the salt of the -earth. Those children used to be playing around this tree. I remember -Marget, a bare-legged, big-eyed little thing. She's sat by me often on -this bench and made me tell her stories. Now it seems a long time ago, -and now it seems yesterday!" - -His voice sank again into the October sunshiny stillness. His lips -closed, but Curtin felt him speaking on in thought and consciousness. It -came to him, in another of those revelational flashings: "That is the -ultra-violet of speech, the high, subtle, inaudible, continual speech! -When we begin to catch it, when we begin to hear thought--" He felt -again the shock of going together, of rivers pouring into ocean. - -Mr. Morrowcombe's lips parted. "The war turned me serious, and I found -religion two years after the surrender. I'd tell her Bible stories. I -had a kind of gift that-a-way. Roger Carter, that's my nephew as well as -my son-in-law, has got the same gift, though it ain't always Bible -stories that he tells--except I reckon as all true stories are Bible -stories! I used to tell her about David and Jonathan, and Joseph and his -brethren, and Ruth and Naomi, and Mary and Martha and Lazarus, in -Bethany.... Mary and Martha in yourself, and Lazarus who was long dead -but could be raised, and Christ, who could judge and portion and raise, -all in yourself! She used to listen, sitting just there. She had mind -then, and she's got mind now--more'n I have in a lot of ways. She and -him. Mind and goodness, and spirit that is power, and a body that you -love to look at! They're the kind of folk that ought to be. Yes, sir, I -was thinking when you came along of Marget sitting there, a little -thing, and saying, 'Now tell me about the children of Israel'--or 'about -Bethlehem,' as it might be." - -With distinctness Curtin felt that which the old man also seemed to -feel, for he turned his head, lowering it and his eyes a little, and -smiling. The movement was precisely that of turning and smiling into a -child's eyes. Again through Curtin poured that thrill of a freshness of -knowledge. If this tree, this place, were strongly in a consciousness, -in a memory, surely then that conscious spirit itself might in some -sort be felt here! At any rate, he was aware of Marget, though to all -outward senses appeared only the warm-colored October air. He had again -the sense of etheric life. He lost it. It was so bright, it was so -transient! The unquenchable desire was to bring it lasting. - -He presently walked back to Sweet Rocket House. Drew was on the porch. -"I'm going to stay. I'll write to Brown, and ride to Rock Mountain -to-morrow to tell Mr. Smith and Randall, and pack up my things." - - - - -XI - - -The next day Drew returned to Rock Mountain to make his arrangements. -"Why not ride with him?" Linden looked at Curtin. "There is a fair -trail. You have an extraordinarily fine view from the top." - -Drew urged it likewise. "But I haven't a horse." - -"Roger Carter has a good saddle mare. He will be glad, I know, to let -you have her." - -Drew, mounted as he came, Curtin on Dixie, set out before noon for Rock -Mountain. The cliffy crest that gave it its name peered above the -southern hills and ridges facing Sweet Rocket. Crossing the river the -two kept for some little distance to the Alder road, then at a pine tree -left it for a just discernible track. "This is where we changed, Randall -and I, the other day. Until we saw the river we thought that we were -going to Alder, but we were going to Sweet Rocket instead." - -The trees closing in behind them, they were plunged into forest. There -was now no green save the green of occasional pine or hemlock. All was -gold or red or russet. Moreover, the earlier trees to turn were fast -flinging their mantles upon the earth. The sky met less obstruction, the -sunlight spread a royal carpet. The air equaled exhilaration. As Curtin -rode he thought that he faintly remembered all the forests of the world. -"Is it infectious? Is it because in some sort Drew remembers, or is it -because I have been--and surely I _have_ been--in all the forests of the -world? Like him, I remember best the temperate and the northern forests, -because in time they are the nearer." - -For a while they rode in silence. There was only the sound of their own -breathing and movement, and the very inner voice of the forest, low -speech of branches that brushed them, break of twigs, flutter of wings, -tap of woodpeckers, whisk of squirrel, and once, a little way off, the -heavy whir of a pheasant. At last Drew broke the silence. "My mother -died when I was fifteen years old, and my father when I was twenty. I -remember my mother's mother and my father's mother and father. I know a -good deal about their life after I was born and their life before I was -born. I have a fair notion of my grandparents' parents, and I know -something of the way of life of the generation behind that one. I have -been told and I have read. Of course there are presently ancestors of -whom I have been told nothing, and behind these countless others. Of -course I know that people often imaginatively share the experience of -parents and kindred. They say: 'It must have been so and so with my -mother and my father--or with my grandparents--or my ancestors -generally. They had these experiences and they must have felt and done -this way. It seems almost as if I were there!' I think when you say that -you are beginning. But it's grown to be more than that with me. After -all, what are you but your parents, your grandparents, your -great-grandparents, and so on? Your experience under your immediate name -and your experience under your old names--their names. And alike, what -are they but you? Share and share, comprehend and comprehend, include -and include! I tell you that I am aware of the pyramid behind this -cleaving point that is talking to you. I _remember_." - -"Do you mean that you remember actually thinking, feeling, doing what -men say your ancestors did?" - -"I don't get it clear. It's all wrought into some kind of unity. I don't -remember clearly sharp, isolated experiences--except that one time I -told you about, and that was clear and sharp repetition. But I remember, -all the same. I don't feel any wall between my father and myself, -between my mother and myself, my grandparents and myself. You don't know -how curiously I seem to share their life! Sometimes, lying still at -night, I simply, naturally, am Edward Drew as well as Philip Drew. I -look out of the Edward Drew window--or out of the Andrew or Robert or -Margaret or Janet window--and then I turn and look out of the Philip -Drew window. I had a great-grandfather who was a sailor. I can't tell -you what feel of the deck beneath my feet, what a sense of sea by day -and by night, I have at times!... But then, of course, in the far back I -must join many sailors.... I _am_ those folk. That's my own life they -led. I lead their life. Wherever they are, they lead mine!" - -He fell silent, and Curtin, too, rode silent. They were now above the -valley, their road climbing. Overpassing a great hill they came to a -threadlike, green vale, and crossing this climbed Bear Mountain, behind -which rose the great head of Rock. When they reached a gushing mountain -spring they dismounted, and, seated on moss and leaves under a tall -mountain linden, all palely gold, ate the bread and cheese and damson -tart and drank the cider that Sweet Rocket had put in the bag they -carried. Their feast ended, they rested on the springy, fragrant earth. - -Drew began again. "Remembrance! If I had a hundred per cent better -brain--and I suppose one day the brain of all of us will be a hundred, a -thousand per cent, ahead of what it is now--I am convinced that I could -remember not only down the stalk of myself, but out into the branches -right and left. The tree conscious from leaf to root, from root to -leaf! The whole tree conscious, aware up and down and to and fro--and, -as somewhere all the forest joins on, the forest conscious and aware up -and down of its history. Then the forest runs into all the forests high -and low. The everlasting Forest and all its adventures!" He looked as -though he rode in that forest. "Out of it comes the Tree that sheds the -forests! And never once need we lose consciousness in finding that Tree! -That's what Mr. Linden said to me. He said: 'You're the Ash Yggdrasil. -You're all things and all people. You share them and they share you. -You're to extend, extend, your sense of that. The One is to come down -and lay hold upon you--and still you shall find it home and yourself!'" - -On they rode over Bear Mountain, and at last up Rock. Five hundred feet -below the top lay a green depression named Hall's Gap. Here a half-dozen -cabins made Hall's Town. The people now owned Rock Mountain, its rich -forests and rushing waters. A road was in the making and that and other -department plans brought to Hall's Gap preliminary groups, the present -group being a surveying, engineering, and reporting one, with Malcolm -Smith for head. Under him he had Cooper and Morris, Randall and Drew, -with axmen and spademen hired from the mountain. The cabins in the Gap -lodged them all. - -Curtin and Drew reached this place before sunset. The men were coming -in, dogs barked, the smell of coffee and bacon hung in the air. Randall -welcomed them, and presently Malcolm Smith appeared and shook hands. -They had supper in Hall's big double cabin, with Hall and Mrs. Hall and -half a dozen flaxen-haired young Halls, but after supper they went to a -neighboring cabin, for the time being their own. Pine knots blazed on -the hearth. Malcolm Smith and Cooper and Morris, Randall and Drew and -Martin Curtin stretched tired limbs and smoked and talked. Morris and -Cooper presently played checkers. Malcolm Smith read the newspaper, but -after a little put it down and talked. He talked of aviation, and -wireless, and of Einstein's notion of space, and of atomic energy. "I've -an idea that ideas, ideation generally, imagery, perhaps memory, are -simply that energy functioning! We imagine, and that energy has -constructed a form in ether. We use it blindly, weakly, unintelligently. -But if--" - -"I see." - -"But if we used it enormously more strongly--and wisely--we'd be -creators all night! It's getting very important to know what we do want -to create. If we don't look out, presently we may find that our -imaginations have life! We've got to choose, I suppose, what kind of -life we'll give; silly or monstrous life, or intelligent, kindly, -strong, beautiful life!" - -Curtin enjoyed the evening on Rock. Flame and odor of burning pine, and -the pleasantly grotesque shadows on the cabin walls, made for rich -fancies. In one of the easy silences the men grouped in this brown and -flame-hued place seemed to him genii, gathered here before they drove -their roads over mountains or harnessed their plunging water steeds. He -thought: "We are genii! How wonderful it is to be what we are--and shall -be!" - -Men at Hall's went to bed before ten. Curtin found in a small cabin a -hard couch and honest sleep. He slept without turning till five of the -morning, when he waked with a great sense of refreshment. "Where I have -been I don't know, but it was where vigor flows!" The stars shone in at -his window. He lay still for a few minutes, then rose. The air was not -too chill. He found when he was dressed that he was warm enough. Opening -the cabin door he went out, moving softly so as not to waken Drew and -Randall. The morning star hung in the east, and near it the moon in her -last quarter. The cold, first hyacinth of dawn streaked the sky. Drew -had pointed out the path to the top of the mountain. Curtin, finding it, -climbed it alone. Half an hour brought him to the summit. When he -reached it the earth was bathed in the cool and violet first light. He -found a great projecting rock, shaped like a chair, and took his seat -here. The planet, from gold, was become silver, and the moon hung like -a dream canoe. Here or there mist hid the vast expanse below, but for -the most part earth lay clear. The outthrust rock that was his seat gave -him two-thirds of the circle. - -Stillness with depth and power possessed Curtin. He looked out, and -down, and over. Range on range, with narrow vales between, rolled the -mountains. In the strengthening light the autumn hue of them gave desert -tints; then he picked out clearings, and white points that were hamlets -and farmhouses. He turned eyes to where would be Sweet Rocket, though he -could not see that valley. It was dawn. Richard Linden would be up. -Perhaps, guessing that Curtin might watch dawn brighten from this rock, -he might be here in mind and spirit. - -Even as he thought this, the presence of Linden not there but here, or -both here and there, came to Curtin in a wave. He felt company in -solitude, doubled life. And not, as he presently perceived, Linden only. -Linden meant thousands of others, as thousands of others meant Linden. -Thousands and thousands.... That was himself ... thousands and -thousands. - -He looked north and east and west; by rising and moving he looked south. -The horizon rim lay very far. Using knowledge, he let it farther drop -away, drop away. Underneath him was the bulk of the earth. Use power and -make it as crystal, penetrable as water or air! Overhead and all around -was air, thinning afar into ether. He saw his globe in space and time. A -ten-minute road of light ran between it and the sun. He sat very still, -but within he moved into the land of contemplation. Here much time came -into no-time, so subtle swift was motion. He entered into touch with -much for which he had not yet found name or names. He might say, there -is deep water and rich land. He might say, the world is other than we -thought it. There are Americas ripe for discovery, and there are farther -and future Americas forming. - -By degrees might lessened. Muscle could not yet hold, nor sense be -aware. He came nearer surface. Yet still there was vision. Phosphor was -paling, the moon a dim curve of pearl, and all the spread of earth in -stronger light. Curtin gazed, and the eyes of the mind outran the eyes -of the flesh. Not just Virginia, but all the forty-eight states. Not -just the forty-eight, but all America, Canada, and Mexico, and the -islands and the republics of the South. He looked to the Atlantic and -saw on the farther side Europe and Africa, and on to the east Asia and -the Pacific. He saw the continents and the nations. It was not so much -that he saw their earth, their body, though he saw that, too. But he saw -them, touched them, heard them, as persons. The most of them had lately -been at fierce war, fibers of each dissenting, but the bulk warring. -Exhausted from war, haggard and torn, yet still they made gestures with -broken weapons. He saw them in the throes of economic and political -change, of change from knowledge to knowledge, and of religious change. -He saw traits and actions, deep, deep; yesterdays at the point of -to-day, and all the morrows being built of yesterdays and to-days. He -saw as it were stain and chaff and guilt, and through all these -white-running Fire and Life and Upspringing. They were Persons, but a -greater Person held them. Light broke. He saw the earth and the world -and the heavens as Person. Upon him broke in deluge the vaster Selfhood. - -The sun rose over Rock Mountain, the long ranges and the vales. The air -had the exquisite fresh energy of Hope. Curtin moved down the path to -the cabins. All his being seemed lit and harmonized. "It is what the old -saints called conversion. My times fall into the hand of the One that I -Am!" - -The rosy light shone on Hall's below him as it shone on Sweet Rocket and -Alder and the Virginia farms and villages and towns, and the farms and -villages and towns of every state, and of all the Americas, and of the -earth. Fragrant smoke rose from the chimneys. He heard the cheerful -voices. A great love of the neighbor pervaded Curtin's consciousness, -and with it entered the neighbor. His consciousness and the neighbor's -consciousness became to a degree one. - - - - -XII - - -The men at work had breakfast at Hall's in great beauty of weather. -Afterward Curtin went with them along the proposed line of road. It -proved a cheerful group, doing basic work well. The wine of the air and -the lift of the earth and the beams of the sun helped amain. Axes rang, -pick and shovel sounded. There was a center of work and there were -outlying explorations. One hallooed to another. Morris was a master -whistler, and you heard him like a redbird. Dave Hall had an -interminable mountain ballad which he chanted as he worked. The buzz of -the whole might be caught a long way over the mountain slope. Where they -worked would be a great driveway for holiday folk. Young and old would -pass that way, drinking the great views and the mountain air, pierced by -beauty and largeness. Young and old, man and woman, a many and a many, -through years heaped like sand! - -"I like public work!" said Randall. - -Drew answered: "I like it, too! If a scholar wants to help all and a -teacher wants to help all, then going to school and teaching are public -works. But I'm coming back to help hold the forests for themselves and -the people." - -The morning went by quickly. At noon they had dinner by Indian Creek, -that rushed and leaped. Three young Halls brought their food in baskets. -It was spread under hemlocks, and they ate as it were in Arden. Dinner -over, for half an hour they smoked and rested, stretched out beneath the -trees. - -"Tell us a story, Cooper!" - -"I haven't one. Call Dave Hall over." - -Dave came, tall and lank and brown as ale. "Sit under that tree, Dave, -and tell us a story." - -"I kin sing you about John Horn and Betsy at the dance." - -"No. Tell us a story. Tell us about the mountain woman you began about -the other day when the storm came up." - -"Miss Ellice?" - -"Yes, Miss Ellice." - -Dave settled himself, with his back to the wine-red trunk of a hemlock. -He was lean and tanned, wide-eyed, with a rich, drawling voice. "She was -a see-er, that woman! This-a-time that I was telling about the mountain -barked like a dawg at her, and showed its teeth and tried to -bite--because she said an awful thing! She said that a time would come -when every man and woman could do the things that Jesus did. She said -Christ was an abstract description of the state of being folks would -come to some day, and Jesus was a great laborer who got there earlier -than 'most anybody else. Said he was an example, sure enough, and a -shower of the way, and who could help loving and wondering? But, -'cording to her, the best way to love Jesus was to _learn_. Stop jest -do-less wondering, and grow! Said that Bethlehem and Nazareth and -Galilee and Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem were where any man or woman -was! Brother Carraway preached against her, and the mountain decided she -wasn't healthy for it. She was living all alone, but the mountain -decided that her cabin had better be emptier yet. She was a tall woman, -about the age of my mother, and when you looked at her you'd think at -first she wasn't strong.... - -"Brother Carraway, after he had preached, went on home, but James Curdy -always took what he found in the Word and tried to do it. What he found -was usually right harsh. James had black eyes pushed 'way in, and long -hair that always seemed to me to be blowing in a wind. He was awful fond -of the word 'punish.' 'Now you're Punished!' 'God will Punish you!' He -used to stride around and do his best to see that God didn't forget it. -He was one to see that God did his duty, was James! He couldn't always -make the mountain look at things same as he did, but after Brother -Carraway's sermon, and the lightning striking Barber's house and killing -old Mrs. Barber, he got two-thirds of it worked right up to his -feelings! That was Tuesday after Sunday, the lightning having struck on -Saturday, and Mrs. Barber buried on Monday. He got about thirty men and -boys together at John Williams, and a lot of them had had whisky--I -don't know that this air interestin'? I could sing to you about John -Horn and Betsy." - -"No, go on! They were going to drive Miss Ellice off the mountain?" - -"That was the intention. But this very Indian Creek about a mile from -here makes a pool that's called Dumb Child Pool, because little Johnny -Nelson that was dumb was drowned there. He fell in while the children -were gathering nuts and he couldn't make them hear. Well, those that had -had something stronger than water, they were all for seeing if Miss -Ellice wasn't a witch! You know how folk used to prove a witch? That was -about twenty of the eager ones, mostly young men. This wasn't very -recent. I wasn't living on this mountain, but on Stormy Mountain over -thar. I came here when Lucinda Nelson and me married. But I've heard all -about it." - -He spat vigorously. "Now, this is where her seeing with other eyes than -like yourn and mine comes in! And how I come to know about some things -that others don't was that that very Lucinda Nelson that I married -happened to be at Miss Ellice's that day. Nelsons ain't afraid of -anything, and Miss Ellice had done them neighborly turns, sitting up -with the sick and sharing coffee, and such as that. Anyhow, Lucinda was -there, and Miss Ellice was braiding a rug and seemed extraordinarily -cheerful and sunny. 'Long about two of the clock, as it were, she broke -off her talk and finished her row, as it might be, without looking at -it. Then she says to Lucinda--and Lucinda says she was that still and -sunny, like a day that comes sometimes, that she was 'most afraid of -her, just as you're 'most afraid sometimes of that kind of day, and yet -you want to stay by it and it to stay by you--she says, says she, 'I'd -like you to stay longer, Lucinda, but I find that I've got something to -do! You go along, honey, and if I don't see you again I want you to -remember that I like you and think you're on the right road!' And with -that she got up and kissed Lucinda and stood in the door to watch her -down the path. Lucinda went along home. Well, in about two hours, here -they come, James Curdy and Mat Waters and Jonathan Morgan, and the -others, drunk with whisky and with what they thought was the Word of -God. They had a rope, and they meant the Dumb Child Pool." - -He spat again. "'Twas Jonathan Morgan that told me, and Lucinda the rest -of it. He was young and wild in those days. Jonathan says he hadn't been -drinking, and for all that now and then he shouted with the rest he had -never seen a day so sunny and still, and just the minute after he'd -shouted he'd see the whole as in a picture--his crowd and the Dumb -Child's Pool, and Miss Ellice's cabin. Kind of saw it out of himself as -it were, as though he was sitting on the bough of a tree looking, seeing -thar as well as here. But the rest of them, I reckon, didn't see nothing -but a witch and something exciting to do--unless it was James Curdy--and -what he saw and felt Lord knows! Something like a nightmare, I reckon! - -"Miss Ellice's cabin was high on the mountain. They stopped shouting -when they got nearly up thar. They thought that if before that Miss -Ellice heard them she'd just think it was some jamboree going on -alongside of mountain. James Curdy had such a rule that he could bring -even the drunken ones quiet for a bit. So they stole up the path, and -Jonathan said that the cabin above them looked like a goldy leaf hanging -still, or like an empty nest. So they went up in a string till they got -to where the trees stopped and there was just some bushes and grass. And -then they spread out, and went on in a bunch, and James Curdy cried in a -loud voice, 'Woman, come forth!' But the shut door didn't open. Then he -cried it again, and then he opened that tight mouth of his the third -time. He had more learning than most of the mountain and he used big -words. 'Blaspheming atheist, come forth!' But the others wouldn't stay -quiet any longer, and they shouted, 'Witch! Witch!' - -"The door stayed shut, and Jonathan said that the cabin hung like a -goldy leaf or a nest high up on a bright, still winter day. Jonathan -says there was something so still and sunny there that it stilled the -shouting. Then they opened the door, for it wasn't bolted, and those -that could get in went in--James Curdy at the head. Those outside spread -around so's they could catch her if she run out. But Miss Ellice wasn't -at home. She was gone. - -"Thar was her half-braided rug and her chair and a little fire on the -hearth. But she wasn't there. It turned out that she had taken a bag and -a basket with her clothes, and a little money she had. And then Mat -Waters found the letter on the table, and Jonathan Morgan read it, -because James Curdy had left his spectacles at home. And if you'll -believe me it was directed to 'James Curdy and Matthew Waters and -Jonathan Morgan and their Company.' Inside it said just this: 'I've -loved this cabin and this mountain. But now I remove myself from among -you. Yet I love this place where I have been, and am, and shall be. Now -abideth Faith, Hope, and Charity, but the greatest of these is Charity.' -And then there was the name, Ann Ellice. - -"Jonathan said half of them were still drunk and outrageous because they -couldn't have their fun at Dumb Child's Pool. A lot didn't even listen -to the letter, seeing with their own eyes that Miss Ellice was gone. -James Curdy listened, and his face got white and his eyes red coals. -'She's brazen!' says he. 'The devil talks Scripture to his own -damnation!' He went out of door and looked about him. But most of the -rest didn't see anything but that they'd lost something exciting to do. -They began to break up the furniture. Then some one raked the coals and -brands out over the floor and they set the straw bed on fire. But -Jonathan took the letter and a book or two she had--Lucinda's got the -books now. But James Curdy stood outside and looked down mountain. -'That's Harris's cabin a mile over thar. It's likely she's thar.' And he -began to go down over mountain side. Mat Waters and Jonathan Morgan -followed him, and so did about half of the others. The rest stayed to -burn the cabin. The witch had gone off on a broomstick for them! - -"The Harrises were a kind of lonely folk that didn't go much to church -or nowhar. They mightn't even have heard of Brother Carraway's sermon. -She might be thar, as James Curdy thought. But she wasn't. She had been -thar, they said, jest a minute. She'd looked in on old Aunt Viny Harris -and said she was going away. Said she was going to foot of mountain to -Norwood, whar you get the train. Aunt Viny asked when she was coming -back, and Miss Ellice smiled and said she didn't think she was coming -back. 'Whar was she going to live?' She said she didn't exactly know, -but she had kinsmen who would take care of her. 'Aye,' said Aunt Viny, -'you're a master weaver and worker, and any folk ought to be glad to -have such a handy woman around!' Which shows that the Harrises hadn't -heard anything. And so Aunt Viny said Miss Ellice said good-by very -friendly, and went on down mountain. James Curdy wanted to set a hound -of Harris's on her track, and the drunk ones shouted at that, and one -staggered out to get the dawg. But Jonathan, he represented that Miss -Ellice would be 'most down mountain now and out on big road where the -tracks would be all mixed up and covered, and anyhow the folk down there -wouldn't understand and let it be done. By that time the cabin was -burning up on mountain above them. They could see the smoke and light. -James Curdy had to let it be, though doubtless he had some hard thoughts -of the Almighty. Well, that is the end of it! She didn't ever come back. -It ain't much of a story. I don't know why I told it to you." - -"You don't know where she went?" - -"No. Mountain folk ain't curious in them ways. You'd better have let me -sing to you about John Horn. Lucinda says she took her body away, but -not her spirit. Says she can feel her any still and sunny day. I reckon -Jonathan Morgan feels the same way. I don't know. It's been a long time -ago! Brother Carraway's dead and Jonathan Morgan is Brother Morgan now -and preaches in the old church. Things air sure changing in this world! -Last summer I heard him say myself that Christ was inside us and not -outside--might never have been outside us, so much in the world being -parable! James Curdy's so old now he couldn't do anything but look mad -as an old beast in winter and get right up and go out of church, looking -like a snow cloud and talking to himself.... Lucinda says people keep on -acting and persuading if we see them or if we don't see them!" - -He lifted himself, long, lank, and brown, and moved from the hemlock. -"You air welcome--Mr. Smith, you'd better speak to Jim Harris about them -logs." - - - - -XIII - - -Malcolm Smith, talking with Curtin in the cool twilight, before Hall's, -had no word against Drew's departure for Sweet Rocket. "He's a valuable, -likable fellow! There's a curious sense when you are with him of depth -or background that he doesn't understand himself. Violin wood! He says -that this friend of yours has something to teach that he wants to learn. -That's all right! I can generally tell when a man's real destiny is -ruling him. I've got that feeling now about Drew. He needs to buy in a -certain city and he's going there. If we're here next year--and there's -a lot to do on Rock Mountain--I'll be glad to take him on again." - -Bedtime came. Again Curtin slept profoundly, restfully, waked early, and -climbed again to crest of mountain to see again the sun rise over so -great expanse. He sat in the stone chair and before him hung the morning -star and the senescent moon. Below them was spread violet and jonquil -and one strange sea of blue. - -Again he felt the Spiritual Sun. He thought: "This is what they have -perceived at Sweet Rocket. They have not waited for death. They live -now, and forever, and know it. This body will go from them, but they are -building or remembering--I do not know which, and perhaps it is both--a -life that will not go from them. And I also, also, though I am a babe -yet--" - -Sitting in the hollow of stone at the top of the upraised wave of earth -he watched the sunrise from Rock Mountain.... He conceived that what was -true of him was true of others, had been true age after age, was true -now over this round earth of others. He thought: "There has always been -a fellowship. The eidelweiss does not guess the roses and the -heliotrope, nor the violet and the meadow rue. But at last the garden of -the earth guesses! It becomes the living garden. The living garden -becomes the living man. Naught is right, naught is reasonable, until you -get it from the whole." - -The sun rose, the earth turned ruddy. Curtin went down the path to -Hall's, breakfasting there with the men who worked with head and hands. -This morning he and Drew would start for Sweet Rocket. Drew's slender -luggage was going down mountain to Norwood, whence the train would take -it to Alder. Every one liked Drew, even Cooper who laughed at him. "Good -luck, old farmer! Ride over and see us sometime!" - -The two rode down Rock and crossed a vale, like a green and gold ribbon, -and went up Bear Mountain, where the oaks were all deep colored, and -down Bear and over forested hills and on by the trail that struck into -the Alder road. They went rather silently, but in a deep, contented -companionship. Once Drew spoke. "He said, 'A good present is one in -which the past betters its condition.'" When he said "he" there was -meant Richard Linden. After this there was silence again, both having -struck some road within, where is the network composed of all the roads -of the world. - -They approached Sweet Rocket. The forest fell away. Before them shone -the river, the wheat and orchard land, and the ruddy house with its -pillars of mellowed white, and the hills that inclosed. Through part of -the day clouds had been driving across the sky. Now they were sinking -before the southwest wind, leaving the blue arch. They were variformed, -castles and towers, bridges, alps, cities, ships, mythical beasts, -giants. Light embraced them in a spray of colors. Crossing to it, for -one instant, Curtin saw Sweet Rocket transfigured. All that was strong -and fair became a hundredfold stronger, fairer. All that deterred or -roughened or overweighted or twisted or weakened vanished in warmth and -light. A sheath, or husk, or burr fell away. Interior power rousing -itself, he saw the place in its seraph aspect, eternal in the heavens. -Drew seemed to share the perception. He said, abruptly, "There is -splendor!" - -They felt splendor; then it closed, like light withdrawn, warmth -screened away. There stood Sweet Rocket in its earthly estate. That is, -they thought it its old earthly estate. But by that much it had become -endowed and was not the old earthly estate. They had checked their -horses. Curtin said, "So it was always in poetry!" - -The younger man had a curious gesture. "We gather all the household gear -into the long ship, and put forth!" - -But Curtin thought, "In the Bible Noah gathers all the lifeseed into the -Ark and rides the waters into a new world." - -They crossed the river and went up the little glistening beach and by -the cedars to the house. Sweet Rocket welcomed them home, the white folk -and the colored folk and Tam. They found the household increased by two. - -Linden said, "These are my cousins, Robert and Frances Dane, who come -for a little while each year to Sweet Rocket." - -They were a married pair, a little above forty, perhaps, the mark of the -city upon them. They had quick and nervous bodies, thin, lined faces, -eyes well apart, burning deep and very steady, lips tending to -compression. They seemed tired--about them breathed something of -soldiers after a long day's march through hostile elements. This was -bivouac, this was rest! At first they were too tired, there was almost -resentment. "O God, _how_ can you be still and ageless?" This changed, -little by little, at Sweet Rocket. The overtension disappeared. They -were left taut, collected, wary--workers worthy of praise in a dangerous -world. - -At the supper table that evening Curtin made out more and more of their -life. They had come yesterday, a little before their set time, and Anna -Darcy had the start of him in acquaintanceship. Intellectual radicals -certainly, members of some group in action, probably of more groups than -one, jack of all agitations and master of one. He could hear them -speaking, in halls, and under open sky, and he could see the face of the -throng to which they spoke. They would be speaking of Soviet Russia, of -Guild Socialism, of Employer and Employed and the Course of Labor that -did never yet run smooth. There were causes, not so apparently economic, -for which also they would work. He heard them speaking for the Suffrage -Amendment and likewise for the release of Conscientious Objectors. They -belonged here, they belonged there. The one, he was later told, was -Associate Editor of a Journal that was making the step from liberalism -of the left to communism of the right. The woman was an admirable -violinist. He knew that they lived on little and gave much of that -little away. They lived where it was possible to live in one big room -and three small rooms. They had a son who was doing well at a school -they liked in the country. To look at them was to see how hard they -worked, and to look into their eyes was to see the beacon that set them -and kept them at work. They also had vision of Oneness. - -Though in talking Linden and Marget used in a much less marked degree -the terminology used by the newcomers, it seemed to present no -difficulties to them. They seemed to understand these guests, as they -understood those others who had come to Sweet Rocket this October, to -understand and to travel with them. Curtin thought: "They sympathize. It -does not occur to them to say, 'Do something else, take another road!'" -He thought: "That is their strength. They utterly share." - -Frances Dane had brought her violin to Sweet Rocket. Yesterday it had -been laid in the parlor. Now, after supper, sitting by the fire in the -old room, the violin spoke. It told of the player's passion for the -world, of the man who wrote that music's passion for the world, of the -passion for the world of all makers of violins, and of the trees whose -wood was used, of the passion for the world that is progression and -revolution, of the passion for the world that is the slower rate that is -called withstanding progression and revolution, of the passion for the -world that is music, of the passion for the world yesterday, to-day, and -forever, of the passion for the world that every heart of us knows! - - - - -XIV - - -"It is something like this," said Linden. "We are One Being with its -mighty potencies. All that comes in comes to us, all that goes forth -goes from us. The points that take, ponder, sort, combine, alter to -better liking; the mighty poles, the mighty afferent and efferent that -flow from pole to pole, all that is movement, that is gravitation, that -is cohesion, that is justice, that is harmony, that is love, are Ours. -We go as we have gone through time, from and toward--the from that is -also toward, the toward that is also from. But something beyond Time as -we have known it, beyond Space and Causation as we have known them, -increases upon us. Consciousness in some sort of the whole orb, -awareness through and through, is momentously upon us to-day. In the end -all desire is desire for that." - -"We shall move then in four-space?" - -"If you choose to put it so. It is an allowable figure. All that present -language can devise is but a word, a figure, a symbol. What we mean is -the next advance in consciousness. When you have it you know it." - -They were treading a slender path through October fields. Now they were -in a great, climbing cornfield, all stacked corn like brown wigwams, and -here and there upon the brown and stubbly earth the orange of pumpkins. -The air folded them in violet and gold dust and faint frankincense. The -hills had changed in color, so many leaves being shaken down. On days -like this the mountains were evidently entranced. It was Indian summer -before the Indian summer time. "A new consciousness?" said Frances Dane, -walking with Curtin. "A farther-on consciousness? It is in the air -to-day!" - -"Yes." - -"Wise men saying, 'We have seen His star in the east--' Oh, that's a -figure!" - -"There is some Reality, or thousands of us would not be hearkening, as -we are hearkening.... A new man, a new creature.... It's a consummation -devoutly to be desired!" - -The heaped corn stood around, the orange globes made constellations on -the earth. They were now well up the slope, at their feet Sweet Rocket -and the little sliding river. All was reflected, all was veiled, but now -and again eyes looked through the veil. Reaching the top of the hill -they found there a tall, solitary tree--a black gum--and built around it -a bench. It linked in Curtin's mind with the sycamore before the -overseer's house. - -They sat upon the bench and upon the ring of brown grass that ran -around the tree. The view was fair and they rested in silence. It was -Anna Darcy who noticed how much silence there was at Sweet -Rocket--silence that sang, that caressed. Moments went by, silence held -them, fair solitude, sense of one person here alone. Tam moved, coming -nearer to Linden. The latter's hand dropped to Tam's head. Anna Darcy -heard a low sigh of relief and burden lifted. It came, she thought, from -Frances Dane, who sat near her upon the grass. But it might have come -from more than Frances, from all. - -Stillness and silence deepened. There grew a cathedral sense, a desert, -an ocean sense. Into that entered a wealth of light and strength. A vast -wave of freedom, an access of life, lifted them. They had life and they -had it more abundantly. They seemed to themselves to flash together, and -of them all was made a god. For an instant there held an intense vision -of this valley and of Sweet Rocket transfigured. Color and sound lived, -every movement was of joy. That broke away, vanished like the image of a -rose into the image of a garden of ten thousand. Then that was gone into -an image of all the earth, and then that into intense, sheer, mighty -Living, with small regard to old space and time, abounding, keen, a -Reality leaving old reality behind. - -"When it is all done, when it is all known, all felt, when we are fully, -completely ourself, when we remember our Godhood and live it, when we -do not look through storm for the lighthouse ray because we are Light, -when we do not cry Father and Son because we are both and know it, when -there is glory of home, glory of health, glory of love--" - -Who had spoken they did not know; it seemed their common voice. Perhaps -it was Linden, but if so he spoke as their common voice. Into it came -not only the voice of the seven there, but the voice of old Mr. -Morrowcombe and the Carters, and of Mrs. Cliff and Mimy and Zinia and -Mancy and the others; not just the voice of Sweet Rocket, but the voice -of Alder, and of many an Alder, big and little, the voice of the city -and the country, the land and the sea. "To be well! Oh, rise within me, -truest Self, with healing in thy wings!" - -The great, golden feeling passed, leaving echoes, leaving memory. These -folk were separate again where they had been one, but not so separate. -In and out hovered that breath of transfiguration, a day of spring in -late winter, dying, but with a tongue to tell of a time when it would -not die. Where all had been vivid, singing, laughing, now was the wonted -gentleness of this valley, a dreaminess shot with gold, taking and -giving, but doing it subtly, silently, only now and then bestowing -evidence of a vast interpenetrative life, showing like the eyes through -the veil of this Indian summer day. - -They went down through the corn and out by a gate, set in the gray and -lichened rail fence, where grew sumac and farewell-summer and the -feathery traveler's-joy. They walked in meadows by the river, and at -last through the orchard, and so to the house. Mimy, in the kitchen, was -singing: - - - "Oh, Jesus tell you once befo', - Babylon's fallin' to rise no mo'. - Oh, go in peace and sin no mo', - Babylon's fallin' to rise no mo'!" - - -In the evening Frances played again to them, and the rich and sweet -music filled the old room. The violin put by, they talked by the fire; -then Linden said, "Read for a little while, Marget." She took up a -volume of Blake, and read. "Read that letter to Butts." She read: - - - "... Over sea, over land - My eyes did expand - Into regions of fire, - Remote from desire; - The light of the morning - Heaven's mountains adorning; - In particles bright, - The jewels of light - Distinct shone and clear. - Amazed and in fear - I each particle gazed, - Astonished, amazed; - For each was a Man - Human formed. Swift I ran, - For they beckoned to me, - Remote by the sea, - Saying: 'Each grain of sand, - Every stone on the land, - Each rock and each hill, - Each fountain and rill, - Each herb and each tree, - Mountain, hill, earth and sea, - Cloud, meteor and star, - Are men seen afar.'... - My eyes, more and more, - Like a sea without shore, - Continue expanding, - The heavens commanding; - Till the jewels of light, - Heavenly men beaming bright, - Appeared as One Man, - Who complacent began - My limbs to enfold - In his beams of bright gold; - Like dross purged away - All my mire and clay. - Soft consumed in delight, - In his bosom sun bright - I remained. Soft He smiled. - And I heard his voice mild, - Saying: 'This is my fold, - O thou ram horned with gold, - Who awakest from sleep - On the sides of the deep.'..." - - - - -XV - - -"Energy in larger units, affinities gathering strength and flowing -together with power!" said Curtin. "Everyone has seen it and felt it in -some wise. When it is blamable, unguided, 'mob spirit'! When it is -praised, '_esprit de corps_, mass heroism, mass enthusiasm, -conflagration of genius, voice of the people, unity of spirit,' what -not! Most folk have a glimpse of the fact that there is an ocean of -desire, emotion, will, as well as rivers and rivulets." - -Marget came and sat with them on the steps of the little summer-house in -the flower garden. She wore a great check apron, denoting housekeeping -and helping Zinia. She sat down beside them. "What have you been doing, -Marget?" - -"Once a week Zinia and I have a general straightening day. Then my -mother and I have been visiting together." - -"Truly, truly, Marget?" - -"Truly. But in a little wider order, my dear, a little wider order! The -order above this order--into which this will melt. Mother and father, -and Will and Edgar." - -"Two of those are living and two are dead." - -Marget smiled. "Ask Wordsworth!" - -"I see," said Anna Darcy. - -"Very well. Do more than that. _Touch!_" - -With a trail of ivy in her hand she looked past the snapdragon and -marigold and larkspur, still blooming, so rich and mild had been this -autumn. "Then, as the rooms grew clean, I was with my mother in her -birthplace, two hundred miles from here. We were there as adults, -moving, loving, understanding with a grown mind, but there in her -childhood and girlhood as well, loving to contemplate all the past that -was us two! Mine as hers, hers as mine. Mind and feeling ran and caught -up with her brothers and sisters, her parents and friends. Her parents -remembered their parents and those remembered theirs. Home rose after -home, garden after garden, loved place after loved place." Her eyes were -upon Drew, whose eyes were upon her. "Do you not see that you can, that -you will, recover it all? All that you have been, and you have been very -much; all that you are, and you are very much!" - -Mimy's singing floated to them from the kitchen: - - - "There's a great camp meeting in the Promised Land, - Oh, pat yo' foot, chillun, don't you get weary! - There's a great camp meeting in the Promised Land." - - -"And then," said Marget, "I was in Rome with Richard. The sun shone, the -wind was in cypress and pine, the fountains made liquid sound. Father -Tiber glided, Saint Peter's stood. We went to the Sistine Chapel, and -then it was the Capitol within and without, and then the Appian Way and -all the Campagna--all Rome--not to-day alone, but _all_ Rome. And then -not Rome, but starlight nights from the decks of ships. And then--" - -"This was actuality, while your hands swept and dusted the parlor -there?" - -"My body was in its duty and happy there. Yes. Actuality, but of another -order, an order we are coming into. The order of intensified, guided, -_realized_ memory and imagination." - -"And of reason?" - -"And of reason. Profoundly so. It is reason that is guiding. Reason has -its higher levels, grows comprehensive, knows longer sequences, -completer syntheses. And from the decks of ships we were in the desert -watching the stars, shepherds on the hills and shepherds on the plains, -shepherds and villagers and wanderers of far days!" She lifted hand and -arm in a curious and commanding gesture. "Watching the skies above Queen -Rain and King Wind! In desert and plain and upon hills and on seas, -thousands and thousands of us strewn in time!" - -For an appreciable moment, to some degree, those listening to her became -aware of, made, as it were, junction with their own far wandering, far -wondering, savage and barbarian self. It was evident that Drew made -junction. They touched the mind struggling there, and the lifted gaze. -The sense was one of enormous, calm pervasion. They entered into, they -aided, their own early man, where he marked the heavens, and around them -was the wistfulness of early lands. - -Marget spoke on. "Then while I worked we were building pyramids and -mountains of the god. We were watching and watching, patterning and -naming, comparing, all the skies, the moon, and the planets and the -times of the sun, and the white path through the heavens and the great -named princes--everywhere, swarthy folk and pale folk! Now we were many -and many. Then in us rose the Devoted, the Searchers of the skies, -seeking from city roofs and temple roofs knowledge of the Whole for the -Whole." - -Their interior self opened its wings and used its eyes. As space -expanded, so did time. They were there in the October sunshine, on the -summer-house steps, but likewise they attended, and in some vast, -liberated way they were that collective effort, that process. They might -carry the method over into all processes. There swam across the mind -other words--"commerce"--"government"--"family"--many and many a word. - -Marget's voice went on. "Now one has made a telescope. Our theories -change; we stand on dead theories and study on. Thousands of us -studying, thousands building knowledge, learning vision! We gaze, we -watch, we turn to desks and write and figure, we reason, we divine, we -better our instruments, we gather results and make fortunate guesses, we -hearken to intuition. We stand on a mossy stone in space and study the -Promised Land, the universe that is ours, the ever perpetuating, the -ever bettering! Time widens. Here are mountain summits and the -observatories of this day, and the clockwork and the pierced dome, and -the great eye that we have made, and the photograph. Mind sits at the -knee of Great Mind and learns its alphabet. And all the thousands that -were and are and will be are one Astronomer, and it is I, still working -to know!" She ceased to speak, and sat wrapped in the golden light. - -Said Robert Dane: "We follow where you step. You make us follow you." - -"I do not make you. You walk with me because you can walk. We walk. It -is your Self as it is mine." - -"We move and we feel, then, where you are. You live there more fully and -keenly than we, but we can breathe and feel and see. Go on! We would -have your life, as you have ours." - -"Then, after the stars, while I wound the clocks, I walked into the -minute. Again thousands of us working and watching, noting, -divining--thousands and thousands, years past and to-day and to-morrow! -And one devises the microscope. All the laboratories!... Into the cell, -into the atom, the infinite dance of relativities and small collections! -And the intensed, pointed endeavor, using perception as fine as the -millionth part of a hair--we knowing, marking, understanding ourself -there, where we are moving clouds! We working there, patient, patient, -the god working! The great and the small. We who forever remember and -make richer ourself. We the I-- And then I was again with my dead, who -are just as much and just as little dead as I myself! And then I came -out into the garden." - -They sat on the summer-house steps, and the marigolds glowed around -them. She spoke again. "Here and there, throughout the past, and often -now I think in our own day, a man or woman lays hold upon faculties that -some day all will lay hold upon. _And greater things than these._ -Forerunners, pioneers! Regard this late flood of books describing -communion with the dead and giving detail of the life hereafter. What -they describe is the widening consciousness here and now! The increasing -awareness. One does not wait for death. Richard and I would not have you -think that we are deep, deep, deep in that realm. Were it so nothing -could hide it. Were we or any full in the next order you would see the -shining. We are not there, but we are in motion toward it, as are many -to-day. The road thitherward has its great scenery and long, thrilling -adventure! And you, too, all of you, too, are in motion toward it. In -this day of ours, each day of the sun, more and more are in motion." - -She rose from the step. "I have rested this body that we call Marget -Land and now I shall put it again to work in the house we call Sweet -Rocket." - - - - -XVI - - -That evening, after she had played to them, Frances fell to telling of a -crippled boy, almost a man, living in a poor flat in New York, the -father an overworked head clerk, the mother a strong, gadabout, -well-meaning person, more apt to reproach than to sustain. There was a -sister, a stenographer, who meant to marry, if she could, some employer. -This nineteen-year-old boy had a passion for travel, who could rarely -travel as far as the street. At intervals, when his father had leisure -to accompany him, he went to a movie. If the piece had scenery, country -and ocean and strange cities, moving throngs and great buildings and -places of which he had read, he was happy. He took the _Geographic_, and -got travel books from a library. He knew more of the earth's surface -than did many a "traveled" person. But it was hot in the city, in his -little stuffy room, or it was cold in the city in houses that could -never buy coal in quantity. He had a good deal of pain, and his eyes got -bigger and bigger. - -Curtin had claimed the small bedroom at the end of the upper hall. Drew -slept in the dormer-windowed room above. Frances and Robert Dane -possessed the large room opposite Marget's, next to Linden's. Here were -four windows and each narrow bed placed where it might look forth. This -night the Danes talked awhile, then addressed themselves to sleep. -Robert slept, but Frances found that she was wakeful. Yet she had -definitely turned from care and question of the day, from concern for -her own work left in suspension, even from the face and incident of -Sweet Rocket. From her pillow she saw the stars as they rimmed and rose -above the mountains. At first she seemed to be over there, with the -shadow below and the diamond above, but then to herself she left it all. -There seemed naught about her but cool space. She lay without fret at -wakefulness, though she was intensely awake. - -She became aware that, waking, she was becoming rested, refreshed, as -though she had profoundly slept. She was awake above the old waking. The -old waking was dreaminess to this state. Vigor poured into her being, -and all the past was passed. That is, it was passed in its heaviness and -friction, its strain and anxiety. All that seemed to drop away, like -dross leaving gold. It was curious, her sense of gold color of all -things in a gold light of their own, not from without. She became -distinctly aware of influences. They were good. She acquiesced, "Yes, I -will travel with you." Will consenting, her strength was added to those -other strengths. In the plane where she now was flashed out -co-operation. - -Marget--Richard! Certainly they were where she had been wont to call -"within her." But certainly she felt them, was aware of them, presently -saw them, as never had she done before in that "within," though often in -memory, thought, and imagination she, like others, had been with Marget -and Richard there "within." She had used those words as a matter of -course. Even then that "within" had, when you examined it, its own space -and time, its own mechanics, warmth, color, and sound. That "within" and -this "within" were of a piece, but where that had been faintly real this -was vividly real. She had no doubt of its reality. It was so, but -reality of another, of a farther on, order. Marget that afternoon had -talked of another order. It seemed that one might rise or deepen into -it. She was consciously there now, though in the order below it she -rested at Sweet Rocket. It was not the plane of tremendous power and -illumination, but it was a state of developed powers. It was as far as -just then she could go. - -The boy Stuart--Stuart Black. How many a time had she wished that she -could give this boy travel! "If I might take him and let him see!" As he -had longed, as he had imagined himself traveling with Mr. and Mrs. Dane. -"If I could travel with you!" And now to-night they had somehow caught -and held to the ether and were seeing what they wished to see. The -influence, the individuality that was Marget and Richard strongly aided. - -She was in Rome with Marget and Richard and Stuart Black. She did not -question them nor him, and the boy did not question. They were there, -and it was sunny weather, and they were strong and happy. They stayed in -no hotel, they depended on no cab nor car, they needed no food of the -old sort. When they looked at one another they saw body, since where is -still multiplicity must still be body. There was something of old bodies -in these bodies, but also there was difference, and all to the good. Old -defect had vanished. Stuart Black was no cripple; she herself had lost -fatigue. There was translucence, a golden appearance, and where they -wished to go they were. She wished for Robert, and immediately felt that -in wishing she had said to the others, "I wish." They strengthened her -wish with theirs. Here, then, was Robert with them, though -intermittently, not on the whole so strongly, but coming as he could -answer, sleeping there at Sweet Rocket. And now and then another joined -them, though somewhat dimly, and that was the boy's father, whom he -loved and wished to include in his joy. - -The body of Rome, too, was like and not like the old body of Rome. Rome -had a Self to match this Self of theirs. Spirit and body and mind and -soul, Rome understood itself better. There rose a Rome richer, purer; -nothing of fair and wonderful lost, all such quality strengthened; the -unfair, unwise, unstrong of old, everywhere tending to drop the prefix. -Yet to the new self Rome was herself, singing, enchanted, of the past -and present and future. - -Marget and Richard, who seemed truly Marget-and-Richard, one word, had -said, "a week in Rome," and that was what seemed to pass. They saw as in -old travel they had seen, they went about as in old travel they had gone -about, they enjoyed as in old times they had enjoyed, but with freedom -and power and joy that left the old behind. All was vigor, heightened -and transfiguring perception, and yet friendly, homelike, not solemn nor -stilted, the boy here enjoying like a boy. Frances became aware of a -control, keeping experience to a vivid and fair finiteness, not -sacrificing current form. That was for the boy's sake, perhaps for her -and Robert also. - -And after Rome, Athens--an Athens, too, sublimed. And after Athens, for -the splendid richness of things and for the boy, the vast North, forest -and plain, and an intense exhilaration of life that swept out upon the -great sea and encircled the earth. They spent long, bright days in ships -and at ports of call. Then they went to China, and India, and Egypt. -They crossed the desert of Sahara, and again in a great ship passed -between the Pillars of Hercules. Followed ocean days, and that greater -will and awareness slowly diminishing, gently returning upon its still -habitual self. Diminishing, diminishing, slower, slower, a little -melancholy, but tranquil, with a subtle smile.... A sense of a giant -woman in stone rising from an islet in a harbor--a sense of a familiar -city in the year 1920--a sense of dreamy farewells, a quiet darkness and -lapse.... - -Frances turned herself in her bed at Sweet Rocket. Starlight flooding -the room dimly revealed walls and furniture. Across by the other window -Robert lay sleeping. How much time had passed, or how little, or how -widely could you live in no time at all? Here was reality, but there, -too, had been reality! It had been real, that companionship and that -travel. The memory of it was memory of reality. Mind had attended there -not less, but more than here. The whole compound self had achieved a -unity and power. Achievement--ungrown wings--first flights! She thought: -"The possibilities! O life of life, our possibilities!" Old warmth and -drowsiness took her. There was a kindly fatigue, as though she had -walked on a bright day to mountain top and back and now thrown herself -down for rest. She saw the stars through half-open eyes, then slept. - -The sun was streaming in when she waked; Robert already up and -dressing. She raised herself upon her arm. "Good morning!" - -"Good morning!" - -She rubbed her eyes. "There is a strange and happy feeling of 'there' -being here!" - -Robert said: "That somehow hits it. I had the most vivid dream of long, -sunny travel, with you and Marget and Richard and Stuart Black! It -wasn't like a dream. I feel as if I were just off the ship--had all the -memories and a most tremendous refreshment! I could take down any wall -this morning!" - -"Why do you put it that way?" - -"I don't know. We have so walled ourselves in from wide doing--are so -afraid of our own landscape!" He stood by the window. "I think I'll ask -you a question that never, never would occur to Mr. Gradgrind to ask! Do -you remember it, too? For instance, Athens and some dim, northern -forest--and a lot of islands with palms? Do you remember music?" - -"Oh, it was all music--and I think that I'll play it all my life!" - -Dressed, they went down to the others, Zinia's bell ringing for coffee, -omelet, honey, and cakes. Linden and Drew had eaten and gone to meet -Roger Carter and William where the winter wood was being cut. Marget sat -behind the coffee urn. "Good morning, Robert and Frances!" Her face of a -subtle, moving beauty, more of look than of feature, did not turn upon -them with a "Do you remember?" It seemed to assume that they remembered. -Frances thought, "Certainly she remembers, and as much more strongly -than I as I remember more strongly than Robert!" It was of a piece with -all that they had talked of. "At last, with all of us, talk passes to -action." Frances Dane drank her coffee. All of them in the room seemed -bound in a ribbon, Linden and Drew also, wherever they might be in the -forest, and Stuart Black in that small, dark room in New York, and how -many others! She did not name them, but she knew they were many, in fact -all. In a flash she saw how, to Marget and Richard, might appear not -many selves and binding ribbon, but One Self. To realize this was to -realize that for her, also, there was but One Self. - - - - -XVII - - -Three days after this Curtin and Anna Darcy, who often walked together, -having gone to the pass of hemlock, cliff and tumbling water, turned in -the broken sunlight and shadow back to Sweet Rocket. The maples of the -upper slopes had cast almost all their leaves, but the oaks stood yet in -carmine. Yesterday had fallen light rain. Earth lay moist, and soil and -leaf and fern and moss sent out a haunting odor. The sun stood in -Scorpio. The drama of the year was on the homeward road. It saw ahead -the Archer and the Goat and the Water Bearer, the Fishes of the great -deep, and the Ram that, springing forth, should take once more the road, -the old road, the new road, the old-and-new road! - -Now Curtin and Anna Darcy spoke, and now they were silent. It was a -blessed feature of this valley that none need be talkative in order to -convey, "I am at home with you." - -Her visit was approaching its end. That was what people would say. -"Physical presence and metaphysical presence!" said Curtin, answering -her thought. "Physical and above-physical--and the generations to come -will find the inclusive word." - -"Oh, I shall be here still--or 'here' will be with me in the city--or it -will be both. At any rate, no desolate parting!" - -They passed from under hemlock and gray rock to beech trees and a -dappled path. The small river calmed itself and began to flow through -cultivated land. Gentian and farewell-summer made a purple fringe for -the way. - -"In old romances one walked into an inn or house by the road--always -saying, 'It is by the road that goes on as it went before, and I -presently again with it!' But never again as it was before, and never -again I as before! For just there befalls the adventure that sets one -climbing to a new road." - -Sweet Rocket vale opened before them. Each time they looked it grew -fairer, and that, they had begun to see, was because it was not -separated from anything. - -Said Anna Darcy, presently: "Do you know Morris's _Earthly Paradise_? Do -you remember the Story of Rhodope? I used to know almost all of it by -heart. When Rhodope is born the countryman, her father, dreams, and he -seems to himself to be standing with the mother, watching - - - "... a little blossom fair to see." - - -Then:-- - - - "The day seemed changed to cloudiness and rain, - And the sweet flower, whereof they were so fain, - Was grown a goodly sapling, and they gazed - Wondering thereat, but loved it nothing less. - But as they looked, a bright flame round it blazed, - And hid it for a space, and weariness - The souls of both the good folk did oppress, - And on the earth they lay down side by side, - And unto them it was as they had died. - - "Yet did they know that o'er them hung the tree - Grown mighty, thick-leaved, on each bough did hang - Crown, sword or ship, or temple fair to see; - And therewithal a great wind through it sang, - And trumpet blast there was; and armor rang - Amid that leafy world, and now and then - Strange songs were sung in tongues of outland men. - - -"It is something like that that I feel for any place--and perhaps now it -will be so for this and every place! It was such a blossom and now it is -such a tree. All hangs therein, peoples and nations, things past and -things to come! When I go away I shall find it so in any place." - -"That is what you will do--and I also. Everywhere that Tree, that Man, -that God!" - -The vale widened at the overseer's house. The sycamore by the river -stretched in the sun its great arms of white and brown, and these and -the blue vault made a pattern. A dozen turkeys crossed the path in a -stately, slow-stepping procession. Mary Carter was singing in the house, -and little Roger singing after her. As they approached the tree and the -bench around it other voices reached them; then one voice reading -aloud. They saw the two Danes seated there--Frances, reading a letter. -"So I _did_ travel with you and Mr. Dane. It was so wonderful--it is all -around me now! I don't clearly remember little, sharp bits of it, but I -remember the whole. It has shown me a lot of things. I don't any longer -mind living. It's funny, but father, too--" - -Frances looked up as Curtin and Anna stepped under the tree. Bright -tears stood in her eyes. She shook them away and smiled at the two. -"It's a letter from the crippled boy I told you about--" - -The four walked back to Sweet Rocket House. "Robert and I have but a -week longer. But this place tempers the wind of the whole year. It drops -honey into winter days." - -Curtin asked Robert Dane, "Forth from here you go on with the work you -are doing?" - -"Of course. That is a department of this. But I wish to work without -bitterness or violence." - -The day shone about them. Rain of the night had brought into late autumn -a sense of spring. Spring and autumn seemed to touch across shortened -winter. The air held a divine, sweet freshness. They were aware of new -life, and all objects of perception tossed back vigor and luster. - -"The world renews--the world renews!" sang the river. - -A little later Robert and Frances Dane at their window saw, coming up -from the river, a somewhat worn automobile. Stopping before the porch -the driver and owner descended and mounted the steps. "There's an old -type!" said Robert. "Tall and thin, black clothes and soft hat, low -collar and string tie, white hair, mustache and imperial--look, Frances, -it's a picture! Once it was the horse, and he swung himself down--then -the carriage, and at the door he helped out the ladies. Now it's the -car. To-morrow he will descend from the airship--just like that!" - -She looked over his shoulder. "It's old Major Hereward from Oakwood. He -was here four years ago, that time I came alone. He's all the past! But -that car's symbolic, too. He's all the past beginning to say, 'For all -my fighting I begin to find myself, with all I care for, here in the -present--perhaps also in the future!' He's beginning to think that it -may be so with the airship. There with all that he really, really cares -for! 'I always said that they couldn't get along without me, and now I -begin to see that neither can I get along without them!'" - -Major Hereward appeared at the dinner table. It seemed that he, too, was -a cousin of Linden's, on the other side from the Danes. His place was -Oakwood, twenty miles away. Old Major Linden and he had been boyhood -friends. He breathed knowledge of Sweet Rocket in ancient days. His -manner to Marget was delightful, though perhaps he still held in -comparison, in a "this--that," Sweet Rocket House and the overseer's -house. His manner to all was delightful--like old wine. - -Robert Dane pondered that, and also Frances's words of the morning. Like -others, he could speak as though the past, the present, and the future -were islands with nothingness between. But truly he knew it was not so, -and he assumed that much self-knowledge in those to whom he spoke. Now -he had it, in a flash of vision, how the old wine and wheat, how the old -strength of man and woman, did go on. All within the whole flashed and -changed. But the whole held all. The tangential itself only went so far, -then returned, and was met and welcomed. _The prodigal son._ He saw that -contrary winds were not so contrary after all. "In the whole, and in the -whole only, I am not contrary to him nor he to me. In the end one sail -and one wind--and the sail due to arrive and the wind favorable." - -That afternoon Major Hereward walked over the place; with him, Linden -and Curtin. "I came to talk to you about something, Richard. But we'll -leave it till night. I can always pull things together better -then--after the day. Here's the oak Phil Linden and I planted the day we -heard of First Manassas! He was eighteen and I was sixteen. The next -year we both went in." - -They stood beneath the tree. Said Curtin, "Much water has gone over the -wheel since then!" - -Major Hereward nodded. "Much! But Phil Linden and I seem to stand here -together. Not just of the mind we were, but together! _And many a foe -grew to be a friend._" - -The bright day declined. The sun set in a coral sea, a crescent moon -appeared, earth grew an amethyst, the stars came out. Brush was being -burned and wood smoke clung in the air, and there was the multitudinous -chirping, chirping in grass and bush of late autumn. It was almost -November, and they built larger fires. The old parlor gleamed. - -"It's a dear room, a dear, dear room!" said Major Hereward. "I don't -believe any here can love these portraits as I do. Richard may look at -them often, but--" He broke off. "I forgot that he is blind! I'm always -forgetting it! Well, he may see the reality of them." - -Richard entered, and a moment later Marget. "It's a night of the gods! -How the fire leaps!" - -They sat around it, Anna Darcy and Curtin and Drew and the two Danes and -Major Hereward, Linden and Marget. Anna Darcy was saying: "I went down -to Mimy's before supper. The preacher is there for the night--Brother -Robinson." - -Linden answered her. "Yes. He will be here presently. He always comes -to us for an hour or so. He's a fine fellow." - -Rising, he fetched Frances's violin. "What deep and dear pleasure you -give, Frances!" - -She played old music and new, into which the old glided, until there -seemed neither old nor new, but a content very vast and rich. The wing -of the music lifted them; music and flame blended. They sat in reverie, -and the wealth of the world flowed, circularly flowed. - -Without, in the night, a lantern passed the windows. "There is Brother -Robinson," said Marget. Richard went out--they heard his voice in the -hall--then he returned with the negro preacher and Zinia. He said, "Mr. -Robinson--friends, all of us!" The circle widened. The preacher sat down -between Linden and Robert Dane, and Zinia sat between Marget and -Frances. "Play a little longer, Frances!" - -The music blended with the flame, the wealth of the world flowed, -flowed, circularly flowed. The Rev. William Robinson sat, a gaunt, dark -figure, in long-preserved broadcloth, with a rugged, deep brown face. -When he spoke his voice had unction--like the voices of most of his -people--unction, but not too much of it. By sheer indomitableness he had -gained a fair education, and he was a good man and a wise one. In her -blue dress Zinia sat beside Marget Land. She kept silence, but her poise -was like her poise in the dining room and pantry, or on the porch when -Miss Darcy had taken her breakfasts there. The latter always thought of -her standing beside the pillar, or in the clean, airy pantry, by the jar -of flowers and the open _Pilgrim's Progress_, always heard her rich -voice, saying, "I like that girl Mercy!" - -It seemed that Robert Dane had met Brother Robinson before this at Sweet -Rocket. When the violin was put by the two talked together a little, as -folk might talk who liked each other. Curtin, from his corner, watched -with interest Sweet Rocket in Virginia. A voice from somewhere went -through his head: _Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision -nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is -all and in all_. He looked at Major Hereward, and the old man, who had -stiffened at the "Mr. Robinson" and the seating in the circle about the -fire, seemed now to rest at ease, in a brown study, as one who regards -the expanse of things. - -Miss Darcy spoke. "At Mimy's this afternoon you had begun to tell me of -the building of your church and schoolhouse down the river. Then they -called me and I had to go--" - -"Tell them now, brother," said Linden. - -Brother Robinson told, and what he told had humor and pathos and -heroism. There passed, as upon a screen, the littles gathered that were -much to spare, quaint efforts at money raising, labor at twilight and -dawn given by laboring men, the women's extra work and their festivals. -Brother Robinson was a born raconteur. Into the sheaf of his homely -narrative fell vast swaths of human effort and aspiration. "And Brother -Linden helped us, and old Mr. Morrowcombe gave us five dollars." - -A voice came from the corner of the hearth, from Major Hereward: "I'd -like to help you, too, Brother Robinson! Put me down for ten dollars." - -They left the material building of the schoolhouse and the church. Said -Brother Robinson: "I've got something else I want to tell you. I've had -an Experience, and it's taken the heart out of my bosom and crumbled it -between its fingers and put in a new one! I came to Sweet Rocket to tell -it to you, Mr. Linden. But I don't see anyone here that I'd be afraid to -tell it to." - -"There isn't any such," said Linden. "Tell it!" - - - - -XVIII - - -"I was going to preach," said Brother Robinson, "at Piny Hill Church, -that's twelve miles from Old Lock, where I live. I started out Saturday -afternoon to walk, counting on a lift or two on the road, and I got -them. I was going to sleep at Will Jones's, who works at the mill on -Piny Creek. The first lift I got was from a wagon full of hay going to -Cherry Farm. That was two miles. Then I walked three miles. Then a Ford -came along and said, 'Hey, Brother Robinson, are you going as far as -Llewellyn?' I said that I was, and farther, and the Ford took me to -Llewellyn. That didn't leave but four miles to do, and that was nothing. -So I was a-walking, and the leaves hung red and yellow, and the evening -was powerful sweet! I went through the woods by the Thessaly place. I -was thinking as I was walking. And then, just like that, Mr. Linden, -thinking with words stopped! My old body stopped, too. I just lowered it -under a cedar tree and left it there. - -"But I myself went higher and wider. I was everywhere and all over! I -was in and through everything! They were just shapes in me. It was like -being air, or like that inside air you told me about, called ether. You -told me about that, but when you told it I hadn't experienced, and so it -was just words. Now I have experienced. Everything was right here and -now, or there and then, it didn't matter a mite which! - -"The first thing I felt was just infinite cleanness and coolness. It was -me and it was not me. If it was me it was something vast in me that had -got the upper hand. There was a me, a self, like a tired, dirty child. -To that me the other was God. But God turning out to be me, too. I had -preached about God for thirty years, but I never really tasted or -touched God till that day. It was cool and whole and pure, and bigger -than the sky. And it forgave all my sins, or it saw clean through them. -It saw a long way and all at once.... The tired and dirty me was -everybody else, too. It was me and it was everybody, and we were healed -by our God, and that was us, too, us, and more than we had ever dreamed -of in that us! It healed with its might, and the lower part understood -and went up.... I can't give you a description. It was awe and joy. The -little body of William Robinson couldn't have held it, but something -bigger than that held it. And then, just as light changes on the -mountains here--when you are on top of Rock Mountain maybe, and see -everything below you--and it's all there, but it's got another tone and -you feel it in a different way--just so that cool awe and greatness -changed a little. It was joy still, but now it was friendly and natural. -It was the whole earth looking like a garden, and all mine, all me, and -in that me was all I had ever thought was you or him or her, and all -that I had ever said was it. The bird and the beast were there, the -trees and the grass and the air. And it was lovely; it was just love, -and beauty!" He brushed his hand across his eyes. "I can't tell you -about that beauty. And we weren't dead; all was living. If you'll think -of the very best moment you ever had, when you were deepest friends with -yourself and found that it took in everybody, it might be something like -that a million times over. It was innocent and wise. And all the times -that I'd ever thought I was happy were just plain misery beside it! I -couldn't hold it, any more than a young robin can hold the flight he -will hold after a while. I reckon we're all fledglings! Back I flopped -toward William Robinson. Here was old Virginia, and the woods and the -road and the hills and the mountains, and Old Lock, and Piny Hill -Church. But just before I settled in I got for just a minute this very -country and our daily life in the light and the glow and the music and -the wonder! All that was fair kept in and strengthened, and all that was -unfair just melted out! I knew then that though we talk about it we -haven't begun to love our country. It went, too, into the world. 'For -God so loved the world.' ... Well, that vanished, too. I was back. I was -just the colored preacher, William Robinson. I was back, but I could -remember! I've touched what it's like to be God." - -He ceased speaking, and sat bent toward the fire. A little of that -luminousness of which he had told seemed to show through his flesh, a -dark translucence. He said, under his breath, "'Little children, love -one another!'" and rested silent, in communion with the flame. - -"'For all we are members one of another.' Feeling that," said Linden, -"is to feel as One. Then the One no longer counts as separate his -members. He says I AM." - -Stillness held in the old room. The fire gave it crimson and amber life -and warmth. The canvases on the walls, the pictured men and women, -seemed self-luminous. Major Hereward spoke abruptly: "Where are the -dead? Where are my brother Dick, my son Walter, my mother and father?" - -"They are here. Re-member yourself and you shall find them." - -"Where is heaven?" - -"It is here, the moment you begin to perceive it." - -"You mean that you perceive the dead, Richard?" - -"Yes. Do not you?" - -The old man stared. He drew a long breath. "Never before did I think -that I did!" - -Robert Dane spoke. "You mean that as the Great Consciousness expands it -becomes aware of itself there, too? That that realm becomes open?" - -"Yes. Discovery there is within the grasp of our age. It is not so far -away as many might think! As Power comes through. The 'dead' and the -'living' do meet. They have met all the time. The general recognition -and use of the fact is to be strengthened, developed." - -"It is not the only recognition and use of Oneness impending!" - -"By no means! No. In every field there is ripening corn. How should it -not be so?" - -Major Hereward's voice came in again. "'The spiritual sense of the -dead.' I've heard that phrase. I didn't know what it meant. Do you mean -that when I seem to myself to move about in company with Dick, when -things come into my mind that he knew about or that we did together, -when I seem, as I go on, to understand his character better and better, -and to see life as he did, when he seems here with me or when we are -just happy together in old places--that it's _true_? And Walter and my -mother and father and Helen and others--oh, scores of others--they enter -my mind and heart just as though they came in at a door! Do you mean -that when I think of them suddenly and strongly, feel them as it were, -that _they_ are doing part of it, that there _is_ intercourse? Good -Lord! I thought it was only myself!" - -"I mean that," said Linden. "It will grow to be more than that. A -higher, fuller thing than that." - -The old man rose. Face and voice showed emotion. "I've got what I came -for. God bless you, Richard, and God bless you, too, Brother Robinson! -Oh, we've been little! Marget, I'll say good night, my dear. Out of my -life goes fear and loneliness!" - -Brother Robinson likewise, with Zinia, rose to say good night. "I'll see -you in the morning," said Richard. "I want to talk to you about the -school." - -That night Curtin, also, increased his sense of life, life that included -those that were said to be dead. There had been no repetition of the -hour when, lying in the room where now slept Robert and Frances Dane, he -had touched with an inward sense that brother who had fallen from the -aeroplane, who had been jostled out of the body, but who lived! Surely -the life was not quite that of the old life, though surely built from -that; certainly Curtin might not fully understand until he, too, slipped -the body. Yet there was life and living. He had not experienced that -hour again, and he had tried doubting if he had ever experienced it. But -doubt did not prove to be a going proposition. Memory smiled it down. -Yet the experience had not been repeated, or rather what had come had -diffused itself in the wide awakening of these Sweet Rocket weeks. Nor -did its distinctive _klang_ return to-night. There was not the same -white keenness. That which beamed about him now was more like that which -Marget had spoken of on the summerhouse steps. Not one now, but many of -his dead; not the human only, but the flower and the tree, the bird and -the beast, the scene, the water, land and sky. "The old and sweet is -here, but chosen, redeemed, gathered up, understood, become immortal! -And we have had it all the time. It has been here all the time! Just as -we had electricity and did not know it." - -He fell asleep, rocked by the waves of a sunny sea of love and home and -kindred. - - - - -XIX - - -Major Linden spent two days at Sweet Rocket, chiefly sitting upon the -porch in the sunshine or walking about the place, sometimes in company, -sometimes alone, but never, Curtin noticed, with an old man's look of -loneliness, though he thought that at times before this Major Hereward -would have shown that loneliness. But now there was vigor in him, vigor -and interest and life. "If they are here, living for me as I for them, -talking to me and I talking to them--it is the strangest thing what life -does when it comes!" His laughter had a clear and happy ring. "I had -thought of all kinds of solutions! And here it is, the needle threaded, -while I was still looking for it in the haystack!" He stood beneath the -oak he had planted almost sixty years ago. "Phil is here. Trying, wasn't -it, Phil, when I said, 'Oh, fancy!' or, 'It's just Wilmot Hereward -talking to himself!'" - -When he met Linden on the porch he said: "Richard, if it's so with those -folk whom we so promptly insisted hadn't any reality in them, isn't it -so all over? When I'm pondering Bob who's in England, or when I'm -thinking of nothing in particular and in he walks into mind and -affection--" - -"Yes. It is part of the same truth. It all rests on the oneness of -Being. That is why you must in some wise grasp that Oneness first. A -time will come where there will be no saying 'My brother Dick,' or 'Bob -in England,' because they and Wilmot Hereward and all others will have -advanced beyond all such divisions. But on the road there you will meet -many a fair power!" - -The old man went the next morning back to Oakwood in his battered car. -He went alone and not alone, with a peaceful face. - -In the afternoon Anna and Curtin, Drew and the two Danes, walked down -the river, in among the partly forested, partly grassy hills that here -closed the valley. Indian summer had now stolen over the land. The air -hung smoky amethyst, and still as still! No motion was in the fallen -leaves, the birds sailed stilly by, the stubble fields dreamed, the -river sang low. Wood smoke clung in the nostril. Turning, coming -homeward, the brick house and yellowed pillars stood pictured. They -passed through the orchard and by a small cider mill. Zinia, on the back -porch, poured for each out of an amber pitcher an amber glassful. -"_Was-hael!_" said Drew, and lifted the glass. Curtin caught from memory -the answering phrase, "_Drink-hael!_" A shaft of wonder, like a gleam -of light, touched them all with strange fingers. Something trembled in -the air. If it said aught it said, "So Earth begins to _live_ Poetry!" -Drew set down the cup with a sharp, clear sound. "Life, everlasting -life!" he said. "I see it now! We have always lived!" - -Again evening in the old parlor, the fire and music, Tam lying beside -Linden, Marget seated by Anna Darcy. Robert Dane spoke. "This finding -ourselves in all and all in us, this lifting the all into a mighty I, -this is it behind the slowly accelerating movements of the ages, behind -all efforts for freedom, for knowledge, for interchange and intercourse, -swifter and swifter, subtler and subtler intercourse--this is it?" - -"Yes. Behind a hundred shapes of dawn." - -"Effort does not cease?" - -"No. But effort, too, is finer and far more powerful. You act now from -within upon the within." - -"To touch through and through that we are one! Hercules's labor isn't in -it!" - -"Yet it is done and to be done. Find me if you can an individual to-day -who has not some dim perception of it, or who is not in some wise acting -toward it! Even the most unpromising--look and you will see! It is so -tremendous, that finding, it runs through every fiber. We can cut out no -pattern, but we move from light to light, from love to love!" - -In her room that night, when she had put out the lamp, Anna Darcy, -lying in bed, watched the firelight on wall and ceiling. A cricket -chirped, she could hear the river. Her visit to Sweet Rocket was ending. -"Only it will never end; it is immortal within me!" - -She saw how all life interlocked, how shock to one was taken up by the -whole, how joy to one thrilled through all. "What we call space is -Being; what we call time is our own Story, our colored, toned -lastingness! Give and take, forever and forever, forever and forever! -Find lovely things to give, and from the other side of us take lovely -things, lovelier and lovelier! Know thyself--know thyself--know Thyself. -'If ye do it unto one, the least of these, ye do it unto Me.' 'And all -we made One.'" - -The walls of the room disappeared. Anna Darcy, a slight, worn, teaching -woman, sixty years old, vanished or altered. There was wide life, land -and sea, deep life that did not talk in births and deaths, lofty life -that said, "Better than this wave even, shall you know!" - -It was Strength, it was Peace, it was Wisdom and Balm. - -Across the hall Robert Dane lay thinking. In his youth he had the -passion of a Shelley for a regenerate world. Older, the vision dulled, -and yet he worked on doggedly, heroically, one with thousands of others -breaking and making a road for the feet of Coming Man. He worked -heroically, never sparing himself, a devoted life. Sometimes the gleam -shone fair before him, oftener mists made it faint, sometimes he lost -it. Then it shone again. He worked on. To-night, lying here at Sweet -Rocket, his youth came back, but higher, fuller, wiser! He saw what -might be done, what was doing. He saw the interrelated roads and the -travelers upon them, the hosts of travelers. A vision came to him in the -night. His body lay very still, but he himself saw clearly a great -thing. - -There was a City that was country also, and sea and land and sky, that -was a world, harmonious, great, not a dead thing, not unintellectual, -but living, living with a vast fervor and beauty and interest and -knowledge, throwing out even, it might be, silver lines toward a world -yet more light, more fervent, more living! But it was there, all that he -could now image of body and spirit, mind and soul's desire: - -He saw like a pale film another city that was pale and sorrowful to -this. And he saw that city, as it were, send out itself, by rivers and -seas and roads, thousands and thousands of paths, upon a journey to the -other. There was hardly a point--truly he thought there was not any -point--that did not travel. So many living beings, so many ships or -rafts, caravans or solitary travelers to that Desired Haven! All going, -some ahead, some behind, but all going. The pale and sorrowful city was -moving into that other, and brightening as it moved. That other was -drawing it, steadily, steadily! He felt it like a loadstone; he felt it -like a mother calling home. - -The vision passed, but there was left Assurance. He lay still in the -starry night. The mind kept up an underhumming with words like -"reintegration," "superconsciousness," but the spirit dealt only with -the bliss of a great coming to itself. He slept at last, and his sleep -was dreamless and profoundly renewing. - - - - -XX - - -"It is the flowering land, it is the music land. You go to it through -every moment and incident and encounter of the day. You read, and it is -behind the words. You think, and it smiles through. It is the Higher Us -that resolves the discords and reaps the fields. Experience it once, and -it is miracle and wonder; experience it twice, and you say, 'Columbus -was not the only discoverer!' Experience it thrice, and you work for it -day and night! You yourself, drawing yourself out of the old man and the -old house. Read 'The Chambered Nautilus.'" - -"It is religion--" - -"It always has been Religion." - -"And the gloom and storm of our day?" - -"It is _not_ gloom, it is _not_ storm. It is the pains of growth. Feel -the epic and voyage that it is!... Every proper and general noun in all -dictionaries now and to come is my name, as it is yours. Every verb is -my doing, as it is yours. The use of language, use and _dis_-use, is -mine as it is yours--" - -They were walking in the orchard beneath the apple trees, whose leaves -were slow to fall. There had been, this morning, a heavy frost. The -garden flowers were going, the creeper over Mimy's house had shed its -scarlet leaves, but held its dark-blue berries. The heavens hung a blue -crystal. The air had the cool of mountain water. - -It was the day when Anna Darcy must leave Sweet Rocket. After dinner -Daniel and the phaeton and Marget would take her to Alder to the -north-going train. Now, with Marget, she went the round of the place, -saying good-by. They had been to Mimy's, and had talked to Mancy at the -barn. "Come again!" said Mancy. "But you ain't really going, you know! -Sweet Rocket will hold you, and you'll hold Sweet Rocket." - -They came by the kitchen. Mimy was singing: - - - "Swing low, sweet chariot, - Coming for to carry me home--" - - -"You gwine back inter the troubled world?" said Mimy. "They say hit's -awful! But, Lord! there ain't any bars ter trouble! I've seen a lot." - -They walked up the river to the overseer's house, where they were made -welcome by Mary Carter and small Roger, and by old Mr. Morrowcombe, who -was staying over from Sunday, which was yesterday. He said, much as -Mancy had said: "I'm sorry you are going! But thar! You ain't going in -the old, harsh ways." - -Marget, sitting beside him on the step of the porch, rested her arm -upon his knee. Her brown, slender hand touched his great horny one. -"Grandfather Morrowcombe!" she said. He answered her: "I see you as a -nine-year-old, Marget, and I see you as a woman in Sweet Rocket Valley, -and I see you as something that stands above child and woman. It isn't -any more big than it is subtle-fine. It's puzzling to find words. But -when I look at you and think of you I seem to hear the air stirring over -the whole world. All kinds of things that I had forgotten, and all kinds -of things that I have read...." - -She and Anna sat for five minutes under the sycamore by the water. -Returning then to Sweet Rocket, they walked in the garden that was -making ready for winter. As it happened, Mrs. Cliff came this day down -mountain to borrow some sugar. She sat on the steps of the back porch, -in the violet light of November. "Howdy!" she said to Miss Darcy. "I'm -glad you stayed on. When I come here I want to stay on, too. But thar! I -take the memory of it up to my home. You wouldn't think how often thar -I'm here, too!" - -To-day she had a braided rug to sell, and Marget bought it. Mrs. Cliff's -long, wrinkled hand put the money in her pocket. "Times isn't betterin' -any, Miss Marget." - -Marget laughed. "Oh, the poor old times!" - -It startled Anna Darcy, too, so joyous and care-free and lilting was -the voice. Mrs. Cliff stared at her. The mountain woman's face was not -what one would call a cheerful one. Whoever was behind it was caught in -a network of fine, anxious lines. Now these held for a perceptible -moment, then faded as though the twine were mist. That one immortally -youthful and insouciant looked forth as it had looked from Marget. Sun -came out over meadow, plain, and hill, and Mrs. Cliff laughed. "I reckon -you're right, Miss Marget! You generally are. I reckon we've seen so -much that we can afford to take it tranquil--which ain't to say that -we're either do-less or keerless!" - -She spoke to Anna. "You remember my tellin' you about that feeling I -had? I 'ain't had it full again. But I've caught glimpses of it, maybe -in the day, maybe in the night. I know the minute when anything like it -comes my way. When you've had a feeling like that all your life's set to -feeling it again." - -But Marget had taken it joyously. - -When Mrs. Cliff had said good-by and gone mountainward the two, crossing -the pleasant porch, entered the house. They walked from room to room, -Anna's consciousness gathering each. "Any time you may feel me here!" - -"We shall feel you here all the time." - -They stood in the study, against the broad mantelshelf. "At first, when -I thought of this room, I thought, 'Richard Linden's study.' But it is -of and for and to both of you." - -"Ah yes! To both." - -She seemed to give forth light. Anna thought, "Is it only the sun -shining on her?" - -Later, in her own room, all packing done, dressed for her journey, Anna -went and sat beside the window as she had sat the first evening at Sweet -Rocket. She still heard Mimy singing, she still saw the garden, though -it was dreaming now of spring. "I have been here only a month, but in it -I have had years and years." - -The quiet room filled with a sunny stillness, an eternal assurance. -Again, as on that first evening, the mountains were here and the wind of -the sea was here. Love and wisdom and power were here. - -The boy Jim brought Daniel and the phaeton to the door below. Marget -came for her, and they went down, and through the hall to the porch, to -find there Linden and Curtin and Robert and Frances and Drew, and Zinia -and Mimy, and Mancy and Tam. - -Across the river, at the edge of the wood, Marget checked Daniel so that -Anna might look back and see the house again, the house and the trees -and the hills, and the holding arms of the mountains. "But you are to -come again," said Marget. "Never part, and come again!" - -"Yes, oh yes!" - -The wheels turned and went on upon the Alder road. They entered the -forest, old forest, great trees that sloughed their leaves again and -again and again, through centuries past number, sloughed their leaves, -sloughed their old bodies, made soil, and stood upon it and builded -higher. Behind and in and through every stem and leaf rose the -subjective forest, and behind and in and through the whole the ideal, -the spiritual forest, the divine forest. Around and onward went the -wheels on the leafy road. Anna sat beside Marget. The two spoke little, -having now no great need of words. The light came down between bare -branches. Far and near branch and blue air made a marvel of lacework. -Against this pines and hemlocks stood like pyramids and pillars. Song -and twitter of a month ago was not now. "The birds go south--the birds -go south!" said Marget. "But there are enough left for winter company. -There is a bluebird on yonder bough!" - -Round went the wheels, making hardly a sound. The forest hung still, so -still. For one moment, to Anna Darcy, it all went away. It was _maya_, -illusion, the forest, Indian summer, this day of our Lord, the phaeton -and Daniel, Sweet Rocket and Alder and New York, Marget Land and Anna -Darcy. What was left was fullness of Being. Did it choose to analyze -itself it might be into Power, Wisdom, and Bliss. The revealing flash -went as it came, ere one could say, It lightens! _Maya_ again, Marget -Land and Anna Darcy, Daniel and the phaeton, the forest, Sweet Rocket -and Alder and the train to be met. But each time the sheath thinned and -there was left stronger light. - -The train came, the friends embraced. Anna Darcy looked from window at -Marget and then at Alder, the fields and hills and rivers and mountains. -The train roared through a tunnel, and when it emerged the scenery was -changed. There were fields and mountains, but not these fields and -mountains. "And yet they run into those. There is no impassable wall nor -aching gulf. There are the finest gradations--" - -Marget and Daniel and the phaeton went homeward along the Alder road. - - - - -XXI - - -November rains wrapped Sweet Rocket. November winds rocked and bent the -trees. The world was gray, or iron-gray, with rust-hued streakings. -Indoors they built larger fires. - -It was five days after Anna's departure. Unless the storm held him -Curtin was going on the morrow. In January his profession would take him -abroad, to the nearer East. He could not tell when he would be -returning. - -"But Sweet Rocket goes with me!" - -"Just. As all the East and you flow here." - -"What kind of a general world are we coming into, Linden? What kind of a -political, social, economic world? I believe that, as to much of it, -Robert and Frances are far seeing. In the large, those changes are upon -us, and in the large they are for the better. They are built into the -road we are going. I agree, I welcome! But I would see more completely -if I could." - -Linden, in the cane chair by the study window, seemed to pay attention -to the storm. At last he spoke. "I cannot see in detail. I think there -will be a great simplification. Power out of a thousand tortuous -channels mingling, running broad and deep! There are signs on every -side. The old banks crumble. The great sea lifts other continents." - -"I see everywhere how we are seeking." - -"Yes. The seeker finds, the finder seeks on, seeks farther. The great -ages are ever the seekers." - -"You would say it is a great age?" - -"Yes. A very great one. Who is not in some way aware of it? This -friction of opinion on the top is but the wildness of the outermost -leaves as the strong wind blows." - -"And wherever I go I shall find the seeking and the greatness?" - -"The world is One," said Linden. - -The storm continued. Sweet Rocket had early supper. Zinia and Mimy, with -raincoats and a huge umbrella, went by the swaying, chanting orchard to -their own fireside, to Sarah and Julia and Jim and Just So. The Danes -and Curtin and Drew, Linden and Marget, sat or moved about in the old -Sweet Rocket parlor. They might watch the storm from the windows, or -they might sit by the fire. The great wind blew through Sweet Rocket -Valley. They heard the stream rushing, and the trees had a voice, as -though they had taken foot out of ground and were now a herd. The rain -was driven against the panes, and the wind hurled dead leaves with the -rain. Wall and roof and glass shut out the physical rain, but the -psychical man cognized it far and near, rain since the world began. And -the fire also, and the warm room, and they in company listening to the -storm. The momentary outlines shifted. There fell a sense of having done -this times and times and times, a sense of hut and cave, so often, so -long, in so many lands, that there was a feel of eternity about it. Rain -and the cave and the fire, and the inner man still busied with his -destiny! There was something that awed in the perception that ran from -one to another, that held them in a swift, shimmering band. "How -old--how old! How long have we done this?" - -The rhythm of the storm, the rhythm of the room, the rhythm of the fire, -passed into a vast, still sense of ordered movement. "Of old, and now, -and to-morrow--everywhere and all time--until we return above time and -place, and division is healed." - -They felt a lightness, a detachment. The spirit soared with the mind and -made it look. - -"There is the natural man and there is the spiritual man. That last -finds himself in all selves, and all selves in him. There is the -spiritual man, and there is the divine man who works with power. Both -are words of inclusion. It is to leave the old small I for the spiritual -I, and it is to transcend the last and enter that which is above. Then -is left the shrunken pond for the ocean! Only we say it upside down. It -is the ocean that overflows and drinks up the pond." - -"When God enters life there will still be said I?" - -"Otherwise, still pond and ocean, still separation! Who shall lose his -life here shall find it. But never sink to thinking that it is what in -the past we have meant when we said I! When God enters how shall he not -say I? But it is the ocean now that speaks! The pond is gone." - -They sat still, and the fire played and leaped. - -Through the night the rain beat and the wind blew, but at dawn it -cleared. There was wreckage about the world, but life laughed and took -her wreckage and built with it anew. Valley, hills, and mountains -gleamed like precious stones. Navies of clouds rode for a while, then -melted into the deep azure. The upper sea hung so calm and clear that -down through it to the earth bottom ran light that seemed intenser than -the light of every day. - -Curtin said good-by, and went. Marget and Linden drove him to Alder. - -The river ran swollen, the road lay deep in leaves, few leaves now on -the trees. The trees stood still in vast ranks. They seemed to be -holding something, to be turning it over in mind. There flashed across -Curtin, "Who lifts, all lifts." - -"Yes!" said Marget, beside him, as though he had spoken. - -It was what he carried with him from this valley. - -Linden and Marget drove home through the wood. "How still it is! Barring -foot and wheel on the wet leaves you would say there was no stir. We are -passing pine trees. How fragrant!" - -"A bluebird is watching us from a maple. Now here is the great beech. It -holds its leaves, though they are brown and curled upon themselves like -cocoons. The ground underneath is clean and brown. A grapevine goes over -and up with those young trees. There are yet bunches of grapes and they -hang so still! There are brown loops for swings for all the forest -children, whether they be Indians or dryads and fauns." - -"I see them," said Linden, "all the graceful, tawny forest children!" - -"Here is the oak glade with the grass yet green far down it, to where -hangs the purple curtain. The outstanding great roots glisten, and the -moss holds the water drops. You see a long way. Yonder is tree trunk and -stone, light and shadow, that looks like a hermit's cell. It is an alley -for the whole Middle Ages to come riding down--for a paladin to come -riding down, the Red Cross Knight, or Guyon, or Galahad, or Parsifal--or -it might be Robin Hood in Lincoln green!" - -"I see." - -"Here are green brier and red dogwood berries, and witch-hazel with -dull gold fingers. Can you hear the water?" - -"Yes. Three silver threads of it, like a lute!" - -"The day is a castle and a church, the day is a city and a star! Now we -pass the great rock and the two hemlocks, like cathedral spires. Here -are the little oaks, and there is a guess of crimson about them yet. The -birch and the hickory and the tall oaks, and the tops are far and fine -and melt into the sky--" - -They came down to the river, and crossed. "The light washes the pillars, -the cedars are little earth clouds. The arch of the sky has none, it -springs clear blue. Music of home!" - -"Yes. Music of home!" - -After supper, with Robert and Frances and Drew they watched the fire. -"Anna sends the city to us, and Curtin sends the rush of the train and -the flying scenery. As we send this place and this mood and this thought -to the city and the train!" - -The violin bow drew across the strings. Frances played, and love and -release filled the ancient room. The world entered into harmony. - -The next day rose gray pearl. Linden and Drew went with the woodcutters. -Marget sat at her typewriter in the study. Robert and Frances took a -long walk. Three days, and they, too, must go cityward. Now they walked -by the Alder road, and at the great pine took the Rock Mountain trail. - -The pearly light filled the forest like a water. All sound lay subdued. -When a stone rolled underfoot it was not loudly; when a branch broke it -was with a slow, deliberate, musing voice. When they saw a wild thing, -the wild thing had no motion of flight, but pottered stilly on upon its -business of the time. "We are far away! We have crossed to another land. -It is as though we died, and this is the quiet ground where we take our -reckoning before we find another busy world. Oh, a busy world in each of -us, and a quiet land!" - -They rested upon a bowlder half sunken in brown leaves. "There is a -touch of eternity about this day.... Yet in five days how busy a world -for you and me!" - -"Yet I love that as I love this. How happy that we are so rich!" - -They sat still on the gray bowlder in the gray wood in the pearl-gray -air. Minutes passed. A bird flew across the path, a gray squirrel ran up -an oak. "Something is coming down the trail." - -The something proved to be a man on horseback. The intervening boughs, -branches, twigs, made him to be seen like a horseman behind a great -window filled with small, leaded panes. He came close, and, seeing them, -drew rein. "Good day!" - -"Good day!" - -"From Sweet Rocket?" - -"Yes, from Sweet Rocket." - -"Do I speak to Mr. Linden? My name is Smith--Malcolm Smith from the -Reserve on Rock Mountain." - -Robert gave their names. Mr. Smith said: "Have you ever seen a stiller -day? It is one of the still days that set you on new action. I thought I -would ride over. I want to see Drew, and there is something else--" - -After a minute or two he addressed himself again to the path. "I'll go -on, as I have only this afternoon and to-night. I must get back to camp -to-morrow." He made no doubt, it might be noticed, of the hospitality of -Sweet Rocket. "I shall see you again?" - -"Yes. We shall turn presently." - -They watched him along the trail until, as the figure had entered, so it -vanished from the leaded window. They sat awhile longer in the -gray-pearl world, and then they rose and followed the horseman down to -Sweet Rocket. - - - - -XXII - - -Malcolm Smith and Drew had their talk, walking by the river in the -still, November dusk. Drew said: "I was glad to be on Rock Mountain, and -after a few months, if you will have me, I am going there again. But I -am glad that I came here. I am growing to see that it is not here nor -there, camp on mountain or Sweet Rocket, that a man goes to find -himself. But yet there are helpers.... There's a principle of induction, -don't you think, sir? Those who find start a wave of finding. The wave -caught them, too. There isn't any first or last." - -Turning, they saw fire gleaming through the window. "He says that we -(and when he says that he means the whole of us. When he says 'I' it is -the other word for 'we.' It is the Whole of the many) are growing fast -to-day. Sometimes he says Evolving Life, sometimes the Principle of -Integration, or the Great Synthesis. He may say Humanity Awake, or Going -Home, or Realizing Deity, or Liberation in God, or Becoming Real, or -Fulfilling Want, or Recollection, or Union, or the Eternal, Including -_SELF_, or Love at Last. He seems to think that almost any phrase will -answer if you know the thing." - -Zinia's bell rang from the porch behind them. They went in to the -pleasant supper table, set with wholesome, delicate bread, and fragrant -coffee, cottage cheese, and baked apples and cream. The table talk was -merry this evening, after the dreamy day. Supper over, all walked out to -see the night, and found it clearing, with river banks of clouds and -stars between like lit craft sailing, sailing. The air breathed -exquisitely mild, warm to-night as early October. "Let us sit by the -river and watch awhile." They took capes and coats and went down to -where, before the cedars, was placed a long bench. Sitting here, though -no entire constellation was visible, yet they pieced out the figures. - -They sat in silence, watching the ships of the universe. At last said -the visitor: "I have been thinking a good deal about you down here by -this river, and about Drew, and of two or three things Mr. Curtin said -when he was at camp. So I came down. I have been thinking a good deal. -Look! there is Pleiades, a magic island in a sea. I have had my inklings -of the way currents arise in this world. Let's grant that it is a -universe of thought and will and feeling, and that, from ignoring as -much as we could that fact, and then from wondering about it, and then -from in some wise earning it, we begin to be it--" - -"Just," said Linden. "Well?" - -The other continued, "Once, when I was recovering from an illness, I -found or was found by--and I don't suppose the expressions matter--" - -"No. They are distinctions without a difference." - -"Once, then, I walked into a state of consciousness that transcended the -level that I had thought was the true level. I was there for it might be -five seconds of our time. But though again in mass we parted, there -remained an influence--like one of those rivers up there. The world has -never since been just the old world. But the main experience did not -repeat itself, though there have been times when I have met the shadows -of it. Until the other night. But I will come to that presently. Though -it was not repeated I have known ever since that there is a -consciousness as much above our usual one as the latter is above the -ape's. A consciousness that it is profoundly desirable to reach. Before -that moment I was like almost any European of say 1491. During it--for -that one minute--I was in America. After it, though I returned to -Europe, I could say, there is America!" - -"Yes. Just." - -"But I had fallen out of America and I could never get quite back, -though I often tried. And then the other night--" - -He broke off, and seemed to ponder the sky. "I rode over from Rock -Mountain because the other night I had, not that first experience again, -but one that was again in America--New America. From what I have heard I -felt certain that this place knows these experiences. I wanted to -compare, and be confirmed. So I rode over." He was speaking to Linden. -"I had meant to ask to talk with you alone, but I see that there is -nothing here that jars or makes it difficult. It's a good place, this -bench, with the river sounding, and the clouds and the stars." - -"There is just ourself here." - -"I was coming down from the top of Rock. I had had a still twenty -minutes there, watching the sunset. I had thought of nothing in -particular, only gathered rest. I was halfway down when this torrent -rose and overtook me. I stood still. I remember a pine tree, and beyond -that a great wash of sky. But I--I was in the torrent that now seemed -Ocean, and now seemed Air, and now was Fire. The combination called -Malcolm Smith was gone into that, like rain into sea or a candle flame -into sun. And yet--and that was the miracle of it--there was an I, only -it was oceanic, only it was the sun! It held in a sheaf, it sucked out -pith and marrow of all the small 'me's' in creation, and soared and -rang, an All-Person. But what are words? If I could give you that -sense--" - -"Perhaps you do. As long ago we developed gesture in order faintly to -understand and be at one, and then developed speech, so now the Will -within is propelling and the Will within is receiving these mightier -waves. I feel what you would give. Go on." - -"If I could find the words! I passed into a subtle consciousness that -went everywhere, and all our old time became space to it. There was -motion, as of all the winds of the world brought into one current--only -nor air nor fire is swift enough, vast enough! And yet you would say -'Quietude.' ... All the movements of our world penetrated, understood, -furthered--all the honey fields, all the bees, all the hives--and -Valhalla and Olympus and Paradise, where the honey is eaten! And it is -all a figure, but what will you have! I can but stammer. I have seen -home." - -He rose, and walked up and down beneath the cedars. "I talk about it so -calmly, and yet all that I ever believed or hoped, all that I ever -thought or felt or did, is babyhood to that! I am patient, and that -astonishes me; I who am back at Malcolm Smith!" - -"You are not wholly back. The rising pendulum swings, but now a great -part of you is above the old, lower range. And at the last not -anticipation, but reality, not light of home, but home!" - -The river sounded, the stars shone in the upper rivers with the cloud -banks. The clouds made rivers, but, the clouds dissolved, there were no -more rivers, but Ocean, but Space, but the Eternal Fire! - -"It is all I have to tell," said Smith. "It sank with long -reverberations, and there was the pine tree, and the camp below, and -Malcolm Smith." - -They sat in silence. At last, said Linden: "America is a term of -vastness. They who adventured there and arrived found all manner of -experience, but all in America. They sailed in many crafts--and yet in -the end all were as one ship, all being for America. They landed north -or south, in varying climes; they stayed by the sea or went toward the -mountains, but all in America. They met with great variety in adventure, -the land being so vast and so rich in might, but all was American -adventure.... So it is, I hold, with the New America, the New World now -lighting the horizon. It resounds and flames thus to this one, and thus -to the other one. But it resounds and flames. The Great Symphony takes -in all the music. Feel it as you can, know it as you can! In proportion -as you draw the breath of the All, comparisons become odious. You have -access as I have access. Enter by the door of your inner nature!" - -"A new man is born?" - -"Yes. Everywhere. Including and transcending men. Men fading into Man, -men left behind. Man moving toward his full Consciousness. What in -prophecy we have called Christ." - -They watched the clouds and the stars, and they saw, each of them, a -new Country that was fair and strong and keen and glowing.... - -At last they rose and went back to the house, and by the fire listened -to the violin. - - - - -XXIII - - -Day rose in sapphire, tranquil, pure, still and sunny, white smoke going -straight up from morning fires. Malcolm Smith, mounting his horse, -turned again to his mountain. Sweet Rocket bade him good-by, but Linden -and Marget said, "All who come together in this consciousness part no -more!" - -"I believe that." - -He rode away, and in the afternoon was back with his work. But the inner -eye might view, between mountain and Sweet Rocket, a shimmering, -ethereal highway, a nerve, as it were, thrown from space to space, -joining and making one. - -Robert and Frances and Marget, on this last day of the Danes' visit, -walked to the hill with the solitary tree atop. The sapphire day -continued, quiet and sunny, the air being of an extreme fineness charged -with light. Far and near the mountains made a cup of amethyst. Fields -and hillsides at hand were a lighted umber. They saw long rows of -stacked corn, and in the meadows hayricks. Beyond the orchard they made -out the steep roof of the great barn. There were corn and wheat for the -mill, there were stored apples. In the wood below them they heard the -woodman's ax. - -"I can see," said Robert Dane, "I can see that Humanity is mastering its -own organism. I see that it is lifting toward Unitary Consciousness. -Here, now, in this present year as in past years, each year now with -greater momentum. Reaction and recoil, of course--but back again, and -farther! Everywhere shows the swift inter-approach. All over, all -through, America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the islands of -the sea. The revolutions of our day are woven of it. We are leaving -separation and partialness, fortress and dungeon." - -"Yes. All our 'movements' rush into the one. All our vortices approach -with a fearful joy the Great Vortex. The Correlation will be -established, the Summation made. We go to join and strengthen the -Ancient Heavens. The Ancient of Days draws and redeems and fuses and -Ones another layer of his being. Faster and faster our age begins to see -what is happening. The language men use to describe it does not so much -matter. The poet names it Life, Beauty, and Joy; the scientific man says -Knowledge and Use; the philosopher says Energy and Substance in -conscious union; the Hindu says the _SELF_; our peoples say God.... All -one." - -They came to the hilltop and stood to look about them. "There is such -joy!" went on Marget. "Pain and pleasure outgrown, now blooms the joy! -'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.' The -being found and the finding. One after another lays hand upon that -world, clings, braces himself, draws himself up and over and finds the -manna lying around him. Joy, wisdom and power! and the taste of them but -begun. Possession still to be possessed--forever and forever!" - -They sat beneath the tree and all around sprang the valley and the -mountains and Virginia and the world. "Alive--deathlessly alive! The -valley and the mountains, Virginia and the world!" - -Frances spoke. "I know a woman who speaks in the terms of the East. Is -it the Principle of Sensibility--the Buddhic plane?" - -"Yes. Atma is yet to arrive. What we see is the light before his face. -When he fully comes that is the Day of the Lord. What all work has been -toward, all toil, all hoping. As Atma rises in us--as Christ rises in -us--comes newer and richer life, fuller and fuller, inner powers and -principalities, thrones and dominions, and their objective garments. But -when WE ARE THE LORD--I know not! There is Light there that is as -darkness to us yet." - -The exquisite valley heightened its values throughout, became richer. -The mountains around hung in the eye like the Delectable Mountains. - -"If one grows, all things and all places grow with that one?" - -"Inevitably so! The wealth is for all." - -"The new consciousness that we feel is a pale film to what will be?" - -"Yes. A borderland, the islands fringing the New World. But such as it -is it wipes out the old, blind, scattered, little consciousnesses. To -what shall be felt and shall be known it is the one leaf of green, it is -the olive leaf that the dove brings. But before us are enormous growth, -strange and fair adventure, work, joy, love--" - -Through the air they felt the ether, through the sunlight they felt the -Great Sun. Light and warmth came to them from the Sun behind the sun. It -touched, it passed, but each time it came they strengthened. - -That night by the fire they sat in silence that was full and rich and -understanding. "To-morrow night, here at Sweet Rocket, just Richard and -Marget and Drew--and all the rest of us!" - -The next day dawned, and still it was Indian summer. Robert and Frances -went from place to place, as had gone Curtin and Anna Darcy, saying -farewell. "We wish and hope to bring our bodies here again next year. -But if that is not done, still, still, still we shall have Sweet -Rocket!" - -"You have access now to all places and times and peoples. You are -through the gate, you two! All your good dreams now will come true. If -not in this way then in that. Every dream that does no injury to the -Whole." - -Richard and Marget, Daniel and the phaeton, took them to Alder. The -still forest was clothed to-day in purple. For much of the way silence -held within the phaeton as without. But it was the silence that Anna -Darcy had early noted. It was rhythmic, it was thronged, it was fused -and made into the richest solitude. - - - "But such a tide as moving seems asleep, - Too full for sound or foam, - When that which drew from out the boundless deep - Turns again home." - - -Now and then they spoke. Once Robert said, abruptly, "And all the effort -of the world is to stand and grow in grace?" - -"Just. All the effort. Everywhere! Whether it be stone or plant or -animal or man or over-man. And where the Emerging Character is so mighty -none is to despise his brother's path or rate of speed. Once it was his -own. Everything has been and is our own. Work! but who hates or despises -halts and weakens the effort." - -"But work!" - -"Yes, steadily. In all realms. 'What thy hand findeth to do, do with thy -might.' What thy judgment findeth to do. The other name of Lubber Land -was Good Enough." - -They came to Alder with its churches and sere gardens lying in violet -light. Here was the little station--in a few moments they heard the -train. - -"Good-by!" - -"Good-by!" - -Frances and Robert looked through the car window. The platform had men, -women, and children upon it. Two or three arriving travelers found -friends to meet them; there were the workers about the station and the -loafers, with country folk and village folk brought by some business, -and in the throng Richard Linden and Marget Land. Just the usual village -station. Then all of it sprang into light, into music, into -significance, into importance. The train moved. There was a cry of -"Good-by! Come again!" All seemed to enter into it, to cry it out. - -The houses went by, the village street, the hills, the river, and all, -all, and this train upon which they found themselves had color and music -and significance and importance. - -"The I that says of every living thing, 'It is I,' says it and means it -and understands it and proceeds to live from it, says it of the total -objective, and so takes the objective up into the Subject--that I is -over the verge of the old into the New--" - -The hills went by, the river gleamed. - -Marget and Richard traveled homeward through the purple forest. To-day -they hardly used the outer voice. The blind man sat with a smile upon -his lips as though he saw, with such a face as could only have come from -much seeing. The woman, too, sat still, the body relaxed, the spirit -gleaming in the soul. Daniel drew them through the forest; nor did -Daniel, either, lack some sense of growth, dim belief in a higher world, -dim will to reach it. Below Daniel the forest felt that, and below the -forest the rock. The utter stream of pilgrims-- - - -THE END - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sweet Rocket, by Mary Johnston - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET ROCKET *** - -***** This file should be named 56101-8.txt or 56101-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/1/0/56101/ - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Sweet Rocket - -Author: Mary Johnston - -Release Date: December 1, 2017 [EBook #56101] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET ROCKET *** - - - - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:<br /><br /> -A Table of Contents has been added.<br /></p></div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><a name="cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg"></a><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="bold2">SWEET ROCKET</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Books by</span></p> - -<p class="center">MARY JOHNSTON</p> - - -<p class="center">SWEET ROCKET<br />MICHAEL FORTH<br />FOES<br />SIR MORTIMER<br /></p> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p class="center">HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK<br /><span class="smcap">Established 1817</span></p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/titlepage.jpg" alt="title page" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<h1>SWEET<br />ROCKET</h1> - -<p class="bold"><i>by</i></p> - -<p class="bold2">MARY JOHNSTON</p> - -<p class="bold">AUTHOR OF<br /> -"SIR MORTIMER" "MICHAEL FORTH"<br /> -"TO HAVE AND TO HOLD" "FOES" ETC.</p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/logo.jpg" alt="logo" /></div> - -<p class="bold space-above">Harper & Brothers Publishers<br />New York and London</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Sweet Rocket</span></p> - -<hr class="smler" /> - -<p class="center">Copyright, 1920, by Mary Johnston<br />Printed in the United States of America<br />Published October, 1920</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2><span>CONTENTS</span></h2> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER I</td> - <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER II</td> - <td><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER III</td> - <td><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER IV</td> - <td><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER V</td> - <td><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER VI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER VII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER VIII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER IX</td> - <td><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER X</td> - <td><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XIII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XIV</td> - <td><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XV</td> - <td><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XVI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XVII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XVIII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XIX</td> - <td><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XX</td> - <td><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXI</td> - <td><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER XXIII</td> - <td><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">SWEET ROCKET</p> - -<h2>I</h2> - -<p>The woman driving turned the phaeton from the highway into a narrow -road. Almost immediately the forest through which they had been passing -for a mile or more deepened. It was now a rich woodland, little cut, -seldom touched by fire. Apparently the road knew little use. Narrow and -in part grass-grown, soft from yesterday's rain, dimmed by many trees, -now it bent and now it ran straight, a dun streak, cut always in front -by that ancient, exquisite screen of bough and leaf. The highway dropped -out of sight and mind. The woman to whom this countryside was new, -sitting beside the woman driving, drew a breath of pleasure. "Oh, smell -it! It goes over you like balm!"</p> - -<p>"It washes the travel stains away. Take off your hat."</p> - -<p>The other obeyed, turning and placing it upon the back seat beside a -large and a small traveling bag. She drew off her gloves, too, then, -<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>straightening herself, sighed again with happiness. "How deep it goes -... and quiet! It's thousands of miles away!"</p> - -<p>"Hundreds of thousands, and right at hand!"</p> - -<p>Leaves were beginning to turn. Maples had lighted fires, hickories were -making gold, dogwood and sumac dyeing with crimson. Ironweed, yet -blooming, blotched the roadside with purple. Joe-pye lifted heads of -ashy pink, goldenrod started forth, in places farewell-summer made a low -mist of lilac. The road dipped into a dell. The gray horse, the phaeton, -crossed a brown streamlet, sliding, murmuring. Mint filled the air. The -road lifted and ran on again into mystery. Blackbirds flew across, a -woodpecker tapped and tapped, a squirrel ran up an oak. But for all of -faint, stealthy rustle, perpetual low sound and small movements without -end, deep, deep, deep rest was the note. Rest and solitude.</p> - -<p>The old, strong, gray horse was named Daniel. This was his road since he -was a colt. Sometimes he might find upon it Whitefoot and Bess, the farm -horses, drawing the farm wagon, but oftenest it was solitary like -this—his road—Sweet Rocket road. The phaeton moving its wheels rolled -it, droned it forth—"Sweet Rocket road—Sweet Rocket road."</p> - -<p>"There are five miles of it," said Marget. Her tone added, "I love -it—its solitariness, its ownness!"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p><p>"It's miraculously beautiful," answered her companion. "It aches, it is -so beautiful!"</p> - -<p>"Sweet Rocket road—Sweet Rocket road," said the wheels. "Way to Sweet -Rocket—way to Sweet Rocket."</p> - -<p>"It is straight and single-minded as an arrow. No one goes but one who -wishes to travel to Sweet Rocket. It is our road in and our road out. -There seems to be no other."</p> - -<p>"'Seems'?"</p> - -<p>"I mean that it is the only road made with spade and pick."</p> - -<p>They traveled again in silence. The visitor sat, a small, elderly woman, -with a thin, strong, intelligent face. Something about her, alike of -strength and of limitation, said, "Teacher for long years." She sat with -her hands in her lap, looking at that truly beautiful road and the -forest walls. But at last with a sigh of appreciation she turned to -talk. "Twenty years and more since we last met! But you keep young, -Marget. I had no difficulty in picking you out of the station crowd."</p> - -<p>"Nor I you, dear Miss Darcy! But then I've always kept you in mind and -heart. I owe you so much!"</p> - -<p>"Ah, Marget, not much!"</p> - -<p>"I owe you learning. It is a good deal to take a country girl, charge -scarcely anything for her and see that she gets knowledge and learns how -to get more—and more—"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p><p>"You are of those who reward teaching. Don't let us talk about that -which was neither load nor task and so is no debt. The 'now' interests -me. You look well. Your face is a rose under clear brown."</p> - -<p>"I am well."</p> - -<p>"And happy?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, happy."</p> - -<p>"I know that you couldn't be happy unless you were helping."</p> - -<p>"I don't know how much I help. I help some."</p> - -<p>"You were never given to long letters. There really is much that I don't -at all know about you! And such as they are, I have had very few letters -of late years. It was the sheerest accident my finding out that this was -your part of the country. I might have gone to the Conference and never -known that you were not twenty miles away!"</p> - -<p>"The day before I had your card I knew that something pleasant was going -to happen."</p> - -<p>"Well, tell me what you do—"</p> - -<p>Marget Land looked over Daniel's ears, down the vista of the road. At -this point hemlocks grew to either hand, cones of a green that was -almost black. Between rose sycamores with pale arms and leaves like -silky brown hair. At the road edge the farewell-summer made a lacework, -and above it glowed the sumac torches. Blue sky roofed the autumn earth. -The air<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> just flowed, neither hot nor cold, milk warm, happy. Summer and -winter had made a bargain, struck a compromise, achieved a diagonal. -Gold autumn, crimson autumn, violet autumn, dusky and tawny -autumn—autumn balm—autumn drawn up into a gracious figure—Keats's -autumn—a goddess!</p> - -<p>She drew a light, sighing breath. "I told you that I was happy.... Isn't -it strange—living? Isn't it strange and sweet the way things come -about? There's magic, all right! Sweet Rocket.... I was born in the -overseer's house at Sweet Rocket. That was ten years after the war and -there wasn't much nor many for my father to oversee. I love my father. -He was what the mountain folk call 'a getter-on.' He had ability and a -lot of goodness and a lot of kindness. Education from books had not come -his way, but he knew many things. He had worked hard and saved, and -after the war, when he gave up overseeing, or it gave him up, and when -he turned merchant in Alder, over there, he made money—as we looked at -it in Virginia in those days. Some money, that is. He had ten thousand -dollars in bank when old Major Linden died, and Mary Linden married and -went away, and Sweet Rocket was sold for debt. He bought it—though he -kept a steady face, he was so proud to buy it! I was nine years old when -we moved out of the overseer's house into the big house—my mother, my -father, my two brothers, and I. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> loved it, loved it, loved it—love -it, love it, love it!"</p> - -<p>"I remember the very way in which you used to say it, 'Sweet Rocket!'"</p> - -<p>"We became at once land poor. And my father had an illness, and, though -he seemed to recover, never did quite recover. When it came to choosing -and bargaining, making and laying by, he was never again the man he had -been. My mother, too, who had worked so hard when she was young—too -hard—began to fail. Will, my elder brother, went West. Edgar, the -younger, wanted to go, too. He did not like it here. You see ... every -one still said: 'The old overseer bought it. They were all born in the -overseer's house. Now they rattle around in the Lindens' house! Bottom -rail—!' It was still called 'the Linden place.' As I grew old enough to -have cared for what they said I somehow escaped caring. But Edgar cared. -It was hard on the boy.... But I loved Sweet Rocket, loved it, love it! -I love the overseer's house and the big house—which isn't, of course, -very big, for the place was always a simple one—simple and still and -out of the way!"</p> - -<p>She seemed to pause somewhat deeply to vision something within. Miss -Darcy watched the moving walls, now standing close, now a little -receding, now opening as it were into gateways through which were seen -forest lawns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> and aisles. They shut in again. A golden bough brushed the -phaeton. She who had been speaking put out her hand and touched it. "How -could one help but love it? To me it is forever so old and forever so -new! I lock with it.... What was I saying? Well, Edgar did not like it, -and my mother failed, and father had less money and less money—and -still we went on ... five years, eight years, ten years. Then in one -year my father died and my mother died.... Will came home. He and Edgar -said that we must sell Sweet Rocket. I wasn't eighteen. We knew about -the mortgage, but we didn't know about some other debts. When it was -sold there was hardly anything to divide among us—"</p> - -<p>"The Lindens didn't buy it back, then?"</p> - -<p>"No, not then. Northern people bought it. Will went back to Wyoming, and -Edgar with him. I went to my mother's sister—Aunt Hester—who lived in -Richmond. I went to her with my two hundred and fifty dollars a year. -She's one of the best of women. I never had anything but kindness from -her—and one of the greatest was when she spoke of me to you!"</p> - -<p>She put her hand over Miss Darcy's hand. "I had been to school a little, -of course. There were some books at home, and I had borrowed where I -could. But in Richmond, to you, I really began to go to school."</p> - -<p>"You studied as very few study, Marget.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> You studied as though waves of -things were coming happily back into memory."</p> - -<p>"Yes. But you released something. Always fire is lit from fire. Always -one comes to any that sit in darkness.... Well, I went to school for -three years. Then off you go from that school to Canada, to England, to -I don't know where! I stayed in Richmond and went to a business school. -I learned typewriting and stenography. I began to earn my living."</p> - -<p>"You were with Baker and Owen?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. And then I passed into library work. I went to Washington. I was -in the library there for five years. I saved. I wrote a few papers that -were published. I took what they brought me and what I had saved, and I -left the library and I went around the world, second class and third -class—and at times fourth—and I learned and enjoyed. I taught English -here and there, and so I paid as I went. I came back in four years—back -to Richmond and Aunt Hester, until I might look about me and see what I -could do, for I must earn."</p> - -<p>"If you had written to me then in New York—"</p> - -<p>"I felt that. But there is something—don't you know there is -something?—that guides us.... I lay one night thinking of Sweet Rocket. -I could always come back here, just as really—come back from the ends -of the earth! I came back often. There has always been, along the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> -garden wall, sweet rocket—dame's violet, you know. Some of it is white -and some is purple—shining clusters growing above your waist. I could -gather them in my arms and feel them against my cheek. I could get -<i>into</i> the dark cedars that come up from the river. I lay in Richmond, -more than half feeling, more than half seeing.... There's a country, you -know, out of which things come down to you.... It came down—knowledge! -I meant to go back to Sweet Rocket."</p> - -<p>She paused. "Look at that tree—"</p> - -<p>"It is so splendid! A sugar maple, isn't it? And that one?"</p> - -<p>"Mountain linden. It puts on a clear, pale gold, like the old saints' -haloes."</p> - -<p>"I hear water."</p> - -<p>"It is the little stream that we cross. See how sweet and clear and -sounding it goes! Hemlock Run. All right, Daniel!"</p> - -<p>Daniel bent mouth to water and drank.</p> - -<p>"No check rein?"</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>Gray horse and old phaeton moved again. The wood grew richer and deeper. -"We are nearing the river."</p> - -<p>"And then, in Richmond, you heard about Sweet Rocket?"</p> - -<p>"Aunt Hester had a letter from Alder. Richard Linden, old Major Linden's -nephew, had bought Sweet Rocket. I was glad that some one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> who must love -it was there. Aunt Hester said that he had visited it once or twice as a -young boy. He would remember it then as I remembered it. The second -letter said that he was almost blind, and alone on the place save for -the colored people. Then I saw his advertisement in the Richmond papers. -He wanted a secretary, one who could read aloud well. So I answered, and -was taken—five years ago."</p> - -<p>"How old a man is he?"</p> - -<p>"He is forty-seven and I am forty-four."</p> - -<p>"You have inner youth—higher youth."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Childhood there. So has he."</p> - -<p>"Do you love him, Marget?"</p> - -<p>"Love him? Yes! But not the once-time way, if that is what you mean. As -he loves me, but not the once-time way. So we shall not marry, in the -once-time way. But we live here together all the same."</p> - -<p>"Well, if it is as fair as this road—"</p> - -<p>"It is just a simple house in the bent arm of a little river and with -hills all around, and behind the hills, mountains. There are fields and -an orchard and garden. It is hidden like a lost place, and happy like a -place for evermore finding itself."</p> - -<p>"Tell me about Mr. Linden."</p> - -<p>"No, let us wait for that. Or I can tell outward things—how we live?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"He has only a small, fixed income. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> wouldn't at all go round the -year, so we farm. We have an excellent man, Roger Carter, who lives in -the overseer's house. Wheat, corn, buckwheat, hay, and apples! So we -live and can buy—though with an elegant spareness—books and red-seal -Victor records and more and more flowers for the flower garden."</p> - -<p>"Of course you have help about the house?"</p> - -<p>"There are two colored men and a boy, and Mimy the cook and Zinia the -housemaid. But with the home garden and cornfield and orchard and the -two cows and the chickens and ducks and Daniel and Whitefoot and Bess -there is more than enough to do. You will be surprised to see how much -he does himself."</p> - -<p>"How can he see?"</p> - -<p>"He can tell light from darkness, and the dim mass of things. And then, -when you are blind, you grow so skillful with the other senses! And of -course in a measure all of us are eyes to him. He has a great, strong -body. He hoes and digs. He knows always what is beneath his fingers. He -can weed a garden as well as I can. He gathers fruit and berries and -vegetables and knows the perfect from the imperfect. He does no end of -things. Perhaps he may work with his hands four hours a day."</p> - -<p>"And then?"</p> - -<p>"There are letters. I write them, and I keep his accounts, and, of -course, the house. Then we read. It is a sandwiched business, but we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> -must average three hours a day with books. He gets up very early and -walks before breakfast, and usually again in the afternoon. Sometimes I -drive him on this road. Sometimes I walk with him, sometimes he goes -alone. After supper we read, or listen to the Victor singing and -playing, or we talk, or sit by the fire, still and thinking. Or on the -porch steps when weather is warm, where I can see and he can image the -stars."</p> - -<p>"I see a good life."</p> - -<p>"We are not without neighbors, though it seems so lonely. And then folk -come to us. His blindness was an accident, you know. He has had life in -the world as I have had life in the world. We <i>have</i> life in the world."</p> - -<p>"He is one, then, that may be loved?"</p> - -<p>"He is a great poet, though he would never call himself so. He just -feels and acts so.... I think his face is beautiful."</p> - -<p>"I think that your face is beautiful," thought Miss Darcy.</p> - -<p>The tawny road turned a little east. Trees yet green, trees that wore -the one color the year round, blended with golden trees and scarlet -trees. Wild grapes with twisted and shaggy stems and yellowing leaves, -with blue grapes hanging over, ran and mounted, held by the forest arms -up to the sun. Sumac that was somehow like the Indian, that seemed to -hold memories of the Indian in the land, grew in each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> minute clearing. -There arose a little, rustling wind, the ineffable blue air moving -lightly. Brown butterflies abounded. The sense grew strong of -remoteness, of calm that was not indolence, of beauty gathered and at -home.</p> - -<p>Miss Darcy moved a little. Marget Land turned toward her. "You feel it, -don't you?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"They that come feel it. They are drawn. There are centers of -integration. This is one. I do not know who started it. Probably many, -working in at different times. But now it is in action."</p> - -<p>"Is that mysticism?"</p> - -<p>"No. It is fact."</p> - -<p>The forest stopped with clean decision. The road ran through fields -where the corn had been cut and shocked. The shocks stood in rows like -brown wigwams. Daniel and the phaeton came down to a little river, very -clear, falling and murmuring over stones above and below a ford, but at -the ford a mirror, reflecting autumn hills and heaven. Across the ford -stretched a little pebbly beach, crowned with trees and grass, and -behind the trees stood a brick house, old-red, not so large as large -houses go, but of excellent line. It had a porch with Doric pillars, -weather-softened. It stood among fine trees in a small valley shut in on -all sides by hills and mountains, all forested to the top. Only the road -and the river seemed to have way out and in,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> only road and river and -air and birds. Valley and colored mountain walls were proportioned, -modeled, tinted to some wide and deep artist's taste. The tone was rest -without weakness, movement without fury, solitude that had all company.</p> - -<p>"How could you help but love it!" said the visiting woman.</p> - -<p>"I don't try to help it.... If it burned down—if the hills sank and the -wood was destroyed—still it would endure, and still I could come here. -Now we cross the river. Look at the bright stones and the minnows, -gliding, darting!"</p> - -<p>Up from the river, across the pebbly shore, rose cedars dark and tall. -"They are like warders. Only there's nothing, really, to ward out. All -things may meet here. We go this way, to the back of the house."</p> - -<p>"It feels enchanted."</p> - -<p>"It is so simple. You might call it meek. There are people who pass who -say, 'How lonely!'"</p> - -<p>They were now at the back of the house, where the road skirted the -flower garden. Here was the back door, with three rounded, moss-grown -steps of stone. Daniel and the phaeton stood still. The two women left -the vehicle. A colored man appeared. "Miss Darcy, this is Mancy. Mancy, -this is Miss Darcy, come to stay with us as long as she will."</p> - -<p>Mancy, tall and spare, with an Indian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>great-grandmother, said that he -was glad to see her, and took her bags. In the brick kitchen in the -yard, Mimy was singing:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Swing low, sweet chariot,</div> -<div>Coming for to carry me home—"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> - -<h2>II</h2> - -<p>"I might stay a week." Anna Darcy spoke to herself, standing at the -window of the room where Marget had left her. She looked down upon -flowers and out to the southern wall that closed in the valley. The -mountains had the tints of desert sands at sunset. They had long wave -forms; they were not peaked, nor very high. They were so old, she -knew—Appalachians—older than Apennine or Himalaya. They were wearing -down here, disintegrating. The weather would be lowering them year by -year. They were removing and building elsewhere. They had granaries full -of memories, and they must have somewhere, springing like the winter -wheat, as many as the blades of wheat, anticipations. Down in the garden -she saw marigolds and zinnias, late blooming pansies, mignonette, -snapdragon and aster and heliotrope, larkspur, mourning bride, and -citronalis. A rosy light bathed garden and fields. This was the back of -the house. She saw two or three cabins and a barn, stacked hay, and a -rail fence worn and lichened, fostering a growth of trumpet vine and -traveler's joy. She heard cow bells. A boy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> with a good-natured ebony -face crossed the path below, carrying two milk pails. Chickens, turkeys, -and guineas walked about in the barnyard. From the kitchen, fifty feet -from the house, floated a smell of coffee and of bread in the oven. All -the place was clean, friendly.</p> - -<p>She turned to the large, four-windowed room. The walls had a paper of -lavender-gray, on which hung three prints. The bed was a four-poster, -with a linen, ball-fringed valance. Books stood ranged above an ancient -desk; a blue jug held asters. There was a large closet and—modern -blessing—a bathroom, white tubbed, pleasant and light. It had been, she -saw, an old dressing room between the two chambers upon this side of the -hall, with a door for each. Both doors being ajar, she saw Marget's -room, large like this one, furnished not unlike this one. But that, -something told her, was really the spare room, and this that she was to -dwell in was Marget's room. It had the feel of Marget. "It is the -pleasantest, and so she has given it to me."</p> - -<p>She bathed and changed her dress. All the time old, happy rhythms ran in -her head. Dressed, she sat down by one of the western windows, in the -yet warm light. She rested her head against the back of the chair, her -eyes closed. She was no longer a young woman, and she had had a tiring -year, and it was grateful to her to rest thus. Rest! It was the word, -it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> was the feeling, that was dwelling in this place. Rest, rest, deep -rest without idleness.</p> - -<p>The air was so rare and fine—mountain air. She remembered that they -said that the valley itself lay high. Mountain air. But even while she -thought that she had a sudden sense of sea air, fine and strong and -drenched with sun.</p> - -<p>There would be five or six rooms on this floor. All were large, and the -hall between was large. The stairway was very good, the woodwork -everywhere good. The ceilings were high. They used lamps and candles. -The day had been warm. Fire was not needed. But wood was laid in the -fireplace and the wood box beside it held chestnut and pine.</p> - -<p>This window gave upon the west. Here were grass and the red and gold -trees, and the pebbly beach and the sickle of the water, and the -lion-colored fields and the wood through which they had driven, and the -amethyst mountains. The sun had set, but the sky stayed aglow. The -fatigue went out of the old teacher's face. "'Cast thy bread upon the -waters, and after many days it shall return to thee!'" She did not -consciously repeat this, but the saying overhung her.</p> - -<p>She had slightly opened the door giving upon the hall, so that Marget, -returning, might know that she was ready. Stair and hall floor were bare -wood. A step sounded upon the one and then upon the other. She was -sensitive to the way folk trod. "That is Mr. Linden."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p><p>He passed her door and she heard him enter his room across the hall.</p> - -<p>Marget presently came for her. "Let us go into the garden until the bell -rings." The garden lay spread in breadths of violet brocade. They walked -on brick paths and smelled box and mignonette. Then Zinia rang the -supper bell.</p> - -<p>The two entered the lower hall yet drenched with the afterglow. A man, -tall and big framed, turned at their step. "Miss Darcy, this is Mr. -Linden." He put out his hand; the visitor laid hers in it. It was a -strong hand, likable. His voice, when he spoke, was the voice for the -hand. "I am glad to see you, Miss Darcy! Marget and I are glad."</p> - -<p>There was light enough to show a strong-featured, clean-shaven face. The -eyes were blue-gray. They were not disfigured. She also came to think -his face a beautiful one.</p> - -<p>They went into the dining room, where two lamps were lighted. The -mahogany table had a blue bowl of larkspur. Zinia, in a blue cotton -dress and white apron, waited. There were coffee, delicate rolls, a -perfection of butter and of cream, a salad, coddled apples, and sugar -cakes. Marget sat behind the coffee urn and cups and saucers. Richard -Linden did not take the foot of the table, but sat beside her, at the -right. She aided him quietly, perfectly, nor did he need as much aid as -might be thought. He was so skillful; eyes must be in fingers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> Zinia, -too, marked his needs, forestalled things. She called him Mr. Dick. She -had for him a low, rich, confidential whisper. "The salt, Mr. Dick." -"Cottage cheese, Mr. Dick." Marget called him Richard.</p> - -<p>The three talked of the ring of this valley and of the ring without and -around it, of Miss Darcy's doings and of Sweet Rocket's, and of -everybody's. It seemed that papers, magazines, the news, must come here. -Earth was the earth of the beginning of the third decade of the -twentieth century. There was news enough.</p> - -<p>Supper over, they went into the parlor that was opposite the dining -room, and was no more parlor than library. It stretched around, a big -room with old pictures, old furniture, with books. A fire flamed and -sang. They sat in the firelight, Richard Linden on one side of the -hearth and Marget on the other, and Miss Darcy beside the latter. Still -there was talk. The visitor would have gathered where they stood on -questions of the day, then suddenly saw that they stood all round and -through, and that the day to them was so old and young that it included -yesterday and to-morrow. That being so, their solutions were not always -those currently offered.</p> - -<p>She also found that though they talked they were not talkative. With -them conversation became a rhythmic thing—tranquil pause, deep -retirement, then again the word. And it startled her almost, how -completely they were one.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p><p>When they had sat by the fire an hour Marget, rising, put violin music -upon a victrola. Hafitz played to them a Hebrew melody; Kreisler played, -and Maud Powell. The flames danced, the world heightened. Then, one -after the other, came three songs, and between each, as between the -violin pieces, they watched the fire, and the forest and the night wind -were felt around.</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Oh, that we two were maying!"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The song ended, the fire burned, they heard the river, the forest was -all around. A man's voice was lifted.</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come into His Presence!"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Again the wide and deep pause, and then the third song.</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"And the world shall go up with a shout unto God."</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Marget shut the victrola. Again they sat in that quiet. It was systole -and diastole, it was in and out, and inexpressibly it rested! And that -was what she wanted, rest.</p> - -<p>Marget lighted a lamp that stood upon the table. Linden said, "Hadn't -you rather not read, to-night?"</p> - -<p>"No. We won't read long."</p> - -<p>He turned to the visitor. "Do you mind listening?"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>Miss Darcy was glad to listen. Marget began to read. Her old teacher -remembered that she had read well twenty years ago. She read better now. -The book was Lafcadio Hearn's <i>West Indies</i>. "We travel so," said -Linden. "We take a right journeyer and journey with him."</p> - -<p>The fire flickered, then seemed to pass into actual fire of sun. They -were in Martinique, under Pelée, in Saint Pierre, in Grand Anse. Again -she was startled to feel how real it was. She touched, she knew, the -people of Martinique.</p> - -<p>Later, when the book had been closed, when they had said good night, one -to the other, when she lay in bed in the dark quiet, she experienced -strongly what a certain number of times in her life she had been able to -experience faintly. She experienced coherence that was wider than old -coherences. She interlocked with this place and her hosts. She held -them, they held her. At the end of the week she must go afar. "But never -any more so far that I lose the tune—never any more!" She went to sleep -with a strange, fair feeling of sea about her. Not that the forest, the -hills and mountains, were not there, but she felt the sea likewise. "Of -course it is there, but I never thought to look at it or taste it! The -sea and mountains and they and me, threaded together, talking together!" -She slept.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> - -<h2>III</h2> - -<p>As she dressed, the next morning, she heard Mimy singing, but no stir of -her hosts. The sun was shining. In at window streamed life-giving air. -Her mind was upon the evening before and its current of happenings. As -she had gone to sleep with the sea, of which they had read, about her, -so now the three songs to which they had listened returned to mind, -returned almost to sense. That was one remarkable thing about this -place—the great vividness and depth of perception.... She knew the -difference between usual or even intent thinking and intuition. Her -intuitions had not been vigorous—she had looked at them with a kind of -gray wonder, as at pale children from afar. They came at long intervals, -but were never forgotten. It now seemed that this was a good clime for them.</p> - -<p>She stood still in the middle of her room. Her mind opened. "'Oh, that -we two were maying!' That is man and woman love, time out of mind; love -and cry of love! It is Romeo and Juliet, it is Tristan and Isolde. 'Oh, -that I knew where I might find Him, that I might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> come into His -presence!' That is religious love that goes up from man and woman love. -That is the onward going, the seeking of Great Lovers. 'And the world -shall go up with a shout unto God.' That is when we move and feel and -think, not as men and women, but as Humanity. The Great Mating."</p> - -<p>The little firmament closed like eyelids and hid the greater. She was a -small, gray woman, and she had beaten about in the intellect, and when -gleams came like this she had taken them and promptly, when the sky -closed, had doubted if they had ever existed. But to-day she was less -inclined to doubt. There remained a faint luminousness in mind, a sense -of depth behind feeling. She thought, "If I could stay in that garden I -should indeed know bloom and music!" She moved about the room. "The -point is that there <i>is</i> such a garden."</p> - -<p>She finished dressing, and went downstairs. Zinia met her in the hall. -"Good mahning! I hope you slept well? Miss Marget says you're to have -breakfast on the porch. It's so warm and beautiful this mahning."</p> - -<p>"She has had hers?"</p> - -<p>"Yes'm. She said tell you Sweet Rocket was home. I put the table here. -But if it's too sunny I can move it."</p> - -<p>"It's not too sunny. I like sun," said Miss Darcy.</p> - -<p>"I like it, too," said Zinia, and departed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> kitchenward. Anna Darcy sat -and slowly ate Catawba grapes. The porch was wide, the table placed -between high, mellowed pillars. Beyond them the autumn turf ran to great -trees colored like Venetian glass. The river crescent sparkled in light. -Beyond it she saw the fields and the woods through which they had -driven. All was closed by the mountain wall, very soft and gracious in -the sun, in the still, warm air.</p> - -<p>Zinia brought coffee and rolls. There was honey upon the table, and an -old blue basket-dish filled with red-amber grapes. Zinia was very dark, -supple, and strong. She had large, kind, African eyes, and beautiful -teeth, and she moved with an ample and conscious majesty. Miss Darcy -loved to watch her.</p> - -<p>The evening before, a collie lay upon the steps. Miss Darcy asked of him.</p> - -<p>"Tam? He's gone with Mr. Dick."</p> - -<p>Zinia stood by a pillar, watching with kind eyes the visitor's evident -enjoyment of her breakfast. Miss Darcy had noted before, and noted now, -the lack of any servility at Sweet Rocket. They all seemed too much a -part of one another for that. But there was also that fine courtesy and -feeling that did not speak out of the way when speech was not wanted. -They all seemed to sail upon some inner current of understanding.</p> - -<p>She finished breakfast, and, rising, helped Zinia to carry away the -table. Dining room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> and pantry shone clean and simple. Zinia had flowers -in the pantry, and upon the shelf below the china press an open book. -Miss Darcy glanced. "What are you reading?—<i>Pilgrim's Progress?</i>"</p> - -<p>"Yes'm," said Zinia, in her rich voice. "I like that girl Mercy."</p> - -<p>The house was clean and sunny; still, and yet singing somehow, like a -great shell held to ear. She walked about, and at last went out into the -high morning and the flower garden. The brick paths glistened. Box -smelled sweet, mignonette and citronalis. Around flowed bird life and a -vast insect life. Multitudinous song and hum and chirr fell into -harmony. She walked up and down the paths and partook of garden -amusements, then went out by a wicket gate and found herself near the -outdoor kitchen. A brown four-year-old was seated on the stone step. She -stopped before him. "Good morning!"</p> - -<p>"Mahning."</p> - -<p>"What is your name?"</p> - -<p>"Just So."</p> - -<p>"Just So?"</p> - -<p>"Yass'm."</p> - -<p>Mimy appeared in the doorway. Mimy was a small woman with a face like a -carved cherry stone for wrinkles. "He's my grandson, ma'am, Just So."</p> - -<p>"I heard you singing," said Miss Darcy. "I loved it."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p><p>"Singing's like butter on the griddle," said Mimy. "It helps you turn -things!" She sighed portentously, and then she groaned. "I've had a lot -of things to turn! Yes'm, I've lived long and turned a lot of things!"</p> - -<p>Her voice was gloom, and yet carried more than a suspicion of rich -chuckle. She enjoyed her old woes, disaster had grown so shallow. "I, -too," thought the visitor, "have had a lot of things to turn! I, too, -have come to where I can stand back and see the drama and feel the play -thrill!"</p> - -<p>Just So was a solemn young one. He sat and gazed as though in -contemplation of the many things he would have to turn. Then a brown hen -came by, and he put out a brown toe and dug in the earth, and said, -"Shoo!" and laughed. Miss Darcy left him playing with a string of spools -and a broken coffee mill. Mimy in the kitchen was toasting coffee and -singing. The coffee smelled better than good, the singing was without -age in the voice.</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Who built the Ark?</div> -<div>Oh, Noah built the Ark!</div> -<div class="i2">It rained forty days,</div> -<div class="i2">And it rained forty nights!</div> -<div class="i2">'There ain't any sun and there ain't any heights!'</div> -<div>Oh, Noah built the Ark!"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Miss Darcy's path led on to the barn. Cocks and hens, white and red, -held the barnyard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> She watched them with pleasure, and the sun on the -gray walls and the barn swallows going in and out. Then she found Mancy -sitting under a shed, mending a wagon shaft.</p> - -<p>"Good morning!"</p> - -<p>"Good morning!"</p> - -<p>"It's a lovely day."</p> - -<p>"It is so, ma'am! You're from the city, aren't you?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"I hope you like Sweet Rocket?"</p> - -<p>"I do. It makes you feel whole."</p> - -<p>Mancy glanced at her. He was a long, brown man, with features between -negro and Indian. What you liked very much was his smile. It dropped -over his face slowly, like sun on brown hills, out of quiet, cloudy -weather. "That's a true saying!" he offered. "That's what I think about -heaven. We'll just feel and know that we're well and whole."</p> - -<p>The school-teacher's mind said: "The negro is a religious character. He -is always willing to talk of the Lord and of heaven."</p> - -<p>"All the little torn bits coming together," finished Mancy.</p> - -<p>He sat mending the wagon shaft. It came to her, standing watching him, -to say something of the distracted and warring earth. His slow smile -stole again over his face. "Yes'm. We hurt ourselves right often."</p> - -<p>"You call it that—hurting oneself?"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>"Yes'm. What do you call it?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know.... I suppose it <i>is</i> hurting one's self—suicidal mania!" -she thought. "Perhaps all the history I have ever taught has been the -story of self hurt and self heal—perhaps we fight our self in Europe -and Asia and America. Perhaps, in the tissue wide as space, centers here -and centers there are beginning to learn self heal above self hurt—"</p> - -<p>She stood looking at the mountains while Mancy worked on at the wagon -shaft. Presently she said, "You would say that this was a very lonely -place, but I have touched a thousand things since I came that run out -and touch everywhere!"</p> - -<p>"Mountains aren't walls," said Mancy.</p> - -<p>She left the barn and walked on to the orchard. The apples had been -gathered, but a few red orbs yet hung from the branches. She walked -beneath the trees and she thought of old, dull troubles and anxieties -that had attended her life. This morning light seemed at work among -them, disintegrating them.</p> - -<p>The sun came down between the trees. The air blew soft and fine. She -returned to the house, and upon the porch steps found Mrs. Cliff with -baskets to sell, woven of white-oak splits, in a mountain cabin, by her -son and herself. She was waiting for Marget and seemed content to wait -as long as the sun shone. She wore a faded calico and a brown sunbonnet, -and she dipped snuff.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p><p>"Good morning!"</p> - -<p>"Mornin'!"</p> - -<p>Mrs. Cliff put her snuffbox in her pocket. "Don't you want to buy a -basket? These three are fer Miss Marget."</p> - -<p>Miss Darcy examined and admired. "I'd like this little one." Mrs. Cliff -put it aside. "I hain't seen you here before."</p> - -<p>"I've just come. You've got a lovely country."</p> - -<p>"Yaas. We think so. Do you see yon clearing on mountain? I come from -thar." Miss Darcy sat down, and she and the mountain woman talked of -basket weaving and of the times, which Mrs. Cliff said were hard. "What -do you think sugar is? An' what you got to give fer a pair of shoes? -You've got to sit an' fergit, even while you're rememberin', or you -don't git nowhar! I wish Jesus Christ would come on back!"</p> - -<p>"He is somewhat needed," Anna Darcy agreed.</p> - -<p>"I had a funny thing happen to me yesterday," said Mrs. Cliff. "I had -jest finished that basket. I was setting on the step an' awful tired, -an' I shet my eyes an' leaned my head back against the door. An jest -like that I thought, 'He's in little bits in all of us, an' we've got to -put him together.' An' jest thinking it, all in a minute I felt so big -and rested! But it couldn't last. I wish it would come again."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><p>Marget's voice was heard, speaking to Zinia. "She's come back. They're -mighty kind folk here!"</p> - -<p>"I know that."</p> - -<p>"They <i>like</i> doin' you a good turn," said Mrs. Cliff, and, getting to -her feet, gathered up her baskets.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> - -<h2>IV</h2> - -<p>In the afternoon the three and Tam went for a walk. They crossed the -river by a footbridge and walked a mile by waterside. This brought them -to valley end. The stream slipped on between close-standing hills, but -the strollers turned aside into a glade from which the greater forest -had been cut. Young trees and tall old trees were set with some -spareness. All wore robes like princes; all glowed in a dream of spring -behind winter. The ground had gray moss and green moss, and all manner -of minute and charming growths. The sun so came into this glade that the -wild grape found and took advantage. It leaned its wine-hued, shaggy -stem against trunks; it climbed and overran, and made bridges from tree -to tree. Its festoons shone aloft, its broad leaves and blue clusters -dreamed against autumn sky. The air breathed dry and fine. Sunshine lay -on ground in shafts and plaques of gold.</p> - -<p>Richard Linden used a staff. Marget kept near him and Tam just ahead. -Walking so, you would not think he was a blind man. Indeed, he seemed to -have a sixth sense, he moved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> so easily. The three walked without much -speech. The day was the sumptuous speaker; these woods, this feather -air, the admirable poise of the year before its journey from hearth -fire, the plain chant of the crickets, the trill of the bird.</p> - -<p>In a roll over his shoulder Linden carried a wide and thick plaid. -Presently Marget said: "Let us rest before we turn back. Miss Darcy -isn't the tramp that we are!" whereupon they pitched camp for half an -hour, spreading the plaid beneath a tree. Richard Linden, resting -against a chance bowlder, locked his hands behind his head and lifted -his face to the high, free sky. Marget took off her wide hat and lay -down beside Miss Darcy, who sat on a stone. Tam had the dry grass and -moss and the fringe of the plaid.</p> - -<p>Marget spoke. "We are under a young hickory, Richard. It is all gold. -There is a dogwood close by, and its leaves are red, and it is very full -of berries. Wild grape has started by the dogwood and crossed to the -hickory. It is far and near and up and down. The leaves are half green -and half yellow, and there are a thousand bunches of grapes."</p> - -<p>"I see!" he said; "and I hear a woodpecker."</p> - -<p>"It's yonder on a white oak. It's a flicker. There isn't a cloud in the -sky, and far, far up, small as a dragon fly, is a buzzard sailing. -There's a cedar waxwing in the dogwood <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>stripping berries. There is -another—a third! We frightened them away, but they are coming back. -They're after the grapes. There will be fifty in a moment—"</p> - -<p>They kept still and watched, Marget's hand on Tam. Slender, graceful, -tawny, crested birds came in a flock. They entered the hickory and the -dogwood. With quick movements of head and body they stripped the grapes -and the scarlet dogwood berries. They perched and removed, and perched -again. They kept up a low talk among themselves and a perpetual flutter -of wings. It was as though a wind were in the trees, so continuous was -the sound. Blue grapes, dogwood berries, dropped upon the ground. For -ten minutes the flock fluttered and fed, while with intent, pleased -faces the human beings watched or listened. Then Tam became aware of a -rabbit down the glade and started up. Away flew the cedar waxwings.</p> - -<p>"Oh, wasn't it lovely?"</p> - -<p>They sat still. Richard Linden, resting against the rock, kept his face -raised to blue sky. "Their life!" he said. "As we enter upon their -life—"</p> - -<p>Tam came back, the rabbit having vanished. "Lie still, Tam, lie still! -Get into your life-to-be for a little, and be quiet shepherd on a hill -instead of shepherd's dog!"</p> - -<p>"Their life—"</p> - -<p>The visitor to Sweet Rocket sat still, with her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> eyes upon the gold -fretwork of the hickory. She was thinking of the birds. It was very -sunny, very still in the glade. Her companions also rested silent. They -seemed to be in reverie, to be going where they would in their inner -worlds.</p> - -<p>Miss Darcy followed the waxwings in their flight. She saw the flock that -had been here, and other flocks, stripping wild grape and dogwood and -cedar berries. They were far and near, in many a woodland glade. In -thousands they twined and turned, they talked in the clan, their wings -made a windy sound. And the woodpeckers! Hammer and hammer, through the -forests of the world! And the thrush that she had heard this morning, -and the humming bird in the garden—and the crows that had cawed from a -hillside, the hawk and the owl.... Suddenly she saw in some space an -eagle rise to its nest upon a crag edge. From the one she saw others. -Eagles in all the lands. For one instant she caught a far glimpse of the -Idea, the absolute eagle. There was the rush of a loftier sense. Then -she sank from that, but she saw eagles in all the lands. She saw the -great hawks and the condors. Green waves were beneath her; with sea -birds she skimmed them in the first light, and the cries of her kind -were about her. On the ice floes walked the penguins, the albatross -winnowed solitude. With heron and flamingo and crane she knew shore and -marsh. The white swan and the black swan oared their way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> through still -waters. In their right circle moved the peacock and the pheasant, the -lyre bird, the bower bird, and the bird of paradise. The nightingale -sang in deep woods, and in southern thickets of yellow jessamine sang -the mocking bird. The lark mounted into the air, the cuckoo called from -the hedge, the wren built under the eaves. In the gray dawn, from a -thousand farms and hamlets, crowed the cocks. Over all the earth clucked -the hen, peeped the downy chick. The swallows crossed a saffron sky and -the whippoorwill cried in the night, and in the morning the quails said -"Bob White!" Migrating hordes, like scuds of clouds, drove before -favorable winds, north, south! She was plunged in the life of birds, -where they waded between deep water and solid shore, where they lived in -a world of green, where they flew aloft and afar, over land, over -sea—all their plumage, shapes, and magnitudes. She seemed to hear their -cheepings, cries and songs, to hear them and touch them, their -sleekness, lightness, threaded beauty! Over all the earth spread the -passionate wooing, the daylong song. Here were the nests, the -multitudes, and the eggs, green and blue and white and dark. The nests -and eggs became transfigured. The straw of the nests burned lines of -white fire, the cup was diamond light, the shell of the egg no more than -a window, and through it was seen the bird-past, and the bird desire and -will and power. Out of the egg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> the young—she heard the nightingales in -the woods, the lark in the sky!</p> - -<p>"See the love and beauty and power and daring! See the thought and -feeling pressing on—see them trooping into fuller being—see them men -and women, their tribes and nations! When we have gone far, far on, see -their human earth!"</p> - -<p>It was Linden, she thought, who said that. She came back with a great -throb of her heart to the earth beneath a golden hickory, to the October -sun, in a little Virginian valley. Yet the two reclining there seemed -still in a brown study, gone away. She thought: "I am come into a -strange country! Are they knowing, feeling all that life more intensely -than I, for all that they lie there so quietly, thinking, one would say, -of to-morrow's work, of a book they are reading, or of the cedar -waxwings?... It is all in the range of perception, could I run like -light all over the earth! There are those birds and their life. I only -saw what <i>is</i>!"</p> - -<p>But she felt that while she had had a wave of it those two had a whole -breadth of ocean. She felt that they were expert, adept. She felt again -the breath of wonder. It was at once wonder and homelikeness. -"Glad—glad—glad that I came! My gray road turns!"</p> - -<p>Richard Linden dropped his hands from behind his head and passed them -over his eyes. Marget rose to her knees. There was deep light in her -face. She lifted then let fall her arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> "Oh, the <i>beauty</i> when life is -seen as a landscape, heard as a symphony, smelled as a garden, tasted as -nectar, dwelt in as a house!" She rose to her feet. "The sun is gone -from the grass. It is dawn in Tibet. Come, Tam, let us be going home!"</p> - -<p>They folded the plaid and left the hickory and the dogwood. The glade -was turning violet, but the hilltops showed golden and the mountains -stood in light. A rich scent breathed from the earth, while the air -carried a spear from the north. Leaving the wood, they took again the -path by the river, that sang toward them, that held pools of light.</p> - -<p>Walking so, Marget fell to talking of Anna Darcy's life, the manner of -it, her steadfast work from year to year, and all her kindnesses, and -all that she had given. At first Miss Darcy tried to stop her, but then -she could not try any longer, the appreciation was so sweet. Her life -had been difficult, isolated for all the stir around her, subject to -sorrows, a little withered and gray. She felt the exquisite caress of -their interest. It was more than that to her; it was recognition.</p> - -<p>How would it be if all were truly interested in all? If there were -general recognition?</p> - -<p>As she walked, the valley and the hills, the river and warm, dusky air, -the collie, the man and woman with her, herself, seemed to shift and -quiver into one. Walls vanished. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> happened rest, understanding, -imperviousness to harm, blood warmth, and new and strange aspiration.</p> - -<p>It was impossible for her to hold the moment. She seemed to herself to -sink again to the rigid and small shape of Anna Darcy, like an Egyptian -figure graved on stone, a plane figure. But she did not wholly fit back -into the figure. She felt that above it was fullness and youth and song, -and that they were hers as well as another's.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> - -<h2>V</h2> - -<p>Again, the next morning, she found neither of her hosts. "We breakfast -early and work early," Marget had said. Again Zinia served her alone, -again she walked in the flower garden, again she went farther afield. -The day was brilliantly, vividly clear, white clouds in the sky, and -between, great seas of cobalt. She went at once to the river path, but -turned this morning up the stream. The day hung joyous, the high and -moving clouds, the light and shadow had magnificence. She felt very -well; she really looked five years younger. Before her, beyond a spur of -orchard, she made out the roof of a building. When she came nearer she -felt an assurance that this was the overseer's house. "Where Marget was -born," she thought; "where she lived with her father and mother and -brothers."</p> - -<p>Presently she stood still to regard the place.</p> - -<p>The house was a small one, two-storied, frame, painted white with green -blinds. It had a small porch with a window to either side. At the back -she made out a wider porch, and there were outbuildings. The whole was -buried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> among locust trees and old shrubs, that when she came nearer she -recognized for lilac and althea and syringa. Door and windows stood -open. At first she thought she would turn from the river to the house, -but then she said, "No, not till she herself brings me here some day." -But the place was plain before her where she stood. When she had moved a -few paces she looked full to the door, between locust trees and bushes. -She was now beside a giant sycamore, very old, all copper colored as to -leaf, with dappled white and brown arms. Built around the bole was a -wooden bench, old and weather-worn. "She played here when she was a -child. They have all set here beneath this tree. She comes here now, I -fancy, often."</p> - -<p>She took her seat. No one came in or out of the house door a stone's -throw away. The place was sunny and deserted. There came, as it were, a -veil over it. She shut her eyes the better to look at child life here -with father and mother and Will and Edgar. The old overseer, who had -fought in the war for the old order, but who, when it came crash! had -built in the new; and the mother, Elizabeth Land, overworked and -uncomplaining; and the boys with their desires and broodings and -hopes—she felt them all.</p> - -<p>Sitting with her eyes shut, she passed into feeling them very strongly. -The place turned to be of thirty, forty years ago. She moved with the -overseer as he went to his work and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> came from it. With Marget Land's -mother she was cooking, sewing, cleaning. She was with the three -children, the boys older than the girl, at tasks and in play. Swim in -the river, swing under the locust tree, go for berries, for persimmons, -chinquapins, walnuts, for grapes and haws, go for the cow, work in the -garden patch, shell the peas, shuck the corn, look for eggs, pick the -currants and gooseberries, split the kindling, gather the chips, wash -the dishes, clean the lamps, sit by the fire and study reading, writing, -and arithmetic—she was deep in it, deep in a slow, steady current of -participation. It did not seem to curve, but now it was her own -childhood, her parents and brothers and sisters, an old town house and a -leafy town square—life, life, so varied and so the same! Deep, deep -wash of deep waves, and so pleasant, so sweet, all the pang and ill -lost! A past that was winnowed, understood, forgiven, appreciated, loved -by mind and heart of Farther On, and that was present, gone nowhere, -here, in finer space and finer time, a vast country capable of being -visited! Going into it was to find the deathless taste of eternity. It -was not dark; you could fill it with golden light. The forms there were -not immovable, not dead. As you understood, they lived and were -yourself. As you remembered, you saw that you were remembering, that you -were re-collecting from far and near, your Self.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>Anna Darcy sat very still. "I had to wait till I was fifty-eight years -old to see that."</p> - -<p>As on yesterday it had grown out of a commonplace of imagination and -memory. Memory and imagination had, by degrees, entered <i>their</i> deeper -selves.</p> - -<p>Again, as on yesterday, she could not hold it. Increased energy, -increased perception, what the ancients called the Genius, and the -mystic called illumination, or voice of God, and the moderns higher -vibration, superconsciousness—whatever it was, and perhaps the name did -not much matter, she had touched it and then lost it. But she knew that -it had been touched, and that it was desirable to know it or its like -again.</p> - -<p>She was a member of the church, a praying woman. She bent her forehead -upon her hands: "O God, let thy kingdom come! As it comes near us, send -thy breezes!"</p> - -<p>Presently, rising, she went on up the stream. It was not wide; it just -came into the category of river, headwater, she knew, of a greater -river. October painted it with russets and golds and reds. Midcurrent -showed the ineffable blue of the sky, or when clouds drove by the -zenith, the clouds. She walked on until before her she saw the eastern -gate of the vale. The hills closed in, leaving a bit of grassy meadow on -either side the stream. This narrowed. The hills grew loftier, -insensibly became mountains. She was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> in a mountain pass, gray cliff to -the right, hemlocks overhanging the water that was broken now by -bowlders, débris of an ancient rock. The path was cool and dark and -washed by the scent of the conifers. Only here and there the climbing -sun sent splashing through an intensity of light that showed every -fallen needle, every cone or twig or leaf upon the path. Not far before -her the path turned and went up over the mountain. She thought, "That -will be the way to Mrs. Cliff's."</p> - -<p>She came upon a fisherman. He sat among the roots of a hemlock, and was -engaged in reeling in his line. He was a man neither old nor young, with -a long, easy frame, and a short, graying beard. His dress was that of a -fisherman who goes forth from the city to fish—but not for the first -nor the second nor the third time. Nothing that he had on was new, but -all was well cut.</p> - -<p>"Good morning!" he said.</p> - -<p>"Good morning!"</p> - -<p>He worked on at his reel. "Each time that I do this I say that it is the -last time."</p> - -<p>"Why?"</p> - -<p>"I grow too damned able—I beg your pardon!—to put myself in the fish's -place."</p> - -<p>"Have you caught any?"</p> - -<p>"This morning? Not a ghost of one! Yet they say this is a good stream! I -think that I warn them off the hook. 'Monsieur Black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> Bass, or Signor -Trout, as it may be, my desire not to take you is gaining, I feel, upon -my desire to take you! Your own desire naturally aiding the first, I -grow to feel that we make a strong combination!'"</p> - -<p>He laughed, putting up his rod. Then his mustaches went down and his -face became serious enough, "So much mangling! I've had my fill."</p> - -<p>"How did you come? Over the mountain?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. I am camping with a dozen New York and Washington fellows on -another little river over there. The others fish that stream. I'm like -Mrs. Elton. I adore exploring! I slept last night in a mountain -cabin—Cliff's. Can you tell me how far I am from Sweet Rocket farm?"</p> - -<p>"Less than a mile."</p> - -<p>"No! I didn't think from what the mountain folk said that it was so -near. I knew before I came that he was somewhere in these parts."</p> - -<p>"Do you know Mr. Linden?"</p> - -<p>"I was his classmate at the university. Then, fifteen years ago, I met -him in Southern Russia. We had a couple of weeks together, and then I -must hurry on to Constantinople, where I was due. He went into the -Caucasus. I lost sight of him. It was two years later that I heard of -that accident which blinded him, and I've heard since only second-and -third-hand things. The other day in the club a man told me that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> he was -living where his people had lived, down here in Virginia. I meant to go -to see him, but I meant to write first."</p> - -<p>"I am a visitor at Sweet Rocket. But I am sure that Mr. Linden would -wish you to come on to the house. Had you not better do so?"</p> - -<p>"Why, yes, then, I think that I shall." He stood up from the hemlock -roots. "You are very good. My name is Curtin—Martin Curtin."</p> - -<p>She gave her own. He took up fisherman's paraphernalia and a light coat. -They moved out of ravine into meadow strip; before them lay the jewel -valley. Mr. Curtin drew a deep breath.</p> - -<p>"And he hasn't eyes to look at it!"</p> - -<p>Anna Darcy found herself answering with certitude. "He sees it and a -thousand places beside."</p> - -<p>They walked on, Mr. Curtin gazing at river, hills, and mountains, and -quiet valley floor. "I have known of his doing some splendid things in -life—simple and splendid—the kind that steals into folk, and they do -likewise!"</p> - -<p>"Yes, I should think that."</p> - -<p>"What is that house?"</p> - -<p>"In old times it is the overseer's house. Now the young farmer who helps -him lives there."</p> - -<p>"'In old times it <i>is</i>'—that's an unusual phrase."</p> - -<p>"I mean that to me, for reasons, it stays that way and <i>is</i>."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p><p>"I agree! When you turn to a thing it <i>is</i>. Turn with decision enough, -and your overseer would come out to meet you. That's a sycamore for you! -Do you ever feel the Indians by these streams? If you can see your -overseer you can see your Indians, too."</p> - -<p>They walked on. "Is that the house?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"It's a simple place, too—but I like it. Houses, now! I make a -specialty of keeping them in duration."</p> - -<p>Anna Darcy thought, "A week ago I wouldn't have understood that."</p> - -<p>The house where she was born, the house facing, across a row of box and -a finely wrought iron paling, the old, leafy city square, walked bodily -into her. She was through it, up and down, like the air. It seemed to -her that there wasn't anything she didn't know about it, and it all came -together into an inner aroma, taste and tone, dry, warm, pungent and -likable, idiosyncratic, its very own. It had been a loss, a grief, when -the city had taken and torn down that house. And all the time it was -waiting for her, in a deep reality, to walk in and take possession!</p> - -<p>She thought: "What is happening? I shall never be lonely again!"</p> - -<p>Mr. Curtin looked from side to side of Sweet Rocket valley. "It's like a -beaker of Venetian glass! You'd say there was a magic drink in it....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -But how clean and drenched with sun is this air!"</p> - -<p>"Yes!"</p> - -<p>"He never married? Archer said he thought not."</p> - -<p>"No, he didn't marry."</p> - -<p>"He's rather the kind that marries the world."</p> - -<p>"Yes, I think so. We turn here to the house. Have you the time?"</p> - -<p>"It's almost noon."</p> - -<p>"He will be home, then. He works upon the farm as though he had eyes."</p> - -<p>They left the pebbly beach and went by the cedars up to the house. Tam -came to meet them, and Linden rose from the bench upon the porch.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> - -<h2>VI</h2> - -<p>"And so he was killed," said Curtin, speaking with strongly controlled -emotion. "And I can tell you that when I heard it I felt physically that -shock and crash and mortal bruising. It wasn't only my heart that was -wounded. My nerves and my flesh felt it. Even now I think that there -must be but one body—I got away for a time after he was buried. I went -down to Hyères. I used to sit there by the sea. He was a lovable fellow, -square as they make them. We were brothers and friends, too. Well, that -is the way it runs! Life—death. Life—death! I would give a good -deal—"</p> - -<p>He had been thirty-odd hours at Sweet Rocket. They had sent up mountain -to Cliff, who took down to his camp news that he would be gone for some -days. They had given him the room next to Linden, and he had become at -once delightfully at home.</p> - -<p>When with Miss Darcy he had stepped upon the porch Linden had said: -"Don't think you take me by surprise! I saw you in my looking-glass this -morning!"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p>"It is good to find you again, Linden! What do you mean by your -looking-glass?"</p> - -<p>Linden laughed, his hands upon the old classmate's shoulders. "Only that -I had been thinking of you. And the other night I was with you by the -Sea of Azof. I thought, 'I should like to see him again!' And you know -yourself that when you make a current boats appear upon it!"</p> - -<p>Now, as the four sat about the fire in the big parlor, before the lamp -was lighted, he had been telling of the death of his brother, an -aviator. There had followed silence; then, "Well, let us talk of -something else!" said Curtin. He took up the pipe he had laid upon the -hearth beside him, and raking out a coat from the fire, relit it. "What -do you think is going to happen now, Linden?"</p> - -<p>They sat and talked, and the flames leaped, many and small, in the -mahogany of the room. At ten they rose to separate for the night.</p> - -<p>"Come look at the sky," said Linden. "The first week in October, and -diamond clear!" They went out to the porch, and then, so majestic was -the night, to the sweep before the house, whence they might see the -great expanse. It was very still. The river sounded, but the air rested -a thin and moveless veil. It was not cold. Richard Linden stood -bareheaded, his face uplifted to the vault that writes forever its runes -before men.</p> - -<p>"By George! I forgot!" thought Curtin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> "But doubtless he knows them so -well that he knows where they are, season by season." It seemed that it -might be so. Linden spoke as though he saw. "See the Pleiades and -Capella and Aldebaran! The Great Square is at its height. The Cross and -the Eagle and the Lyre. The mountains hide Fomalhaut." They walked a -little way upon the road. Immense and tingling was that view, looking -outward, looking inward, upon those stars. At last they came indoors and -said good night.</p> - -<p>Martin Curtin lay in a big four-poster bed and stared out of window. -Upon going to bed he had slept quickly and soundly. Now he was awake, -and he thought it might be past four of the morning. He felt the subtle -turn toward the day. He heard a dog bark and a cock crow. He was aware -that he had waked suddenly and completely. He was wide awake, and more -than that. There was a keenness, an awareness; keen, sharpened, but also -wide. His body lying very still, he began to remember, but it was -remembering with a deeper and fuller pulse than was ordinarily the case. -He remembered that younger brother who was dead, and not him alone, but -many another, kindred and friends and associates. The past lived again, -but lived with a difference. What multitudes of kindred, and friends, -and associates! The meeting went deep and wide. Had he touched all those -in one life or had it been in many lives? Was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> whole texture coming -alive, and in effect did it include the whole past, the whole dead and -gone? However it might be, it was a world transmuted and without pain. -He lay still, regarding it. It was strong and light, and he and it grew -together with a sense of frictionlessness, of exquisite relief, even -with a kind of golden humorousness. None had been truly any better or -worse than another, nor in any way miraculously different, and now they -could understand and laugh together! The sense of union was exquisite, -and the sense of variousness hardly less so. The variousness was without -hostility. It glided and turned smoothly, much as personal thought and -mood might glide and turn. The sense of well-being flowed in every -realm. The perception included environment. Remembered, recalled persons -meant remembered, recalled houses, towns, country, forest and river, -fields and gardens, a thousand, thousand places! Where were they all? -They were all over the earth—light and golden—loved places and the -right people in them! There was nothing rigid—even the places -understood one another. Curtin felt a profound happiness. This one body, -lying at Sweet Rocket, was not wholly forgot nor relinquished. It came -into the pattern of variousness. But Curtin himself was moving in a -wider consciousness. All these people, all these selves of himself! and -he understood their old difficulties and he understood their old -<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>misunderstandings. The <i>piece</i> understood, the beautiful tissue! The -music understood, the notes moving so richly together! It was throbbing -in the present and in the understood, the appropriated past. He never -thought, "How grotesque the thought that we are dead!" The thought could -not even occur.</p> - -<p>For one flash, for less than an instant, the plane lifted. There started -forth a high, a tremendous sense of unity—Presence. It towered, it -overflowed him, he was of it—then the instant closed. As it had come -like a towering wave, so it sank like a wave. But there was left the -lasting thrill of it, and there was left undying aspiration. "Ah, to -find it again! Ah, if it will come again!"</p> - -<p>Where had been sense of the whole, again befell fragmentariness. -Loss—great loss—and yet was there falling sweetness, exquisiteness -still of order! He felt again the wide world that they said was dead, -and yet surely was no such thing. There happened again wide and subtle -change. Out of a stillness, a silence, an isolation, exquisite and -tingling, a state of clarity and poise, one spoke to him <i>within</i>, -"Martin!"</p> - -<p>He answered in that space. "Yes, John.... No, grief is absurd!... Just -because we're ignorant!"</p> - -<p>"You can be content. We can be content."</p> - -<p>"Yes, I see! We are all in one, who cannot be destroyed."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><p>There came no more, but the world was a rhythm, swinging, swinging. -There reigned great rest and calm. Out of this, with much of it yet -clinging, he sank to the square, clean, sparely furnished bedroom at -Sweet Rocket, with the cock crowing, with the old clock in the lower -hall striking five. Curtin lay very quiet in the big bed. Dawn was -coming, but his sense was that of an afterglow. He had felt beauty and -still wonder like this in high mountains, watching Alpine glow. It faded -and faded, but there was left with him assurance, rest, the sense of a -dawn to be, a consciousness behind this consciousness, another -consciousness towering, sun-gilt, in the future. He lay very still, at -rest, hardly wondering. The great things, the beautiful things, were the -natural things. The wholly full and blissful would be the finally -natural. Dawn came in rose and amethyst.</p> - -<p>When it was full light Curtin left his bed, dressed, and went -downstairs. He thought that he would walk by the river or in the garden. -The house was still, the front door open. Early though it was, he found -Linden on the porch starting forth with Tam. He had found, he said, that -he must see Roger Carter, who was riding to-day to Alder and would be -starting presently. "Will you walk with me? But you shouldn't miss your -breakfast. I've had bread and milk."</p> - -<p>"I won't go now," answered Curtin. "I'll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> walk up and down before the -house for a while. Something happened to me last night, or I happened -into something. I'd like to talk to you about it, Linden—but it won't -fade before you come back. I don't indeed think it will ever fade."</p> - -<p>There was that in Linden's remembered face, when Linden himself had gone -away toward Roger Carter's, that made Curtin think, walking now before -the house as they had walked the night before under the stars: "Does he -know what I felt? Could he even have helped—put a shoulder to the -wheel, seeing that I was grieved and uncertain?" Not so long ago he -might have answered, "That's fantastic!" but he did not so answer now.</p> - -<p>He went into the garden and walked up and down. Before seven Marget came -out to him. "I saw you walking in the dawn like a man in a ballad. Could -you not sleep?"</p> - -<p>"I slept till nearly five."</p> - -<p>They walked by the late asters and the stocks. Said Curtin: "I remember -a line of Masefield's:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"... the dim room had mind, and seemed to brood.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>And again:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"And felt the hillside thronged by souls unseen</div> -<div>Who knew the interest in me and were keen</div> -<div>That man alive should understand man dead.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Miss Land, do you think that is true?"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p><p>"Yes. Surely."</p> - -<p>"Do you think we can be reassured about the dead—all the dead—and -ourselves when we die?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, I do. Very safe, very sure."</p> - -<p>"Well, I think so this morning."</p> - -<p>They walked by the marigolds and larkspur. "Where do you meet the dead? -In this space?" He indicated it with a wide gesture.</p> - -<p>"No. In space that permeates this space. In added space. When and where -we make space. Though I think," said Marget, "that one day the edges -will have so flowed together that we shall say 'in this space.'"</p> - -<p>"You and Richard Linden both have that assurance?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Many have it now." She added, "I think, perhaps, that it is more -easily felt in some places than in others."</p> - -<p>He thought, "As we put telescopes on heights."</p> - -<p>They walked by the wall with the ivy. Her quiet, dark eyes were upon -him, friendly, kindly. He thought: "No less than Linden she hoped such a -night for me. Perhaps—"</p> - -<p>A bell rang. "That is for us. Miss Darcy, too, comes down early now."</p> - -<p>They went indoors. Anna Darcy met them in the hall and they went -together into the bright dining room, to their pleasant breakfast, and -Zinia waiting, with "that girl Mercy" still at heart.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> - -<h2>VII</h2> - -<p>The next day was Sunday. Zinia and Mimy and Mancy walked early to their -church, two miles down the river. Marget and Miss Darcy, Linden and -Curtin, went to Alder in the phaeton, drawn by Daniel and Bess. It was -as sunny and still a day as might be found in any autumn land, and most -beauteous was that forest through which they drove. Anna Darcy was glad -to see it again. It rested forever in her mind, a true magic approach. -Marget drove, Curtin sitting beside her, Miss Darcy and Richard Linden -behind them. The jewel miles went by and the pleasant, pleasant air. -Here rose Alder on a green hill, and Alder had three streets, a hundred -dwelling houses, and three white-spired churches. The houses were brick -or frame, with shady yards and late-blooming flowers. They drove by a -small, quaint courthouse, a rambling hotel, and several stores, closed -to-day. The trees were maples and Lombardy poplars and a few ancient -mulberries. Folk were going to church, and they spoke to Sweet Rocket -and Sweet Rocket to them.</p> - -<p>Before them rose a church of white frame, set<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> in an ample churchyard, -all glowing maples with a mosaic of red and gold leaves underfoot. -Street before it and bordering lane held horses and buggies and Fords -and Buicks. The second bell had not rung. Men and boys waited around the -doors, talk and laughter at a Sunday pitch. Women were entering, some -with children in their hands. Sweet Rocket folk, leaving the phaeton, -walking up churchyard path, took and gave greeting. They entered the -church, Marget's hand upon Linden's arm, just guiding him to a pleasant -pew by a pleasant, open window, the weather being yet so warm. Curtin -took his seat, and, turning a little, watched the folk enter. He did not -know when he had been in a village church like this, nor, indeed, had he -been for long in any church at all, barring the cathedrals and churches -abroad, into which he went as artist. A clear, sweet sound, overhead, -rang the second bell. Men and youths came in; the building filled. A -simple place, it was well proportioned and to-day filled with a dreamy, -golden, softened light. In that soft, flowing atmosphere, men and women -and children were gathered as in a bouquet. The choir assembled, the -young woman who was the organist took her place. A woman in the pew -behind Curtin leaned over and gave him an opened hymn book. The minister -appeared, a kindly faced, small, elderly man. The bouquet became more -and more Sunday.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>Curtin glanced at Linden. He sat as always, with ease, and a certain -still power. He seemed to Curtin as simple and whole as a planet in the -sky. This village Methodist church seemed within his frontier, as, when -you thought of it, all other places seemed within it. Curtin remembered. -They were talking, he and Linden, in Odessa, in their hotel, after -having been to a great service in a great church. Linden was telling him -that Religion held all religions, and that he, Linden, belonged solely -to no one church, but liked at times to go sit in any one of them. He -had gone on to say other things, but Curtin—and Curtin remembered this -with a certain pang—had yawned, and said that it had been a tiring day -and that he would off to bed. "My God, I was crass in those years!" -thought Curtin. He still watched Linden, who could not know that he was -being watched; and at the thought Linden turned his head and smiled at -him. His face said as distinctly as if his voice had uttered it, "Yes, -that night at Odessa!"</p> - -<p>Again Curtin, startled at first, felt the startling vanish. He -thought—and, as on last night, his thought seemed to lay hold upon and -give form to a down-draught from some upper region—"Truly the startling -should be over mind broken from mind, not over mind beginning to heal!"</p> - -<p>He sat in a deep study. There came like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> picture into his mind Jesus -of Nazareth's parable of the talents. "Ability to perceive thought! If -the world should take that talent and improve it, a different world we -should have anon!"</p> - -<p>"Let us pray," said the minister. When they had prayed, he said, "Let us -sing hymn number—"</p> - -<p>They sang:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear,</div> -<div>It is not night if thou be near—"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>"I will read," said the minister, "from the twenty-fifth chapter of the -Gospel according to Matthew."</p> - -<p>Curtin heard read the parable of the talents. He thought: -"Intercommunication. It widens and deepens and heightens perpetually. -Now it gets to be wireless, independent of gesture or the vocal cords, -or the handwriting." There thronged echoes of his experience of the -other night. "Intercommunication becomes communion. Communion becomes -identity. At last 'we know even as we are known.'"</p> - -<p>The reading ended. They sang</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Rock of Ages, cleft for me."</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>All the congregation sang; men, women, and children's piping voices. -They sat down. The minister took his text from the parable he had read.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>It was a good, plain sermon, in which the preacher said more than he -knew he said. The air came in at window, bees buzzed without, a brown -butterfly passed. The congregation breathed gently, rhythmically. The -sun gave life to the flowers upon the women's and the children's hats. -There were young faces and old faces, dull faces and quick faces, intent -faces and wandering faces. Some were rich flowers, and others little -flowers not far from weeds, but all were in the garden. Curtin thought: -"They are like the thoughts and moods of a man, many and various, but -all in the man. One Man.... It was Balzac who said, 'There is but one -animal.' One Man—his name Adam-Eve, or Humanity, as you choose—or, -perhaps, when he finds himself, his name is Christ."</p> - -<p>He looked again at Linden, sitting with that pleased and quiet light -upon his face. The sermon was not extraordinary, the congregation the -average village and country congregation, the church had no especial -grace of interior or exterior. Linden was not habit-bound to it, he did -not hug the letter of its creed. Any one of those around might say: "No, -he does not belong to any church—which is a great pity! No, it isn't -his church." Yet Curtin saw that Linden, sitting there, loved this -place, the feel of the folk around him, the sense of what they were -doing, were striving to do, and, on the whole, were slowly doing. He -comprehended that to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> Linden it was very simply his own, as were the -other two churches of Alder, and the colored church down the river, and -the Greek church at Odessa. He saw that Linden's possessive was -large—Linden's and Marget Land's.</p> - -<p>Miss Darcy sat very still, her thin hands crossed in her lap. At first -she had listened to the sermon, but now she was in the old church in the -old city, and there was another congregation around her, and another -clergyman, a kinsman, in the pulpit. At first it was like opening a -potpourri jar, and then warmth and light came back to the rose leaves. -"I am there, they are here! Never could I do this or feel this until -now—or I did it so weakly and palely that it did not seem to count!"</p> - -<p>The sermon ended. "Let us pray.... Let us sing." Benediction followed, -then a moment's pause, and then the folk turned from the pews and moved -slowly toward the doors. There were greetings for Sweet Rocket, and -Sweet Rocket greeted in return. All had a grace of friendliness. Anna -Darcy thought: "That is another thing that has come or is coming! What -does it matter now if your name is or is not on the register of a -church? It didn't use to be so. Something gracious and understanding, -invisibly binding, is coming!" She thought: "Those two are the most -beautiful here, but in their degree all are beautiful. And all move on -to completer beauty. Oh, life is coming alive!"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p><p>They drove through Alder and by Alder highway, and at last upon that -lovely forest road to Sweet Rocket. Curtin and Linden fell to talk of -their student days, of such and such teachers and mates, and such and -such happenings. "I had forgotten that!" said Curtin, and again, "I had -forgotten that!" At last he said, abruptly, "You've got an astounding -memory!"</p> - -<p>Linden answered, "Oh, we learn how to use and deepen memory!" The smell -of the forest, the voice of the forest, circled and penetrated. "I -should like to know how you do it," said Curtin.</p> - -<p>"It is like all other things. Practice makes perfect."</p> - -<p>"It is not only remembering. You remember with a strange understanding -of things. You direct later light upon the past. The line is there, the -form is there, even the color and tone, but you make it understood as I -am very certain we did not understand it then! I see now what we were -doing! It's intelligent at last, and bigger."</p> - -<p>"All that you have," said Linden, "isn't too much to apply to the past. -The past has served you, now serve the past. Serve and redeem! Bring it -up, even and great, into the present! To understand past time is to have -present power. Only by understanding it can you love it, unless you wish -to remain infant and love with infant's love."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p><p>The many-hued woods went on, the leafy, narrow, remote road, the scents -and sounds, the miracle of many centered into sole delight. The air was -so fine you could gather what the upper air must be. Daniel and Bess, -the phaeton, the four, stepped and rolled through a magic world, artist -world of the Ancient of Days. Here was the river and the flashing water -of the ford.</p> - -<p>That afternoon they walked upstream as far as the overseer's house. It -was shining, late afternoon. They saw, seated on the porch and the porch -steps, Roger Carter and his wife, with Guy, her brother, who worked on -the farm, and old Mr. and Mrs. Morrowcombe, her parents, paying their -Sunday visit. A little Roger, three years old, played absorbedly with a -chinquapin string and a rag doll that his grandmother had brought him.</p> - -<p>"Let us go across to them," said Marget. "Just so did my father and -mother use to sit."</p> - -<p>Carters and Morrowcombes made them welcome. Linden and Curtin sat upon -the porch steps, Tam beside them. Miss Darcy now played with the young -Roger and now listened to Mrs. Morrowcombe's gentle, flowing talk of -turkeys, and rag carpets, and Sam come home from the war. Mary Carter -had dark eyes and wavy hair, bright color in a round cheek, a shy and -tender smile—a Murillo face. She sat holding a year-old babe, and she -talked shyly and listened with intent eyes. There listened, too,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> old -Mr. Morrowcombe, with a long, white beard, and a gnarled hand resting on -a stick marvelously carved by himself in prison, long ago, in the old -war. Roger Carter proved a quick, dry talker, with not a little wit and -power of mimicry. He had a way of throwing what he saw and heard and -concluded into a homely story, both telling and amusing. He seemed to -love to make Linden and Marget laugh, and they loved to draw him out. -Curtin saw with what skill they opened fields to him where he might -rejoice in his talent. He saw how they understood fellowship.</p> - -<p>Presently Marget asked Mary if she might take Miss Darcy into the house -and out on the back porch and to the lilac hedge. "Certainly, Miss -Marget, you go right in! It's all straight. Go upstairs, too. Anywhere -you like."</p> - -<p>The two went. "This was mother's room. Here I was born. When I was a -little girl I slept in this tiny room next door. The rain on the roof -drummed me to sleep. This was the boys' room. This is the back porch, -where we did much of the work. It is so lovely and broad! There is the -old well. Yonder is the lilac clump where once, in May, I saw the Spirit -of the Lilac."</p> - -<p>When, half an hour later, they walked homeward along the river bank, -there renewed itself the question of prolonging a visit. "Well, I'm -going to stay, anyhow," declared Curtin. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> like it better here than at -that camp. If you will keep me a month—"</p> - -<p>"Oh, we will!"</p> - -<p>Anna Darcy said: "I can't stay that long. But I'll stay just as long as -I can."</p> - -<p>That matter settled, they walked on, quietly, in the amber and violet -hour. There was a sound of water, a smell of wood smoke. The house rose -before them, richly colored in the sunset.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> - -<h2>VIII</h2> - -<p>The weather changed. On the heel of soft sunshine and quietude came -autumn storm, wind and rain, lashed trees, leaden and heavily sagging -cloud. In the late afternoon Zinia appeared at the parlor door. "Miss -Marget, there are two men on horseback. They've come over Rock Mountain -and missed their way. They say it's getting late, and they say, could we -take them in for the night?"</p> - -<p>"I'll go see," said Linden, and left the room.</p> - -<p>"Of course you will?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, of course," answered Marget. "I had better go see about the room." -Curtin and Miss Darcy, left alone, watched the flame. At last Curtin -said, abruptly, "Had you ever thought of humanity moving on into -superhumanity?"</p> - -<p>"I think that I have been blind and deaf to a great many things! I -suppose I thought that there would be slow, general improvement. But I -did not think of marked betterment here. I thought of the soul at death -springing alive into heaven."</p> - -<p>"Or hell?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, we were taught that."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><p>"And it was going to reach heaven or hell at one stride! No degree -here, no degree there!"</p> - -<p>"It was irrational!"</p> - -<p>"Naturally, being yet in Time, there are those ahead. Some cross the -line earlier than others."</p> - -<p>Marget returned. "They are two young men, foresters, I think, from the -government purchase on Rock Mountain. They are wet through. Mancy has -built them a fire and Richard is looking after them." She stood by the -window. "The gray rain is chanting up and down the mountains! Queen Rain -and King Wind!"</p> - -<p>Curtin put a chair for her as she came to the hearth. She sat down, and -bending herself, looked into the fire. She held her hands to the flame -and appeared to gather it into them. "The fire!" said Marget, "the -spirit that is fire, that is will—that are living, endless powers, the -Host of the Lord!"</p> - -<p>There fell a silence that was voice. Then said Anna Darcy: "I have -always said, 'I remember—I remember.' But since I came to Sweet Rocket -I have learned far and away more of how to remember."</p> - -<p>Marget turned toward her with a great sweetness. "When we have found a -good thing we so naturally wish to share it! Now you must learn the -Universal Man's present sharing—and his future sharing. You who have -always said, 'I remember,' and who have been unselfish, will have little -trouble."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p><p>Her look included Curtin, who sat staring into the fire. He drew a long -breath. "Two weeks ago I should have said that adventure and youth had -passed from my life."</p> - -<p>"You are just beginning to find them! Henceforth you will find rest and -romance, salt in life and the true wine and the uncloying honey and the -bread of right wheat. You will find water of Moses's spring, and the -Burning Bush."</p> - -<p>The rain and the wind sang against the pane. The fire made shape upon -shape. The high, inward vibration lowered, but it left a memory of -itself. There was the Jericho rose in the sandal box to say, "When there -comes moisture again to my root, then shall I bloom again!"</p> - -<p>Linden entered the parlor with the two guests, now with dried clothing, -rested and refreshed. It was growing dusk. The room looked warm and -bright to them, a happy haven after a battering day. They were young -men; twenty-seven, twenty-nine, forestry graduates, resuming forestry -after an interlude of war. Linden presented them. "Mr. Randall—Mr. -Drew."</p> - -<p>The evening closed in stormy. They had supper, a small bright feast, -with talk and laughter. Randall proved lively, good company. Drew was -much the quieter of the two. Supper over, they returned to the big -parlor and the generous fire. The boy Jim had brought in a great armful -of wood. It was a night to heap logs, as the rain drummed against the -pane.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> Randall was talkative. He flowed like a mountain stream, trilled -like a care-free bird.</p> - -<p>Forests and forestry came into the room. It appeared that both had had -from childhood a taste, not to say a passion, for woodland life. Randall -had lived in the country, so it came natural. But Drew had lived in a -city. But forests were a passion with him; he had to get into them, and -did so at every chance, and at last left for good a clerkship in a -stockbroker's office, and scraped together enough for that course in a -forestry school. This gave him surface learning, but he exhibited a -deeper knowingness, gained somewhere. "Drew's like an Indian in the -woods!"</p> - -<p>"No. Not like an Indian," said Drew.</p> - -<p>Linden asked, "Like whom, then?"</p> - -<p>He sat in a corner of the great fireplace, Tam, who came indoors upon -nights like these, lying at his feet. "Drew," said Randall, "tell them -about that night in France! He's got a curious story. He won't tell it -to everybody. But I don't know—somehow we're all at home here." His -quick song went on. "You see, my folk and Drew's are English. We're just -a generation from fields and things that we've heard about all our -lives. So when England went in, we thought we'd better go over, and we -did. We were in the same company, and this was before Verdun. Go on, -now, Drew!"</p> - -<p>Drew began at once, without prelude, his eyes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> upon the blind man. "It -was something that happened to me. Sometimes I think that it was a -dream, and then I know that it wasn't. I'm more and more certain as time -goes on that it wasn't. I've got a kind of feeling about Reality, that -we are like swallows skimming it. I suppose that now and then a swallow -tumbles into it. Well, it was a big, dark wood, fairly early in the war. -A detachment, sent we did not know by whom nor for what, moved through -it from one station to another. I was second lieutenant. Well, there -came news of a trap, and most of us turned off in a hurry, out of that -wood. But—I don't to this day know how it was—as many as twenty were -away from the rest, sent to find out something, somewhere. It was night, -and there was no path. We got the warning, too, and we swung round and -tried to get back to the main body. There came a spattering of shot. -There were men besides ourselves in that wood. They rose like partridges -and struck like hawks. We struck back. There was fighting. Something -came down on my head like a falling tree. I remember that I thought it -was a falling tree. Then everything went black, and it seemed both a -long time and a short time till dawn.</p> - -<p>"It came at last, dawn. I sat up, and it had been a falling tree. My -forehead had an aching lump and a gash, but luckily just a branch had -struck me and I had rolled clear. It was a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> old oak, brought down -by the high wind. Upon the branch beside me was growing mistletoe. I -wouldn't touch it, for I thought, 'It is not for me to touch it, but -surely it saved my life!' There was gray light, and one red streak far -down the forest where, after a time, would be the sun. And then I -remembered that it was Lutwyn who had saved my life, crying out, and -pushing me away, where I had thrown myself down for one moment's rest. I -looked beyond the mistletoe and I saw that the tree had caught and -pinned down a man. I crept on hands and knees, for I was dizzy yet, and -I found Lutwyn. He lay pale and twitching, his leg and part of his body -under the trunk of the oak. It was very still and lonely in the forest, -and the first cold light made me shiver, and I was afraid of the -mistletoe, so near. I got Lutwyn from under the tree, and it took all my -strength to do it. The spring that we called Red Deer was hardly a spear -throw away. I had on a cap of otter skin, and I filled this with water -and brought it back to Lutwyn. When I had dashed it over his face and -put it between his lips, he sighed, and came to himself, opening his -eyes and trying to sit up. He said, 'I thought it would catch you, and I -tried to thrust you out of its way—'</p> - -<p>"I said: 'Are you badly hurt? Can you walk?'</p> - -<p>"He tried, but he could only drag himself a little way, holding by a -branch of the tree. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> light had grown stronger, the red line down the -forest was a red splash. We were both thinking of Guthlac and his men, -who were after us because, being outlaws, we had set upon and stopped a -bullock wagon and helped ourselves. We had strong belief that when they -found us they would hang us. We had no great start of them.</p> - -<p>"Lutwyn said: 'You go on, Oswy! I'll make myself at home here, by the -mistletoe.'</p> - -<p>"That couldn't be. I couldn't carry him. He was, if anything, a little -taller and larger than I. He tried again to move, but it was not his leg -alone; his body had been hurt, terribly hurt, I now saw. He could not -make a step. It was I who drew him back to the tree. He settled down -into the hollow made by the trunk and a bough, and I looked at his -hurts, but could do little for them. I saw that they were filled with -danger. The mistletoe grew so near him. I looked at it, and I wished it -would heal. Lutwyn said: 'Now you go on, Oswy! I don't want you to be -hanged.' I said, 'Save your breath!' and sat down beside him. We rested -side by side against the tree, and he said that he was not in pain, but -only now and then drowsy. He was very clear in his mind and wanted to -talk. I listened for Guthlac and his men, and looked at the mistletoe. -The sun was up now and it was growing gold—the mistletoe—a great bunch -of it. I did not hear Guthlac. It was likely to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> be some time before -they found us, having to wait till day to see our track. Now and then I -felt Guthlac's rope around my neck. And then I looked at the mistletoe, -and it seemed to be growing by Woden's chair. Then Lutwyn came awake -again and we talked. We were twin brothers. We talked of when we were -boys, and of our mother, and Lutwyn the Strong, our father, and of -places we had seen and the earth we had trod. The Earth that was us, we -thought, springing up in us all toward Father Sun. And all the wrong -that we had done went away, and the mistletoe grew more golden. He -drowsed away for longer and longer times.</p> - -<p>"Far away I heard Guthlac's horn. It blew, and another answered. They -had found our track and were drawing together. Lutwyn waked, and heard -it, too. 'But there's another horn for me,' he said. 'Don't you hear -that one?' He had slipped from the hollow of the oak and his head was on -my knee. The horn blew louder and nearer. The mistletoe was all golden. -I could feel Guthlac's rope around my neck. But I was glad they would -not hang Lutwyn. He was dead.</p> - -<p>"The horn blew louder in the wood. I heard them shouting. The mistletoe -was burning gold. I said, 'Woden, Woden! we be brothers, Lutwyn and me!' -They broke upon us, shouting, and all went black—"</p> - -<p>Drew stopped speaking. He sat bent over,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> looking at the fire. Putting -down a hand he stroked Tam. Straightening himself, he looked at Linden -and Marget. "All that was actual," he said. "Just as actual, just as -real, just as day and night and earthly and conscious as this room and -the fire and we six and the dog!"</p> - -<p>He made a movement toward Randall. "You tell the rest."</p> - -<p>Randall's voice came in. "The detachment drove the Germans out of the -wood and chased them a good long way. It was dawn when we stopped and -went back to gather up our hurt and dead. There were a dozen dead, -Germans and us, and a good many hurt, all scattered through that wood -that was full of big trees. We found Drew propped against a very great, -old, fallen tree. He had been struck over the head in the hand-to-hand -fighting and had a cut or two besides. Nothing odd in that, but what was -odd was that he was cherishing a dead German—had his head lying on his -knee! Of course, enemies lying as close as lovers wasn't any novelty! -But Drew had crept some little way to this man, and had tried to stop -his bleeding, all there in the dark, and had given him water, and then -had gathered him into his arms. He said: 'Yes, he was Drew, but he was -one Oswy, too. Yes, that was a German, but it was Lutwyn, too.' He said -they were twin brothers. We were used to men out of their heads, so we -gathered him up and took him on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> He wanted us to stop and bury the -German, but there wasn't time for that. The funny thing is that he -certainly isn't out of his head now! Yet he still believes that story, -though he won't tell it to every one...."</p> - -<p>The rain beat, the fire burned. "I've tried to get back," said Drew, -"back to Guthlac and the bullock wagon and why we were outlaws. If I -could find even now what we did—if I could get farther back still, to -the point where we decided to do it, and redecide, decide more wisely, -having long light upon it, I think that even now I could change in some -way the whole world! Changing it to Lutwyn and me would mean changing -the whole texture."</p> - -<p>"You are right," said Linden. "And seeing it that way you have begun to -put your change into operation."</p> - -<p>The fire shined, the rain beat upon the panes, the wind came with the -impact of sea in storm. Pictures shifted before the inner eye. Lands and -times held the earth. Now they seemed foreign pictures, now there was a -faintly conscious participation. "We are Earth, to-night," said Linden. -"All these are in our memory. Earth is growing conscious. A conscious -Spirit. That is what we mean to-day when we say, 'There is a new world -just beneath the horizon.'"</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> - -<h2>IX</h2> - -<p>In the night the storm ceased. The household woke to a high, clear, -stirring morning, the clouds riding in archipelagoes with, between -isles, a sea bluer than the Ægean. The shaken trees had spread a Persian -carpet. All the flowers hung heavy with wet, snails marched on the -paths, Sweet Rocket glistened.</p> - -<p>Randall and Drew must ride away, so at ten o'clock Jim brought their -horses.</p> - -<p>Marget and Anna Darcy walked through the flower garden. "I am going to -Mimy's house for a little. Will you come, too?"</p> - -<p>Marget had a basket upon her arm. "It is full of silk and cotton scraps -for Julia's quilts. The day I met you in Alder I begged of two or three -friends and they gave me all this! It is Julia's intense industry and -happiness, piecing quilts."</p> - -<p>"Who is Julia?"</p> - -<p>"Mimy's lame daughter. Lame in her body and just a little lame in her -mind."</p> - -<p>"Where does Just So come in?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, he's Susan's! Susan has been away upon a visit, but she's home -again. Zinia is Mimy's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> niece, and Jim is her grandson. Mimy and her -husband, old Uncle Jack, who is dead, 'belonged,' as they call it, to -the Lindens. When Richard bought Sweet Rocket she was living in Alder, -and she rode over in a wagon one day and told him she wanted to come -home—just like me!" said Marget, with a happy laugh. "The old cabins -were tumbling down. Richard built her a real house. He said that any who -came and said, 'This is home'—" Her dark eyes looked afar to the valley -rim.</p> - -<p>"Where does Mancy live?"</p> - -<p>"Over there, behind the big field. He and Delia, his wife, and William, -who is Roger Carter's right-hand man."</p> - -<p>Mimy, in the kitchen, was singing:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Roll, Jordan, roll!</div> -<div>I want to go to heaven to hear Jordan roll.</div> -<div>Oh, roll, Jordan, roll!"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Marget stopped at the door. "We're going to your house, Aunt Mimy, with -quilt pieces for Julia."</p> - -<p>Mimy interrupted her singing. "Are you gwine take company?"</p> - -<p>"Well, she isn't company."</p> - -<p>"You'll find a mighty mess in that house! I don't think I ought to let -you go, Miss Marget! You see, Susan's been away, and Julia can't get -around, and when Zinia comes from the big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> house she wants to <i>read</i>! -instead of straightening up. I reckon you better not go."</p> - -<p>Marget laughed. "Aunt Mimy, you know how we'll find the house!"</p> - -<p>"Well, go along!" said Mimy, gloomily. "Julia'll be glad to get the -pieces."</p> - -<p>They left the kitchen behind them.</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"And I want to go to heaven to hear Jordan roll!"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Marget's low, warm laughter sounded again. "Her house is like a pin, and -she's so proud of it, and she wouldn't for anything miss having you see -it! The same little rhyme is said to every guest we have. And '<i>read!</i>' -Mimy's so proud to see Zinia sit at a table and read! Jim can read, too, -but he doesn't like to. But Zinia is fond of books."</p> - -<p>Mimy's house rose beside the orchard, a pretty cottage with a dooryard -filled with cockscomb and larkspur and marigold. At the gate grew a bush -of myrrh, and the porch had over it a gourd vine. Just So sat in the -middle of the path, playing with red and blue blocks. At the sound of -voices Susan appeared, a clear-brown, neat, and active woman. "Just So, -don't you clutter up the path like that! Come this-a-way, Miss Marget!" -She took them across the porch, where the gourd vine made so pleasant a -pattern, into a little parlor, bright as a pin. They sat and talked, and -then Susan said that she would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> bring Julia, and, leaving the room, -reappeared, pushing a wheeled chair. In this sat Julia, who was almost a -middle-aged woman, and had a slender, pleasing face, and was only a -little lame in her mind.</p> - -<p>Marget emptied the basket. "Oh, my!" said Julia, and again, "Oh, my!" -With eager fingers she spread the bits of silk and velvet and satin and -striped or flowered ribbon. "Flower-garden pieces! It will be a -flower-garden quilt. I'll make a quilt like they have in heaven!"</p> - -<p>"Shoo! Julia!" exclaimed Susan. "They don't have quilts in heaven. It -ain't cold there!"</p> - -<p>Julia's face took on an imploring, almost a frightened look. She turned -to Marget. "If they don't have quilts I won't have anything to do!"</p> - -<p>With all that she knew of Marget Land, Miss Darcy could but wonder at -the luminous sweetness, the depth and the play with which Marget, seated -by Julia, dealt with the latter's fears. All the bright pieces were -spread over the knees of both. "In heaven you'll put rose and blue -together, and this violet and green. And look how these flowered pieces -go! Your quilts are for warmth and beauty, Julia, aren't they? Shut your -eyes and see warmth and beauty, warmth and beauty!" She put her hand -over the lame woman's hand. The latter's plaintive look changed, her -eyes brightened, and she nodded her head. "Yes! To keep us warm;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> and -they are lovely, like the flowers! Warm like the sun is!"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Warmth and beauty—warmth and beauty! So in heaven you're to keep -on with warmth and beauty. And you'll learn, too, how well wisdom goes -with them. Their quilts aren't just like these quilts, but you won't -care for that. You'll be putting together and giving beautiful, bright -things!"</p> - -<p>Julia caressed a length of flowered ribbon. "That's what I think. -They're warm and beautiful, warm and beautiful! And every one I give a -quilt to says, 'I'm so glad I've got one!'"</p> - -<p>"When you put that piece in, think 'warm and beautiful' for Mrs. Gray. -She gave it to you. And Miss Lucy Allen gave the beautiful blue piece."</p> - -<p>When they had quitted the porch with the gourd vine, and the dooryard, -and the gate by the myrrh bush, and were under the orchard trees, Marget -said: "She's been making quilts for twenty years. Perhaps two a year, -and into each one goes I do not know what dim thinking and feeling, -warmth and beauty, for such and such a one!"</p> - -<p>It was Miss Darcy's habit to rest a little in her own room after dinner. -In the midafternoon, coming downstairs, she found the door of Linden's -study open. Linden turned his head, hearing her step. "Come in! Here are -Marget and Curtin."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p><p>It was the first time she had entered this room. Her eyes took it in as -she crossed the threshold, and found it a simple, grave place, as simple -and grave and charged with its own aroma and spirit as a pine wood. It -spread a large room, with plenty of space for pacing up and down. The -bookcases, the desk, the chairs, an old, long cane and wood sofa were -for use. The plain walls held a few prints. In one of the deep windows -stood a large globe.</p> - -<p>Curtin put Miss Darcy a chair. "I've just come in," he said. There had -grown between them, beginning the morning upon which she found him -fishing, or not fishing, in the gorge that closed the valley, a quiet -liking and friendship, with a sense, perhaps, of standing even in the -inner world. "Linden was saying—"</p> - -<p>Marget sat before the desk not far from the fireplace, in which burned a -light flame. She had been writing, and Linden dictating from his big -cane chair by the long window. She had turned from the desk and he had -moved his chair to where he sat, half in firelight, half in tawny -sunlight. To Anna Darcy's sense the room had strongly that luminousness -which in some sort she found in the whole of Sweet Rocket, in valleys, -hills, house, and folk. The whole made a sun-filled cluster that, acting -as a cluster, redoubled so all effects. But undoubtedly Linden and -Marget were the center of the cluster.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p><p>"I am glad you have come in," said Curtin. "Linden was speaking of -their life here—"</p> - -<p>"I told you, you remember, driving through the woods, of our outer -life," Marget said. "Sitting here before the fire we had begun to talk -of that far larger life within the outer."</p> - -<p>Linden spoke. "Martin asked me, and I was telling him as clearly as I -could. It is not wholly clear, you must not think, to Marget and me, our -progression and our life. 'Man is a bridge,' says Nietzsche. A living -bridge that crosses from himself to himself. Always the provisional, the -halfway, gone afar even while we say, 'Here am I!' How to name a thing -that travels so fast! The life of Marget and me changes and grows, as -does yours and yours. The history of one—the history of all. There is -at once divine difference, divine sameness. No hand and no word will -hold our life!"</p> - -<p>"I don't know anyone like you," said Curtin.</p> - -<p>"No. But you will presently begin to know more and more who differ from -us and yet who belong in the order—the order of those who are aware -that present man is a bridge and who begin consciously to act, feel, and -know in a larger existence."</p> - -<p>"And that is still inward?"</p> - -<p>"The world still calls it inward. To those in that existence inward and -outward, past, present, and future, come into one. The old words, then, -are but retained words of convenience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> As to the ultimate mind Martin -and Richard, Marget, Anna, are but words of convenience, names for -strands of experience. All are comprehended, combined, surpassed."</p> - -<p>The sun lighted his hair, his bronzed face, his quiet eyes, the sight of -which he seemed so little to miss. After a moment's pause he spoke on: -"To-day many and many are aware of the richness of destiny. Some more -so, some less so, but aware! Faculties that in a host are but germinal -build in and for others realities. The momentary, superficial present, -not being the true present, there <i>are</i>, not 'there have been' since the -dawn of history, many such men and women. Very many; a host. There are -many to-day; to-morrow there will be more. If you regard with intentness -you may see the new Humanity forming."</p> - -<p>"What of those who neither dream, nor divine, nor wish, who come on so -slow?"</p> - -<p>"Their not divining nor dreaming nor wishing is more apparent than real. -All come on. The slowest, who thinks he has no direction, is drawn -unconscious until the day when he discovers the compass."</p> - -<p>"Will any never cross?"</p> - -<p>"I don't think so."</p> - -<p>"And when the last human being has crossed?"</p> - -<p>"Then will the others come on into humanity—they that we call the -animals. And those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> behind them will lift to where they were. But our -wave goes on into the spiritual world that is the world of subtler -matter, vaster energy, understanding at last, love at last, beauty at -last. Well, Marget and I are conscious travelers thitherward, as are you -and you."</p> - -<p>"Ah, you are ahead of me!"</p> - -<p>"And of me!"</p> - -<p>"In some ways we may be ahead. And in others you may have store of -energy and experience that sets you ahead. That matters not in the -least. Whitman said that when he said:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"By my side or back of me, Eve following,</div> -<div>Or in front, and I following her, just the same.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Like him, too:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Content with the present and content with the past,</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>yet lassoing the past and the present with the future!"</p> - -<p>Curtin shook his head. "You have powers that are not mine."</p> - -<p>"If we have them, they will be yours. Marget and I think that we have, -as it were, a blueprint. But not yet do we walk in the full and great -temple! We do faintly and weakly what one day we shall do with all -vigor. And many things that we do not yet dream we shall do! And you -also, you and Anna. When you begin to feel continuity, when no matter -where you move you take possession of yourself—"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p><p>He rose from his chair, and, standing before them, put a hand upon -Curtin's shoulder and a hand upon Anna Darcy's. "'With all your getting, -get understanding.' 'The kingdom of heaven is within you.' God is <i>I -am</i>."</p> - -<p>The sun struck through the western window, the fire burned, the room was -lighted and warmed. Flame and stirring air made a low singing.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> - -<h2>X</h2> - -<p>The next day Drew came back. Curtin, seated on the porch, saw him cross -the river and ride up by the cedars. Shutting his book, he descended the -steps to meet him. "Good day, Drew! Glad to see you back! Nothing -wrong?"</p> - -<p>Drew dismounted. "No. I wanted to talk to Mr. Linden."</p> - -<p>Jim, coming around the house, took the horse. "He's out somewhere on the -place," said Curtin. "Miss Land, too. But they will be back by twelve. -Did you ride from Rock Mountain this morning?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. It's not so far once you know the way."</p> - -<p>He took the chair that Curtin hospitably pushed forward, and sat -apparently in a brown study, while the other speculated. At last said -Drew: "This is a good, big farm with room, I shouldn't be surprised, for -another worker. At any rate, I've ridden over to ask Mr. Linden to -employ me."</p> - -<p>"Do you like farming better than forestry?"</p> - -<p>"I like it better plus some other things." His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> eyes swept the hills -that shut in the vale. "There is rich forest here. Any woodland that he -has I could cut and replant. I know something of farming, too, and I can -learn more. I'd give good work in return for the other things that they -can teach me, and that I want."</p> - -<p>He regarded Curtin with brooding eyes. "Ever since I could remember I -have been beset by the past. A man told me once that I was conscious -there, but hadn't co-ordinated it with the present and the future. It -was some time ago, and he went away at once and I never found his like -again—until I came here. I don't think there are many of them, living -at any one time. The only wisdom I've got is the wisdom of going where I -think I may find help."</p> - -<p>"How about Randall?"</p> - -<p>"I'm very fond of Randall. But he can't help me here, nor I him. He -thinks it's just my 'queerness.' There's a man in Washington who will be -mighty glad to get my job. He's a friend, too, of Randall's. I want to -stay here for a year. Then I may go foresting again with Randall. I -don't want to lose him. If Mr. Linden can't use another man this winter -perhaps he will take me in the spring. In that case I'll go, and come -again. I've talked it all out with Malcolm Smith, our chief at Rock -Mountain. Brown in Washington will come down right away."</p> - -<p>At twelve appeared Linden. He stood in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> hall door. "Is it you, Drew? -I will be down in a moment to shake hands." They heard his step going up -to his room. "Blind, and not blind!" said Curtin. "There's some profound -development of sensibility."</p> - -<p>"I am not a scholar," said Drew. "I haven't got the names to give to -things. That's a part of my need."</p> - -<p>Marget and Miss Darcy came up from the river path. They had been, it -seemed, to the overseer's house. Marget gave her hand to Drew. "I am -glad to see you again!" There was no surprise in her warm and happy -voice. "Your room is all ready for you."</p> - -<p>They had dinner. When it was over Drew went with Linden into his study. -The three others lingered a little in the pleasant, wide hall. The day -was again right October; amber and garnet and sapphire; balm with -nothing of lethargy.</p> - -<p>Said Curtin, "When we come and come, what do you do at last?"</p> - -<p>Marget laughed. "Oh, you come and go! You never really go, you know! But -you have to take your bodies here and there over earth. But once come, -we keep you and you keep us!"</p> - -<p>"You know people all over the earth?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Do they write?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, now one and now another writes! But we hardly need letters. That -is, they are needed, of course, for minute information, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> news of -bodily movement. But there is communion whether we write or not."</p> - -<p>Marget returned to the dining room to talk with Zinia. Anna Darcy went -up to her chamber for her rest, and Curtin took his book to the porch.</p> - -<p>The books at Sweet Rocket. He fell to pondering them. There were, -perhaps, five thousand, not in one room, but up and down. Many were old, -and many neither old nor new, and many new. They seemed to touch all -subjects.</p> - -<p>Curtin, pondering, going deeper and deeper, fell into some border -country of Reality. With swiftness, with electric shock, he touched, not -thousands of leaves of paper printed over, but conscious, intelligent, -and powerful life. Or rather, it seemed to touch, to descend upon him, -to well through him, coming down, coming from within, occupying space -internal to all this tranquil, outer, October space. It was presence, it -was personality, overwhelming. Books! What were true books? Will, -Desire, Intelligence, living, active, not unclothed or unbodied, living -Presence, present Activity, being in mass, active being, present and -active here in this valley and present and active elsewhere, present and -active throughout he knew not what infinity! He felt again that wide and -deep shock of reality. The world lived!—had always lived—only he had -not known it.</p> - -<p>Vigor streamed into vein and nerve. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> sprang to his feet, and, leaving -the porch, moved down past the cedars to the river path, and along it. -"It is not Richard Linden and Marget Land, nor the one nor the other! It -is all of us. It is the Whole. The Whole has found them and is bringing -them in accord." He felt exquisitely a touch of bliss. "It will bring me -in accord, too. Drew and Miss Darcy and me—and many others." He felt a -satisfaction such as he had never dreamed. "All others. One by one, all -accorded, all remembered. The Already Remembered, forever increasing in -strength, gathering, drawing, the scattered and fragmentary and -incipient!"</p> - -<p>He walked, hardly knowing that he walked. "Goodness and largeness! The -dawn of them is synchronous with the dawn of Allness. All our words, -mercy, justice, love, wisdom, power, joy, are but terms for the natural, -habitual feeling of the One who is Whole. It is not that they are -'virtues'! They are the hue and tone and sense of health!"</p> - -<p>He went up the river as far as the overseer's house. Here, upon the -bench built around the sycamore, he found old Mr. Morrowcombe, who had -stayed over with the Carters. In his old brown clothes, with hair and -long beard, pale as the pale patches of the sycamore trunk and boughs, -leaning forward upon his stick, he looked, as it were, the huge old tree -come forth into human form.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p><p>Curtin sat down beside this old man. The cane upon which the elder -leaned was now close to his eye and he saw that it was covered with -finely cut words. Thick, and shaped like a shepherd's crook, the graving -ran all over it. "May I look?"</p> - -<p>"Surely!" said Mr. Morrowcombe, and gave it into his hand. "The year I -was in prison at Camp Chase I carved around it the twenty-third psalm."</p> - -<p>Curtin examined the quite beautifully done work. "Trust and Consolation -in your hand—walking with them for fifty years!" He sat musing.</p> - -<p>Mr. Morrowcombe's old, gentle voice began like the zephyr in the -sycamore, whose beginning you could hardly guess. "Yes, sir! That -staff's me now. Just as a good dog that goes with you gets to be you. -It's helped me, week days and Sundays; that staff I made myself. I made -it myself, and I didn't make it. I didn't make the tree that grew it and -I didn't make the psalm; nor David that made the psalm. But I cut the -staff from the tree and I carved the words there. So I reckon I have my -part."</p> - -<p>"You cut it in prison?"</p> - -<p>"Do you see that piece just thar?" The old finger traced the line. -"'<i>Thou settest me a table in the presence of mine enemies.</i>' I cut that -deep and fierce!"</p> - -<p>He looked at the river and then again at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>Curtin. "Now, whatever it -means, I know it doesn't mean what then I wanted it to mean!"</p> - -<p>His old, gentle face grew meditative, contemplative. A more tranquil -form and face it would have been hard to find. "I kind of sense the -meaning, but I can't put it into words. But when you feel at last with -folks and things you can't feel against them. When I was young I must -have hated a lot of folk! I don't now."</p> - -<p>"What is your healing herb?"</p> - -<p>"Put yourself in his place. Don't oust him from the place, but -understand him. Flow into him deep! Then you'll find that there is -Something inside or above you and him which understands and straightens -out both of you. Next thing you find is that you haven't got any real -controversy."</p> - -<p>"Do you call that something God?"</p> - -<p>"That's what I call it. I used to think that you <i>had</i> to call it God. I -don't now. But it's a mighty good word! We've hallowed it. It's the -biggest word we've got."</p> - -<p>"Mr. Morrowcombe, when we join God, don't you think we shall say 'I'?"</p> - -<p>"<i>That</i> will say 'I.' Yes."</p> - -<p>They sat gazing at the river and the colored hills. "Ain't this a lovely -place?" said Mr. Morrowcombe. "It's like Beulah Land!"</p> - -<p>"Do you ever talk to Mr. Linden?"</p> - -<p>"Surely! Him and Marget Land. They're of those in our time who are -remembered early."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p><p>He glided into one of his gentle silences. Curtin pondered that matter -of re-membering, re-collecting, re-storing.</p> - -<p>Said Mr. Morrowcombe, "I knew Marget Land when she was a little girl and -came to Sunday school. She was baptized in our church, but she ain't now -one of our church members. That used to grieve and puzzle me—make me a -little angry, too, I reckon! Now I don't bother about it. She's in the -Living Church, all right."</p> - -<p>He looked up into the bronze and silver sycamore. "I've sat on this -bench in old Major Linden's time, when John Land was overseer and lived -in the house yonder. His wife, Elizabeth, was just the salt of the -earth. Those children used to be playing around this tree. I remember -Marget, a bare-legged, big-eyed little thing. She's sat by me often on -this bench and made me tell her stories. Now it seems a long time ago, -and now it seems yesterday!"</p> - -<p>His voice sank again into the October sunshiny stillness. His lips -closed, but Curtin felt him speaking on in thought and consciousness. It -came to him, in another of those revelational flashings: "That is the -ultra-violet of speech, the high, subtle, inaudible, continual speech! -When we begin to catch it, when we begin to hear thought—" He felt -again the shock of going together, of rivers pouring into ocean.</p> - -<p>Mr. Morrowcombe's lips parted. "The war turned me serious, and I found -religion two years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> after the surrender. I'd tell her Bible stories. I -had a kind of gift that-a-way. Roger Carter, that's my nephew as well as -my son-in-law, has got the same gift, though it ain't always Bible -stories that he tells—except I reckon as all true stories are Bible -stories! I used to tell her about David and Jonathan, and Joseph and his -brethren, and Ruth and Naomi, and Mary and Martha and Lazarus, in -Bethany.... Mary and Martha in yourself, and Lazarus who was long dead -but could be raised, and Christ, who could judge and portion and raise, -all in yourself! She used to listen, sitting just there. She had mind -then, and she's got mind now—more'n I have in a lot of ways. She and -him. Mind and goodness, and spirit that is power, and a body that you -love to look at! They're the kind of folk that ought to be. Yes, sir, I -was thinking when you came along of Marget sitting there, a little -thing, and saying, 'Now tell me about the children of Israel'—or 'about -Bethlehem,' as it might be."</p> - -<p>With distinctness Curtin felt that which the old man also seemed to -feel, for he turned his head, lowering it and his eyes a little, and -smiling. The movement was precisely that of turning and smiling into a -child's eyes. Again through Curtin poured that thrill of a freshness of -knowledge. If this tree, this place, were strongly in a consciousness, -in a memory, surely then that conscious spirit itself might in some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> -sort be felt here! At any rate, he was aware of Marget, though to all -outward senses appeared only the warm-colored October air. He had again -the sense of etheric life. He lost it. It was so bright, it was so -transient! The unquenchable desire was to bring it lasting.</p> - -<p>He presently walked back to Sweet Rocket House. Drew was on the porch. -"I'm going to stay. I'll write to Brown, and ride to Rock Mountain -to-morrow to tell Mr. Smith and Randall, and pack up my things."</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XI</h2> - -<p>The next day Drew returned to Rock Mountain to make his arrangements. -"Why not ride with him?" Linden looked at Curtin. "There is a fair -trail. You have an extraordinarily fine view from the top."</p> - -<p>Drew urged it likewise. "But I haven't a horse."</p> - -<p>"Roger Carter has a good saddle mare. He will be glad, I know, to let -you have her."</p> - -<p>Drew, mounted as he came, Curtin on Dixie, set out before noon for Rock -Mountain. The cliffy crest that gave it its name peered above the -southern hills and ridges facing Sweet Rocket. Crossing the river the -two kept for some little distance to the Alder road, then at a pine tree -left it for a just discernible track. "This is where we changed, Randall -and I, the other day. Until we saw the river we thought that we were -going to Alder, but we were going to Sweet Rocket instead."</p> - -<p>The trees closing in behind them, they were plunged into forest. There -was now no green save the green of occasional pine or hemlock. All was -gold or red or russet. Moreover, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> earlier trees to turn were fast -flinging their mantles upon the earth. The sky met less obstruction, the -sunlight spread a royal carpet. The air equaled exhilaration. As Curtin -rode he thought that he faintly remembered all the forests of the world. -"Is it infectious? Is it because in some sort Drew remembers, or is it -because I have been—and surely I <i>have</i> been—in all the forests of the -world? Like him, I remember best the temperate and the northern forests, -because in time they are the nearer."</p> - -<p>For a while they rode in silence. There was only the sound of their own -breathing and movement, and the very inner voice of the forest, low -speech of branches that brushed them, break of twigs, flutter of wings, -tap of woodpeckers, whisk of squirrel, and once, a little way off, the -heavy whir of a pheasant. At last Drew broke the silence. "My mother -died when I was fifteen years old, and my father when I was twenty. I -remember my mother's mother and my father's mother and father. I know a -good deal about their life after I was born and their life before I was -born. I have a fair notion of my grandparents' parents, and I know -something of the way of life of the generation behind that one. I have -been told and I have read. Of course there are presently ancestors of -whom I have been told nothing, and behind these countless others. Of -course I know that people often imaginatively share the experience of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> -parents and kindred. They say: 'It must have been so and so with my -mother and my father—or with my grandparents—or my ancestors -generally. They had these experiences and they must have felt and done -this way. It seems almost as if I were there!' I think when you say that -you are beginning. But it's grown to be more than that with me. After -all, what are you but your parents, your grandparents, your -great-grandparents, and so on? Your experience under your immediate name -and your experience under your old names—their names. And alike, what -are they but you? Share and share, comprehend and comprehend, include -and include! I tell you that I am aware of the pyramid behind this -cleaving point that is talking to you. I <i>remember</i>."</p> - -<p>"Do you mean that you remember actually thinking, feeling, doing what -men say your ancestors did?"</p> - -<p>"I don't get it clear. It's all wrought into some kind of unity. I don't -remember clearly sharp, isolated experiences—except that one time I -told you about, and that was clear and sharp repetition. But I remember, -all the same. I don't feel any wall between my father and myself, -between my mother and myself, my grandparents and myself. You don't know -how curiously I seem to share their life! Sometimes, lying still at -night, I simply, naturally, am Edward Drew as well as Philip Drew. I -look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> out of the Edward Drew window—or out of the Andrew or Robert or -Margaret or Janet window—and then I turn and look out of the Philip -Drew window. I had a great-grandfather who was a sailor. I can't tell -you what feel of the deck beneath my feet, what a sense of sea by day -and by night, I have at times!... But then, of course, in the far back I -must join many sailors.... I <i>am</i> those folk. That's my own life they -led. I lead their life. Wherever they are, they lead mine!"</p> - -<p>He fell silent, and Curtin, too, rode silent. They were now above the -valley, their road climbing. Overpassing a great hill they came to a -threadlike, green vale, and crossing this climbed Bear Mountain, behind -which rose the great head of Rock. When they reached a gushing mountain -spring they dismounted, and, seated on moss and leaves under a tall -mountain linden, all palely gold, ate the bread and cheese and damson -tart and drank the cider that Sweet Rocket had put in the bag they -carried. Their feast ended, they rested on the springy, fragrant earth.</p> - -<p>Drew began again. "Remembrance! If I had a hundred per cent better -brain—and I suppose one day the brain of all of us will be a hundred, a -thousand per cent, ahead of what it is now—I am convinced that I could -remember not only down the stalk of myself, but out into the branches -right and left. The tree conscious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> from leaf to root, from root to -leaf! The whole tree conscious, aware up and down and to and fro—and, -as somewhere all the forest joins on, the forest conscious and aware up -and down of its history. Then the forest runs into all the forests high -and low. The everlasting Forest and all its adventures!" He looked as -though he rode in that forest. "Out of it comes the Tree that sheds the -forests! And never once need we lose consciousness in finding that Tree! -That's what Mr. Linden said to me. He said: 'You're the Ash Yggdrasil. -You're all things and all people. You share them and they share you. -You're to extend, extend, your sense of that. The One is to come down -and lay hold upon you—and still you shall find it home and yourself!'"</p> - -<p>On they rode over Bear Mountain, and at last up Rock. Five hundred feet -below the top lay a green depression named Hall's Gap. Here a half-dozen -cabins made Hall's Town. The people now owned Rock Mountain, its rich -forests and rushing waters. A road was in the making and that and other -department plans brought to Hall's Gap preliminary groups, the present -group being a surveying, engineering, and reporting one, with Malcolm -Smith for head. Under him he had Cooper and Morris, Randall and Drew, -with axmen and spademen hired from the mountain. The cabins in the Gap -lodged them all.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p><p>Curtin and Drew reached this place before sunset. The men were coming -in, dogs barked, the smell of coffee and bacon hung in the air. Randall -welcomed them, and presently Malcolm Smith appeared and shook hands. -They had supper in Hall's big double cabin, with Hall and Mrs. Hall and -half a dozen flaxen-haired young Halls, but after supper they went to a -neighboring cabin, for the time being their own. Pine knots blazed on -the hearth. Malcolm Smith and Cooper and Morris, Randall and Drew and -Martin Curtin stretched tired limbs and smoked and talked. Morris and -Cooper presently played checkers. Malcolm Smith read the newspaper, but -after a little put it down and talked. He talked of aviation, and -wireless, and of Einstein's notion of space, and of atomic energy. "I've -an idea that ideas, ideation generally, imagery, perhaps memory, are -simply that energy functioning! We imagine, and that energy has -constructed a form in ether. We use it blindly, weakly, unintelligently. -But if—"</p> - -<p>"I see."</p> - -<p>"But if we used it enormously more strongly—and wisely—we'd be -creators all night! It's getting very important to know what we do want -to create. If we don't look out, presently we may find that our -imaginations have life! We've got to choose, I suppose, what kind of -life we'll give; silly or monstrous life, or intelligent, kindly, -strong, beautiful life!"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>Curtin enjoyed the evening on Rock. Flame and odor of burning pine, and -the pleasantly grotesque shadows on the cabin walls, made for rich -fancies. In one of the easy silences the men grouped in this brown and -flame-hued place seemed to him genii, gathered here before they drove -their roads over mountains or harnessed their plunging water steeds. He -thought: "We are genii! How wonderful it is to be what we are—and shall -be!"</p> - -<p>Men at Hall's went to bed before ten. Curtin found in a small cabin a -hard couch and honest sleep. He slept without turning till five of the -morning, when he waked with a great sense of refreshment. "Where I have -been I don't know, but it was where vigor flows!" The stars shone in at -his window. He lay still for a few minutes, then rose. The air was not -too chill. He found when he was dressed that he was warm enough. Opening -the cabin door he went out, moving softly so as not to waken Drew and -Randall. The morning star hung in the east, and near it the moon in her -last quarter. The cold, first hyacinth of dawn streaked the sky. Drew -had pointed out the path to the top of the mountain. Curtin, finding it, -climbed it alone. Half an hour brought him to the summit. When he -reached it the earth was bathed in the cool and violet first light. He -found a great projecting rock, shaped like a chair, and took his seat -here. The planet, from gold, was become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> silver, and the moon hung like -a dream canoe. Here or there mist hid the vast expanse below, but for -the most part earth lay clear. The outthrust rock that was his seat gave -him two-thirds of the circle.</p> - -<p>Stillness with depth and power possessed Curtin. He looked out, and -down, and over. Range on range, with narrow vales between, rolled the -mountains. In the strengthening light the autumn hue of them gave desert -tints; then he picked out clearings, and white points that were hamlets -and farmhouses. He turned eyes to where would be Sweet Rocket, though he -could not see that valley. It was dawn. Richard Linden would be up. -Perhaps, guessing that Curtin might watch dawn brighten from this rock, -he might be here in mind and spirit.</p> - -<p>Even as he thought this, the presence of Linden not there but here, or -both here and there, came to Curtin in a wave. He felt company in -solitude, doubled life. And not, as he presently perceived, Linden only. -Linden meant thousands of others, as thousands of others meant Linden. -Thousands and thousands.... That was himself ... thousands and -thousands.</p> - -<p>He looked north and east and west; by rising and moving he looked south. -The horizon rim lay very far. Using knowledge, he let it farther drop -away, drop away. Underneath him was the bulk of the earth. Use power and -make it as crystal, penetrable as water or air! <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>Overhead and all around -was air, thinning afar into ether. He saw his globe in space and time. A -ten-minute road of light ran between it and the sun. He sat very still, -but within he moved into the land of contemplation. Here much time came -into no-time, so subtle swift was motion. He entered into touch with -much for which he had not yet found name or names. He might say, there -is deep water and rich land. He might say, the world is other than we -thought it. There are Americas ripe for discovery, and there are farther -and future Americas forming.</p> - -<p>By degrees might lessened. Muscle could not yet hold, nor sense be -aware. He came nearer surface. Yet still there was vision. Phosphor was -paling, the moon a dim curve of pearl, and all the spread of earth in -stronger light. Curtin gazed, and the eyes of the mind outran the eyes -of the flesh. Not just Virginia, but all the forty-eight states. Not -just the forty-eight, but all America, Canada, and Mexico, and the -islands and the republics of the South. He looked to the Atlantic and -saw on the farther side Europe and Africa, and on to the east Asia and -the Pacific. He saw the continents and the nations. It was not so much -that he saw their earth, their body, though he saw that, too. But he saw -them, touched them, heard them, as persons. The most of them had lately -been at fierce war, fibers of each dissenting, but the bulk warring. -Exhausted from war, haggard and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> torn, yet still they made gestures with -broken weapons. He saw them in the throes of economic and political -change, of change from knowledge to knowledge, and of religious change. -He saw traits and actions, deep, deep; yesterdays at the point of -to-day, and all the morrows being built of yesterdays and to-days. He -saw as it were stain and chaff and guilt, and through all these -white-running Fire and Life and Upspringing. They were Persons, but a -greater Person held them. Light broke. He saw the earth and the world -and the heavens as Person. Upon him broke in deluge the vaster Selfhood.</p> - -<p>The sun rose over Rock Mountain, the long ranges and the vales. The air -had the exquisite fresh energy of Hope. Curtin moved down the path to -the cabins. All his being seemed lit and harmonized. "It is what the old -saints called conversion. My times fall into the hand of the One that I -Am!"</p> - -<p>The rosy light shone on Hall's below him as it shone on Sweet Rocket and -Alder and the Virginia farms and villages and towns, and the farms and -villages and towns of every state, and of all the Americas, and of the -earth. Fragrant smoke rose from the chimneys. He heard the cheerful -voices. A great love of the neighbor pervaded Curtin's consciousness, -and with it entered the neighbor. His consciousness and the neighbor's -consciousness became to a degree one.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XII</h2> - -<p>The men at work had breakfast at Hall's in great beauty of weather. -Afterward Curtin went with them along the proposed line of road. It -proved a cheerful group, doing basic work well. The wine of the air and -the lift of the earth and the beams of the sun helped amain. Axes rang, -pick and shovel sounded. There was a center of work and there were -outlying explorations. One hallooed to another. Morris was a master -whistler, and you heard him like a redbird. Dave Hall had an -interminable mountain ballad which he chanted as he worked. The buzz of -the whole might be caught a long way over the mountain slope. Where they -worked would be a great driveway for holiday folk. Young and old would -pass that way, drinking the great views and the mountain air, pierced by -beauty and largeness. Young and old, man and woman, a many and a many, -through years heaped like sand!</p> - -<p>"I like public work!" said Randall.</p> - -<p>Drew answered: "I like it, too! If a scholar wants to help all and a -teacher wants to help all, then going to school and teaching are public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> -works. But I'm coming back to help hold the forests for themselves and -the people."</p> - -<p>The morning went by quickly. At noon they had dinner by Indian Creek, -that rushed and leaped. Three young Halls brought their food in baskets. -It was spread under hemlocks, and they ate as it were in Arden. Dinner -over, for half an hour they smoked and rested, stretched out beneath the -trees.</p> - -<p>"Tell us a story, Cooper!"</p> - -<p>"I haven't one. Call Dave Hall over."</p> - -<p>Dave came, tall and lank and brown as ale. "Sit under that tree, Dave, -and tell us a story."</p> - -<p>"I kin sing you about John Horn and Betsy at the dance."</p> - -<p>"No. Tell us a story. Tell us about the mountain woman you began about -the other day when the storm came up."</p> - -<p>"Miss Ellice?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, Miss Ellice."</p> - -<p>Dave settled himself, with his back to the wine-red trunk of a hemlock. -He was lean and tanned, wide-eyed, with a rich, drawling voice. "She was -a see-er, that woman! This-a-time that I was telling about the mountain -barked like a dawg at her, and showed its teeth and tried to -bite—because she said an awful thing! She said that a time would come -when every man and woman could do the things that Jesus did. She said -Christ was an abstract description of the state of being folks would -come to some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> day, and Jesus was a great laborer who got there earlier -than 'most anybody else. Said he was an example, sure enough, and a -shower of the way, and who could help loving and wondering? But, -'cording to her, the best way to love Jesus was to <i>learn</i>. Stop jest -do-less wondering, and grow! Said that Bethlehem and Nazareth and -Galilee and Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem were where any man or woman -was! Brother Carraway preached against her, and the mountain decided she -wasn't healthy for it. She was living all alone, but the mountain -decided that her cabin had better be emptier yet. She was a tall woman, -about the age of my mother, and when you looked at her you'd think at -first she wasn't strong....</p> - -<p>"Brother Carraway, after he had preached, went on home, but James Curdy -always took what he found in the Word and tried to do it. What he found -was usually right harsh. James had black eyes pushed 'way in, and long -hair that always seemed to me to be blowing in a wind. He was awful fond -of the word 'punish.' 'Now you're Punished!' 'God will Punish you!' He -used to stride around and do his best to see that God didn't forget it. -He was one to see that God did his duty, was James! He couldn't always -make the mountain look at things same as he did, but after Brother -Carraway's sermon, and the lightning striking Barber's house and killing -old Mrs. Barber, he got two-thirds of it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> worked right up to his -feelings! That was Tuesday after Sunday, the lightning having struck on -Saturday, and Mrs. Barber buried on Monday. He got about thirty men and -boys together at John Williams, and a lot of them had had whisky—I -don't know that this air interestin'? I could sing to you about John -Horn and Betsy."</p> - -<p>"No, go on! They were going to drive Miss Ellice off the mountain?"</p> - -<p>"That was the intention. But this very Indian Creek about a mile from -here makes a pool that's called Dumb Child Pool, because little Johnny -Nelson that was dumb was drowned there. He fell in while the children -were gathering nuts and he couldn't make them hear. Well, those that had -had something stronger than water, they were all for seeing if Miss -Ellice wasn't a witch! You know how folk used to prove a witch? That was -about twenty of the eager ones, mostly young men. This wasn't very -recent. I wasn't living on this mountain, but on Stormy Mountain over -thar. I came here when Lucinda Nelson and me married. But I've heard all -about it."</p> - -<p>He spat vigorously. "Now, this is where her seeing with other eyes than -like yourn and mine comes in! And how I come to know about some things -that others don't was that that very Lucinda Nelson that I married -happened to be at Miss Ellice's that day. Nelsons ain't afraid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> of -anything, and Miss Ellice had done them neighborly turns, sitting up -with the sick and sharing coffee, and such as that. Anyhow, Lucinda was -there, and Miss Ellice was braiding a rug and seemed extraordinarily -cheerful and sunny. 'Long about two of the clock, as it were, she broke -off her talk and finished her row, as it might be, without looking at -it. Then she says to Lucinda—and Lucinda says she was that still and -sunny, like a day that comes sometimes, that she was 'most afraid of -her, just as you're 'most afraid sometimes of that kind of day, and yet -you want to stay by it and it to stay by you—she says, says she, 'I'd -like you to stay longer, Lucinda, but I find that I've got something to -do! You go along, honey, and if I don't see you again I want you to -remember that I like you and think you're on the right road!' And with -that she got up and kissed Lucinda and stood in the door to watch her -down the path. Lucinda went along home. Well, in about two hours, here -they come, James Curdy and Mat Waters and Jonathan Morgan, and the -others, drunk with whisky and with what they thought was the Word of -God. They had a rope, and they meant the Dumb Child Pool."</p> - -<p>He spat again. "'Twas Jonathan Morgan that told me, and Lucinda the rest -of it. He was young and wild in those days. Jonathan says he hadn't been -drinking, and for all that now and then he shouted with the rest he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> -never seen a day so sunny and still, and just the minute after he'd -shouted he'd see the whole as in a picture—his crowd and the Dumb -Child's Pool, and Miss Ellice's cabin. Kind of saw it out of himself as -it were, as though he was sitting on the bough of a tree looking, seeing -thar as well as here. But the rest of them, I reckon, didn't see nothing -but a witch and something exciting to do—unless it was James Curdy—and -what he saw and felt Lord knows! Something like a nightmare, I reckon!</p> - -<p>"Miss Ellice's cabin was high on the mountain. They stopped shouting -when they got nearly up thar. They thought that if before that Miss -Ellice heard them she'd just think it was some jamboree going on -alongside of mountain. James Curdy had such a rule that he could bring -even the drunken ones quiet for a bit. So they stole up the path, and -Jonathan said that the cabin above them looked like a goldy leaf hanging -still, or like an empty nest. So they went up in a string till they got -to where the trees stopped and there was just some bushes and grass. And -then they spread out, and went on in a bunch, and James Curdy cried in a -loud voice, 'Woman, come forth!' But the shut door didn't open. Then he -cried it again, and then he opened that tight mouth of his the third -time. He had more learning than most of the mountain and he used big -words. 'Blaspheming atheist, come forth!' But the others wouldn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> stay -quiet any longer, and they shouted, 'Witch! Witch!'</p> - -<p>"The door stayed shut, and Jonathan said that the cabin hung like a -goldy leaf or a nest high up on a bright, still winter day. Jonathan -says there was something so still and sunny there that it stilled the -shouting. Then they opened the door, for it wasn't bolted, and those -that could get in went in—James Curdy at the head. Those outside spread -around so's they could catch her if she run out. But Miss Ellice wasn't -at home. She was gone.</p> - -<p>"Thar was her half-braided rug and her chair and a little fire on the -hearth. But she wasn't there. It turned out that she had taken a bag and -a basket with her clothes, and a little money she had. And then Mat -Waters found the letter on the table, and Jonathan Morgan read it, -because James Curdy had left his spectacles at home. And if you'll -believe me it was directed to 'James Curdy and Matthew Waters and -Jonathan Morgan and their Company.' Inside it said just this: 'I've -loved this cabin and this mountain. But now I remove myself from among -you. Yet I love this place where I have been, and am, and shall be. Now -abideth Faith, Hope, and Charity, but the greatest of these is Charity.' -And then there was the name, Ann Ellice.</p> - -<p>"Jonathan said half of them were still drunk and outrageous because they -couldn't have their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> fun at Dumb Child's Pool. A lot didn't even listen -to the letter, seeing with their own eyes that Miss Ellice was gone. -James Curdy listened, and his face got white and his eyes red coals. -'She's brazen!' says he. 'The devil talks Scripture to his own -damnation!' He went out of door and looked about him. But most of the -rest didn't see anything but that they'd lost something exciting to do. -They began to break up the furniture. Then some one raked the coals and -brands out over the floor and they set the straw bed on fire. But -Jonathan took the letter and a book or two she had—Lucinda's got the -books now. But James Curdy stood outside and looked down mountain. -'That's Harris's cabin a mile over thar. It's likely she's thar.' And he -began to go down over mountain side. Mat Waters and Jonathan Morgan -followed him, and so did about half of the others. The rest stayed to -burn the cabin. The witch had gone off on a broomstick for them!</p> - -<p>"The Harrises were a kind of lonely folk that didn't go much to church -or nowhar. They mightn't even have heard of Brother Carraway's sermon. -She might be thar, as James Curdy thought. But she wasn't. She had been -thar, they said, jest a minute. She'd looked in on old Aunt Viny Harris -and said she was going away. Said she was going to foot of mountain to -Norwood, whar you get the train. Aunt Viny asked when she was coming -back, and Miss Ellice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> smiled and said she didn't think she was coming -back. 'Whar was she going to live?' She said she didn't exactly know, -but she had kinsmen who would take care of her. 'Aye,' said Aunt Viny, -'you're a master weaver and worker, and any folk ought to be glad to -have such a handy woman around!' Which shows that the Harrises hadn't -heard anything. And so Aunt Viny said Miss Ellice said good-by very -friendly, and went on down mountain. James Curdy wanted to set a hound -of Harris's on her track, and the drunk ones shouted at that, and one -staggered out to get the dawg. But Jonathan, he represented that Miss -Ellice would be 'most down mountain now and out on big road where the -tracks would be all mixed up and covered, and anyhow the folk down there -wouldn't understand and let it be done. By that time the cabin was -burning up on mountain above them. They could see the smoke and light. -James Curdy had to let it be, though doubtless he had some hard thoughts -of the Almighty. Well, that is the end of it! She didn't ever come back. -It ain't much of a story. I don't know why I told it to you."</p> - -<p>"You don't know where she went?"</p> - -<p>"No. Mountain folk ain't curious in them ways. You'd better have let me -sing to you about John Horn. Lucinda says she took her body away, but -not her spirit. Says she can feel her any still and sunny day. I reckon -Jonathan Morgan feels the same way. I don't know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> It's been a long time -ago! Brother Carraway's dead and Jonathan Morgan is Brother Morgan now -and preaches in the old church. Things air sure changing in this world! -Last summer I heard him say myself that Christ was inside us and not -outside—might never have been outside us, so much in the world being -parable! James Curdy's so old now he couldn't do anything but look mad -as an old beast in winter and get right up and go out of church, looking -like a snow cloud and talking to himself.... Lucinda says people keep on -acting and persuading if we see them or if we don't see them!"</p> - -<p>He lifted himself, long, lank, and brown, and moved from the hemlock. -"You air welcome—Mr. Smith, you'd better speak to Jim Harris about them logs."</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XIII</h2> - -<p>Malcolm Smith, talking with Curtin in the cool twilight, before Hall's, -had no word against Drew's departure for Sweet Rocket. "He's a valuable, -likable fellow! There's a curious sense when you are with him of depth -or background that he doesn't understand himself. Violin wood! He says -that this friend of yours has something to teach that he wants to learn. -That's all right! I can generally tell when a man's real destiny is -ruling him. I've got that feeling now about Drew. He needs to buy in a -certain city and he's going there. If we're here next year—and there's -a lot to do on Rock Mountain—I'll be glad to take him on again."</p> - -<p>Bedtime came. Again Curtin slept profoundly, restfully, waked early, and -climbed again to crest of mountain to see again the sun rise over so -great expanse. He sat in the stone chair and before him hung the morning -star and the senescent moon. Below them was spread violet and jonquil -and one strange sea of blue.</p> - -<p>Again he felt the Spiritual Sun. He thought: "This is what they have -perceived at Sweet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> Rocket. They have not waited for death. They live -now, and forever, and know it. This body will go from them, but they are -building or remembering—I do not know which, and perhaps it is both—a -life that will not go from them. And I also, also, though I am a babe -yet—"</p> - -<p>Sitting in the hollow of stone at the top of the upraised wave of earth -he watched the sunrise from Rock Mountain.... He conceived that what was -true of him was true of others, had been true age after age, was true -now over this round earth of others. He thought: "There has always been -a fellowship. The eidelweiss does not guess the roses and the -heliotrope, nor the violet and the meadow rue. But at last the garden of -the earth guesses! It becomes the living garden. The living garden -becomes the living man. Naught is right, naught is reasonable, until you -get it from the whole."</p> - -<p>The sun rose, the earth turned ruddy. Curtin went down the path to -Hall's, breakfasting there with the men who worked with head and hands. -This morning he and Drew would start for Sweet Rocket. Drew's slender -luggage was going down mountain to Norwood, whence the train would take -it to Alder. Every one liked Drew, even Cooper who laughed at him. "Good -luck, old farmer! Ride over and see us sometime!"</p> - -<p>The two rode down Rock and crossed a vale, like a green and gold ribbon, -and went up Bear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Mountain, where the oaks were all deep colored, and -down Bear and over forested hills and on by the trail that struck into -the Alder road. They went rather silently, but in a deep, contented -companionship. Once Drew spoke. "He said, 'A good present is one in -which the past betters its condition.'" When he said "he" there was -meant Richard Linden. After this there was silence again, both having -struck some road within, where is the network composed of all the roads -of the world.</p> - -<p>They approached Sweet Rocket. The forest fell away. Before them shone -the river, the wheat and orchard land, and the ruddy house with its -pillars of mellowed white, and the hills that inclosed. Through part of -the day clouds had been driving across the sky. Now they were sinking -before the southwest wind, leaving the blue arch. They were variformed, -castles and towers, bridges, alps, cities, ships, mythical beasts, -giants. Light embraced them in a spray of colors. Crossing to it, for -one instant, Curtin saw Sweet Rocket transfigured. All that was strong -and fair became a hundredfold stronger, fairer. All that deterred or -roughened or overweighted or twisted or weakened vanished in warmth and -light. A sheath, or husk, or burr fell away. Interior power rousing -itself, he saw the place in its seraph aspect, eternal in the heavens. -Drew seemed to share the perception. He said, abruptly, "There is -splendor!"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p><p>They felt splendor; then it closed, like light withdrawn, warmth -screened away. There stood Sweet Rocket in its earthly estate. That is, -they thought it its old earthly estate. But by that much it had become -endowed and was not the old earthly estate. They had checked their -horses. Curtin said, "So it was always in poetry!"</p> - -<p>The younger man had a curious gesture. "We gather all the household gear -into the long ship, and put forth!"</p> - -<p>But Curtin thought, "In the Bible Noah gathers all the lifeseed into the -Ark and rides the waters into a new world."</p> - -<p>They crossed the river and went up the little glistening beach and by -the cedars to the house. Sweet Rocket welcomed them home, the white folk -and the colored folk and Tam. They found the household increased by two.</p> - -<p>Linden said, "These are my cousins, Robert and Frances Dane, who come -for a little while each year to Sweet Rocket."</p> - -<p>They were a married pair, a little above forty, perhaps, the mark of the -city upon them. They had quick and nervous bodies, thin, lined faces, -eyes well apart, burning deep and very steady, lips tending to -compression. They seemed tired—about them breathed something of -soldiers after a long day's march through hostile elements. This was -bivouac, this was rest! At first they were too tired, there was almost -<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>resentment. "O God, <i>how</i> can you be still and ageless?" This changed, -little by little, at Sweet Rocket. The overtension disappeared. They -were left taut, collected, wary—workers worthy of praise in a dangerous -world.</p> - -<p>At the supper table that evening Curtin made out more and more of their -life. They had come yesterday, a little before their set time, and Anna -Darcy had the start of him in acquaintanceship. Intellectual radicals -certainly, members of some group in action, probably of more groups than -one, jack of all agitations and master of one. He could hear them -speaking, in halls, and under open sky, and he could see the face of the -throng to which they spoke. They would be speaking of Soviet Russia, of -Guild Socialism, of Employer and Employed and the Course of Labor that -did never yet run smooth. There were causes, not so apparently economic, -for which also they would work. He heard them speaking for the Suffrage -Amendment and likewise for the release of Conscientious Objectors. They -belonged here, they belonged there. The one, he was later told, was -Associate Editor of a Journal that was making the step from liberalism -of the left to communism of the right. The woman was an admirable -violinist. He knew that they lived on little and gave much of that -little away. They lived where it was possible to live in one big room -and three small rooms. They had a son who was doing well at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> a school -they liked in the country. To look at them was to see how hard they -worked, and to look into their eyes was to see the beacon that set them -and kept them at work. They also had vision of Oneness.</p> - -<p>Though in talking Linden and Marget used in a much less marked degree -the terminology used by the newcomers, it seemed to present no -difficulties to them. They seemed to understand these guests, as they -understood those others who had come to Sweet Rocket this October, to -understand and to travel with them. Curtin thought: "They sympathize. It -does not occur to them to say, 'Do something else, take another road!'" -He thought: "That is their strength. They utterly share."</p> - -<p>Frances Dane had brought her violin to Sweet Rocket. Yesterday it had -been laid in the parlor. Now, after supper, sitting by the fire in the -old room, the violin spoke. It told of the player's passion for the -world, of the man who wrote that music's passion for the world, of the -passion for the world of all makers of violins, and of the trees whose -wood was used, of the passion for the world that is progression and -revolution, of the passion for the world that is the slower rate that is -called withstanding progression and revolution, of the passion for the -world that is music, of the passion for the world yesterday, to-day, and -forever, of the passion for the world that every heart of us knows!</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XIV</h2> - -<p>"It is something like this," said Linden. "We are One Being with its -mighty potencies. All that comes in comes to us, all that goes forth -goes from us. The points that take, ponder, sort, combine, alter to -better liking; the mighty poles, the mighty afferent and efferent that -flow from pole to pole, all that is movement, that is gravitation, that -is cohesion, that is justice, that is harmony, that is love, are Ours. -We go as we have gone through time, from and toward—the from that is -also toward, the toward that is also from. But something beyond Time as -we have known it, beyond Space and Causation as we have known them, -increases upon us. Consciousness in some sort of the whole orb, -awareness through and through, is momentously upon us to-day. In the end -all desire is desire for that."</p> - -<p>"We shall move then in four-space?"</p> - -<p>"If you choose to put it so. It is an allowable figure. All that present -language can devise is but a word, a figure, a symbol. What we mean is -the next advance in consciousness. When you have it you know it."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p><p>They were treading a slender path through October fields. Now they were -in a great, climbing cornfield, all stacked corn like brown wigwams, and -here and there upon the brown and stubbly earth the orange of pumpkins. -The air folded them in violet and gold dust and faint frankincense. The -hills had changed in color, so many leaves being shaken down. On days -like this the mountains were evidently entranced. It was Indian summer -before the Indian summer time. "A new consciousness?" said Frances Dane, -walking with Curtin. "A farther-on consciousness? It is in the air to-day!"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Wise men saying, 'We have seen His star in the east—' Oh, that's a -figure!"</p> - -<p>"There is some Reality, or thousands of us would not be hearkening, as -we are hearkening.... A new man, a new creature.... It's a consummation -devoutly to be desired!"</p> - -<p>The heaped corn stood around, the orange globes made constellations on -the earth. They were now well up the slope, at their feet Sweet Rocket -and the little sliding river. All was reflected, all was veiled, but now -and again eyes looked through the veil. Reaching the top of the hill -they found there a tall, solitary tree—a black gum—and built around it -a bench. It linked in Curtin's mind with the sycamore before the -overseer's house.</p> - -<p>They sat upon the bench and upon the ring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> of brown grass that ran -around the tree. The view was fair and they rested in silence. It was -Anna Darcy who noticed how much silence there was at Sweet -Rocket—silence that sang, that caressed. Moments went by, silence held -them, fair solitude, sense of one person here alone. Tam moved, coming -nearer to Linden. The latter's hand dropped to Tam's head. Anna Darcy -heard a low sigh of relief and burden lifted. It came, she thought, from -Frances Dane, who sat near her upon the grass. But it might have come -from more than Frances, from all.</p> - -<p>Stillness and silence deepened. There grew a cathedral sense, a desert, -an ocean sense. Into that entered a wealth of light and strength. A vast -wave of freedom, an access of life, lifted them. They had life and they -had it more abundantly. They seemed to themselves to flash together, and -of them all was made a god. For an instant there held an intense vision -of this valley and of Sweet Rocket transfigured. Color and sound lived, -every movement was of joy. That broke away, vanished like the image of a -rose into the image of a garden of ten thousand. Then that was gone into -an image of all the earth, and then that into intense, sheer, mighty -Living, with small regard to old space and time, abounding, keen, a -Reality leaving old reality behind.</p> - -<p>"When it is all done, when it is all known, all felt, when we are fully, -completely ourself, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> we remember our Godhood and live it, when we -do not look through storm for the lighthouse ray because we are Light, -when we do not cry Father and Son because we are both and know it, when -there is glory of home, glory of health, glory of love—"</p> - -<p>Who had spoken they did not know; it seemed their common voice. Perhaps -it was Linden, but if so he spoke as their common voice. Into it came -not only the voice of the seven there, but the voice of old Mr. -Morrowcombe and the Carters, and of Mrs. Cliff and Mimy and Zinia and -Mancy and the others; not just the voice of Sweet Rocket, but the voice -of Alder, and of many an Alder, big and little, the voice of the city -and the country, the land and the sea. "To be well! Oh, rise within me, -truest Self, with healing in thy wings!"</p> - -<p>The great, golden feeling passed, leaving echoes, leaving memory. These -folk were separate again where they had been one, but not so separate. -In and out hovered that breath of transfiguration, a day of spring in -late winter, dying, but with a tongue to tell of a time when it would -not die. Where all had been vivid, singing, laughing, now was the wonted -gentleness of this valley, a dreaminess shot with gold, taking and -giving, but doing it subtly, silently, only now and then bestowing -evidence of a vast interpenetrative life, showing like the eyes through -the veil of this Indian summer day.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p><p>They went down through the corn and out by a gate, set in the gray and -lichened rail fence, where grew sumac and farewell-summer and the -feathery traveler's-joy. They walked in meadows by the river, and at -last through the orchard, and so to the house. Mimy, in the kitchen, was -singing:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Oh, Jesus tell you once befo',</div> -<div>Babylon's fallin' to rise no mo'.</div> -<div>Oh, go in peace and sin no mo',</div> -<div>Babylon's fallin' to rise no mo'!"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>In the evening Frances played again to them, and the rich and sweet -music filled the old room. The violin put by, they talked by the fire; -then Linden said, "Read for a little while, Marget." She took up a -volume of Blake, and read. "Read that letter to Butts." She read:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"... Over sea, over land</div> -<div>My eyes did expand</div> -<div>Into regions of fire,</div> -<div>Remote from desire;</div> -<div>The light of the morning</div> -<div>Heaven's mountains adorning;</div> -<div>In particles bright,</div> -<div>The jewels of light</div> -<div>Distinct shone and clear.</div> -<div>Amazed and in fear</div> -<div>I each particle gazed,</div> -<div>Astonished, amazed;</div> -<div>For each was a Man</div> -<div>Human formed. Swift I ran,</div> -<div>For they beckoned to me,</div> -<div>Remote by the sea,</div> -<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>Saying: 'Each grain of sand,</div> -<div>Every stone on the land,</div> -<div>Each rock and each hill,</div> -<div>Each fountain and rill,</div> -<div>Each herb and each tree,</div> -<div>Mountain, hill, earth and sea,</div> -<div>Cloud, meteor and star,</div> -<div>Are men seen afar.'...</div> -<div>My eyes, more and more,</div> -<div>Like a sea without shore,</div> -<div>Continue expanding,</div> -<div>The heavens commanding;</div> -<div>Till the jewels of light,</div> -<div>Heavenly men beaming bright,</div> -<div>Appeared as One Man,</div> -<div>Who complacent began</div> -<div>My limbs to enfold</div> -<div>In his beams of bright gold;</div> -<div>Like dross purged away</div> -<div>All my mire and clay.</div> -<div>Soft consumed in delight,</div> -<div>In his bosom sun bright</div> -<div>I remained. Soft He smiled.</div> -<div>And I heard his voice mild,</div> -<div>Saying: 'This is my fold,</div> -<div>O thou ram horned with gold,</div> -<div>Who awakest from sleep</div> -<div>On the sides of the deep.'..."</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XV</h2> - -<p>"Energy in larger units, affinities gathering strength and flowing -together with power!" said Curtin. "Everyone has seen it and felt it in -some wise. When it is blamable, unguided, 'mob spirit'! When it is -praised, '<i>esprit de corps</i>, mass heroism, mass enthusiasm, -conflagration of genius, voice of the people, unity of spirit,' what -not! Most folk have a glimpse of the fact that there is an ocean of -desire, emotion, will, as well as rivers and rivulets."</p> - -<p>Marget came and sat with them on the steps of the little summer-house in -the flower garden. She wore a great check apron, denoting housekeeping -and helping Zinia. She sat down beside them. "What have you been doing, -Marget?"</p> - -<p>"Once a week Zinia and I have a general straightening day. Then my -mother and I have been visiting together."</p> - -<p>"Truly, truly, Marget?"</p> - -<p>"Truly. But in a little wider order, my dear, a little wider order! The -order above this order—into which this will melt. Mother and father, -and Will and Edgar."</p> - -<p>"Two of those are living and two are dead."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p><p>Marget smiled. "Ask Wordsworth!"</p> - -<p>"I see," said Anna Darcy.</p> - -<p>"Very well. Do more than that. <i>Touch!</i>"</p> - -<p>With a trail of ivy in her hand she looked past the snapdragon and -marigold and larkspur, still blooming, so rich and mild had been this -autumn. "Then, as the rooms grew clean, I was with my mother in her -birthplace, two hundred miles from here. We were there as adults, -moving, loving, understanding with a grown mind, but there in her -childhood and girlhood as well, loving to contemplate all the past that -was us two! Mine as hers, hers as mine. Mind and feeling ran and caught -up with her brothers and sisters, her parents and friends. Her parents -remembered their parents and those remembered theirs. Home rose after -home, garden after garden, loved place after loved place." Her eyes were -upon Drew, whose eyes were upon her. "Do you not see that you can, that -you will, recover it all? All that you have been, and you have been very -much; all that you are, and you are very much!"</p> - -<p>Mimy's singing floated to them from the kitchen:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"There's a great camp meeting in the Promised Land,</div> -<div>Oh, pat yo' foot, chillun, don't you get weary!</div> -<div>There's a great camp meeting in the Promised Land."</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>"And then," said Marget, "I was in Rome with Richard. The sun shone, the -wind was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> cypress and pine, the fountains made liquid sound. Father -Tiber glided, Saint Peter's stood. We went to the Sistine Chapel, and -then it was the Capitol within and without, and then the Appian Way and -all the Campagna—all Rome—not to-day alone, but <i>all</i> Rome. And then -not Rome, but starlight nights from the decks of ships. And then—"</p> - -<p>"This was actuality, while your hands swept and dusted the parlor -there?"</p> - -<p>"My body was in its duty and happy there. Yes. Actuality, but of another -order, an order we are coming into. The order of intensified, guided, -<i>realized</i> memory and imagination."</p> - -<p>"And of reason?"</p> - -<p>"And of reason. Profoundly so. It is reason that is guiding. Reason has -its higher levels, grows comprehensive, knows longer sequences, -completer syntheses. And from the decks of ships we were in the desert -watching the stars, shepherds on the hills and shepherds on the plains, -shepherds and villagers and wanderers of far days!" She lifted hand and -arm in a curious and commanding gesture. "Watching the skies above Queen -Rain and King Wind! In desert and plain and upon hills and on seas, -thousands and thousands of us strewn in time!"</p> - -<p>For an appreciable moment, to some degree, those listening to her became -aware of, made, as it were, junction with their own far wandering, far -wondering, savage and barbarian self. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> was evident that Drew made -junction. They touched the mind struggling there, and the lifted gaze. -The sense was one of enormous, calm pervasion. They entered into, they -aided, their own early man, where he marked the heavens, and around them -was the wistfulness of early lands.</p> - -<p>Marget spoke on. "Then while I worked we were building pyramids and -mountains of the god. We were watching and watching, patterning and -naming, comparing, all the skies, the moon, and the planets and the -times of the sun, and the white path through the heavens and the great -named princes—everywhere, swarthy folk and pale folk! Now we were many -and many. Then in us rose the Devoted, the Searchers of the skies, -seeking from city roofs and temple roofs knowledge of the Whole for the -Whole."</p> - -<p>Their interior self opened its wings and used its eyes. As space -expanded, so did time. They were there in the October sunshine, on the -summer-house steps, but likewise they attended, and in some vast, -liberated way they were that collective effort, that process. They might -carry the method over into all processes. There swam across the mind -other words—"commerce"—"government"—"family"—many and many a word.</p> - -<p>Marget's voice went on. "Now one has made a telescope. Our theories -change; we stand on dead theories and study on. Thousands of us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> -studying, thousands building knowledge, learning vision! We gaze, we -watch, we turn to desks and write and figure, we reason, we divine, we -better our instruments, we gather results and make fortunate guesses, we -hearken to intuition. We stand on a mossy stone in space and study the -Promised Land, the universe that is ours, the ever perpetuating, the -ever bettering! Time widens. Here are mountain summits and the -observatories of this day, and the clockwork and the pierced dome, and -the great eye that we have made, and the photograph. Mind sits at the -knee of Great Mind and learns its alphabet. And all the thousands that -were and are and will be are one Astronomer, and it is I, still working -to know!" She ceased to speak, and sat wrapped in the golden light.</p> - -<p>Said Robert Dane: "We follow where you step. You make us follow you."</p> - -<p>"I do not make you. You walk with me because you can walk. We walk. It -is your Self as it is mine."</p> - -<p>"We move and we feel, then, where you are. You live there more fully and -keenly than we, but we can breathe and feel and see. Go on! We would -have your life, as you have ours."</p> - -<p>"Then, after the stars, while I wound the clocks, I walked into the -minute. Again thousands of us working and watching, noting, -divining—thousands and thousands, years past and to-day and to-morrow! -And one devises<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> the microscope. All the laboratories!... Into the cell, -into the atom, the infinite dance of relativities and small collections! -And the intensed, pointed endeavor, using perception as fine as the -millionth part of a hair—we knowing, marking, understanding ourself -there, where we are moving clouds! We working there, patient, patient, -the god working! The great and the small. We who forever remember and -make richer ourself. We the I— And then I was again with my dead, who -are just as much and just as little dead as I myself! And then I came -out into the garden."</p> - -<p>They sat on the summer-house steps, and the marigolds glowed around -them. She spoke again. "Here and there, throughout the past, and often -now I think in our own day, a man or woman lays hold upon faculties that -some day all will lay hold upon. <i>And greater things than these.</i> -Forerunners, pioneers! Regard this late flood of books describing -communion with the dead and giving detail of the life hereafter. What -they describe is the widening consciousness here and now! The increasing -awareness. One does not wait for death. Richard and I would not have you -think that we are deep, deep, deep in that realm. Were it so nothing -could hide it. Were we or any full in the next order you would see the -shining. We are not there, but we are in motion toward it, as are many -to-day. The road thitherward has its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> great scenery and long, thrilling -adventure! And you, too, all of you, too, are in motion toward it. In -this day of ours, each day of the sun, more and more are in motion."</p> - -<p>She rose from the step. "I have rested this body that we call Marget -Land and now I shall put it again to work in the house we call Sweet Rocket."</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XVI</h2> - -<p>That evening, after she had played to them, Frances fell to telling of a -crippled boy, almost a man, living in a poor flat in New York, the -father an overworked head clerk, the mother a strong, gadabout, -well-meaning person, more apt to reproach than to sustain. There was a -sister, a stenographer, who meant to marry, if she could, some employer. -This nineteen-year-old boy had a passion for travel, who could rarely -travel as far as the street. At intervals, when his father had leisure -to accompany him, he went to a movie. If the piece had scenery, country -and ocean and strange cities, moving throngs and great buildings and -places of which he had read, he was happy. He took the <i>Geographic</i>, and -got travel books from a library. He knew more of the earth's surface -than did many a "traveled" person. But it was hot in the city, in his -little stuffy room, or it was cold in the city in houses that could -never buy coal in quantity. He had a good deal of pain, and his eyes got -bigger and bigger.</p> - -<p>Curtin had claimed the small bedroom at the end of the upper hall. Drew -slept in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>dormer-windowed room above. Frances and Robert Dane -possessed the large room opposite Marget's, next to Linden's. Here were -four windows and each narrow bed placed where it might look forth. This -night the Danes talked awhile, then addressed themselves to sleep. -Robert slept, but Frances found that she was wakeful. Yet she had -definitely turned from care and question of the day, from concern for -her own work left in suspension, even from the face and incident of -Sweet Rocket. From her pillow she saw the stars as they rimmed and rose -above the mountains. At first she seemed to be over there, with the -shadow below and the diamond above, but then to herself she left it all. -There seemed naught about her but cool space. She lay without fret at -wakefulness, though she was intensely awake.</p> - -<p>She became aware that, waking, she was becoming rested, refreshed, as -though she had profoundly slept. She was awake above the old waking. The -old waking was dreaminess to this state. Vigor poured into her being, -and all the past was passed. That is, it was passed in its heaviness and -friction, its strain and anxiety. All that seemed to drop away, like -dross leaving gold. It was curious, her sense of gold color of all -things in a gold light of their own, not from without. She became -distinctly aware of influences. They were good. She acquiesced, "Yes, I -will travel with you." Will consenting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> her strength was added to those -other strengths. In the plane where she now was flashed out -co-operation.</p> - -<p>Marget—Richard! Certainly they were where she had been wont to call -"within her." But certainly she felt them, was aware of them, presently -saw them, as never had she done before in that "within," though often in -memory, thought, and imagination she, like others, had been with Marget -and Richard there "within." She had used those words as a matter of -course. Even then that "within" had, when you examined it, its own space -and time, its own mechanics, warmth, color, and sound. That "within" and -this "within" were of a piece, but where that had been faintly real this -was vividly real. She had no doubt of its reality. It was so, but -reality of another, of a farther on, order. Marget that afternoon had -talked of another order. It seemed that one might rise or deepen into -it. She was consciously there now, though in the order below it she -rested at Sweet Rocket. It was not the plane of tremendous power and -illumination, but it was a state of developed powers. It was as far as -just then she could go.</p> - -<p>The boy Stuart—Stuart Black. How many a time had she wished that she -could give this boy travel! "If I might take him and let him see!" As he -had longed, as he had imagined himself traveling with Mr. and Mrs. Dane. -"If I could travel with you!" And now to-night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> they had somehow caught -and held to the ether and were seeing what they wished to see. The -influence, the individuality that was Marget and Richard strongly aided.</p> - -<p>She was in Rome with Marget and Richard and Stuart Black. She did not -question them nor him, and the boy did not question. They were there, -and it was sunny weather, and they were strong and happy. They stayed in -no hotel, they depended on no cab nor car, they needed no food of the -old sort. When they looked at one another they saw body, since where is -still multiplicity must still be body. There was something of old bodies -in these bodies, but also there was difference, and all to the good. Old -defect had vanished. Stuart Black was no cripple; she herself had lost -fatigue. There was translucence, a golden appearance, and where they -wished to go they were. She wished for Robert, and immediately felt that -in wishing she had said to the others, "I wish." They strengthened her -wish with theirs. Here, then, was Robert with them, though -intermittently, not on the whole so strongly, but coming as he could -answer, sleeping there at Sweet Rocket. And now and then another joined -them, though somewhat dimly, and that was the boy's father, whom he -loved and wished to include in his joy.</p> - -<p>The body of Rome, too, was like and not like the old body of Rome. Rome -had a Self to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> match this Self of theirs. Spirit and body and mind and -soul, Rome understood itself better. There rose a Rome richer, purer; -nothing of fair and wonderful lost, all such quality strengthened; the -unfair, unwise, unstrong of old, everywhere tending to drop the prefix. -Yet to the new self Rome was herself, singing, enchanted, of the past -and present and future.</p> - -<p>Marget and Richard, who seemed truly Marget-and-Richard, one word, had -said, "a week in Rome," and that was what seemed to pass. They saw as in -old travel they had seen, they went about as in old travel they had gone -about, they enjoyed as in old times they had enjoyed, but with freedom -and power and joy that left the old behind. All was vigor, heightened -and transfiguring perception, and yet friendly, homelike, not solemn nor -stilted, the boy here enjoying like a boy. Frances became aware of a -control, keeping experience to a vivid and fair finiteness, not -sacrificing current form. That was for the boy's sake, perhaps for her -and Robert also.</p> - -<p>And after Rome, Athens—an Athens, too, sublimed. And after Athens, for -the splendid richness of things and for the boy, the vast North, forest -and plain, and an intense exhilaration of life that swept out upon the -great sea and encircled the earth. They spent long, bright days in ships -and at ports of call. Then they went to China, and India, and Egypt. -They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> crossed the desert of Sahara, and again in a great ship passed -between the Pillars of Hercules. Followed ocean days, and that greater -will and awareness slowly diminishing, gently returning upon its still -habitual self. Diminishing, diminishing, slower, slower, a little -melancholy, but tranquil, with a subtle smile.... A sense of a giant -woman in stone rising from an islet in a harbor—a sense of a familiar -city in the year 1920—a sense of dreamy farewells, a quiet darkness and -lapse....</p> - -<p>Frances turned herself in her bed at Sweet Rocket. Starlight flooding -the room dimly revealed walls and furniture. Across by the other window -Robert lay sleeping. How much time had passed, or how little, or how -widely could you live in no time at all? Here was reality, but there, -too, had been reality! It had been real, that companionship and that -travel. The memory of it was memory of reality. Mind had attended there -not less, but more than here. The whole compound self had achieved a -unity and power. Achievement—ungrown wings—first flights! She thought: -"The possibilities! O life of life, our possibilities!" Old warmth and -drowsiness took her. There was a kindly fatigue, as though she had -walked on a bright day to mountain top and back and now thrown herself -down for rest. She saw the stars through half-open eyes, then slept.</p> - -<p>The sun was streaming in when she waked;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> Robert already up and -dressing. She raised herself upon her arm. "Good morning!"</p> - -<p>"Good morning!"</p> - -<p>She rubbed her eyes. "There is a strange and happy feeling of 'there' -being here!"</p> - -<p>Robert said: "That somehow hits it. I had the most vivid dream of long, -sunny travel, with you and Marget and Richard and Stuart Black! It -wasn't like a dream. I feel as if I were just off the ship—had all the -memories and a most tremendous refreshment! I could take down any wall -this morning!"</p> - -<p>"Why do you put it that way?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know. We have so walled ourselves in from wide doing—are so -afraid of our own landscape!" He stood by the window. "I think I'll ask -you a question that never, never would occur to Mr. Gradgrind to ask! Do -you remember it, too? For instance, Athens and some dim, northern -forest—and a lot of islands with palms? Do you remember music?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, it was all music—and I think that I'll play it all my life!"</p> - -<p>Dressed, they went down to the others, Zinia's bell ringing for coffee, -omelet, honey, and cakes. Linden and Drew had eaten and gone to meet -Roger Carter and William where the winter wood was being cut. Marget sat -behind the coffee urn. "Good morning, Robert and Frances!" Her face of a -subtle, moving beauty, more of look than of feature, did not turn upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> -them with a "Do you remember?" It seemed to assume that they remembered. -Frances thought, "Certainly she remembers, and as much more strongly -than I as I remember more strongly than Robert!" It was of a piece with -all that they had talked of. "At last, with all of us, talk passes to -action." Frances Dane drank her coffee. All of them in the room seemed -bound in a ribbon, Linden and Drew also, wherever they might be in the -forest, and Stuart Black in that small, dark room in New York, and how -many others! She did not name them, but she knew they were many, in fact -all. In a flash she saw how, to Marget and Richard, might appear not -many selves and binding ribbon, but One Self. To realize this was to -realize that for her, also, there was but One Self.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XVII</h2> - -<p>Three days after this Curtin and Anna Darcy, who often walked together, -having gone to the pass of hemlock, cliff and tumbling water, turned in -the broken sunlight and shadow back to Sweet Rocket. The maples of the -upper slopes had cast almost all their leaves, but the oaks stood yet in -carmine. Yesterday had fallen light rain. Earth lay moist, and soil and -leaf and fern and moss sent out a haunting odor. The sun stood in -Scorpio. The drama of the year was on the homeward road. It saw ahead -the Archer and the Goat and the Water Bearer, the Fishes of the great -deep, and the Ram that, springing forth, should take once more the road, -the old road, the new road, the old-and-new road!</p> - -<p>Now Curtin and Anna Darcy spoke, and now they were silent. It was a -blessed feature of this valley that none need be talkative in order to -convey, "I am at home with you."</p> - -<p>Her visit was approaching its end. That was what people would say. -"Physical presence and metaphysical presence!" said Curtin, answering -her thought. "Physical and above-physical—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> the generations to come -will find the inclusive word."</p> - -<p>"Oh, I shall be here still—or 'here' will be with me in the city—or it -will be both. At any rate, no desolate parting!"</p> - -<p>They passed from under hemlock and gray rock to beech trees and a -dappled path. The small river calmed itself and began to flow through -cultivated land. Gentian and farewell-summer made a purple fringe for -the way.</p> - -<p>"In old romances one walked into an inn or house by the road—always -saying, 'It is by the road that goes on as it went before, and I -presently again with it!' But never again as it was before, and never -again I as before! For just there befalls the adventure that sets one -climbing to a new road."</p> - -<p>Sweet Rocket vale opened before them. Each time they looked it grew -fairer, and that, they had begun to see, was because it was not -separated from anything.</p> - -<p>Said Anna Darcy, presently: "Do you know Morris's <i>Earthly Paradise</i>? Do -you remember the Story of Rhodope? I used to know almost all of it by -heart. When Rhodope is born the countryman, her father, dreams, and he -seems to himself to be standing with the mother, watching</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"... a little blossom fair to see."</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Then:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>—</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"The day seemed changed to cloudiness and rain,</div> -<div>And the sweet flower, whereof they were so fain,</div> -<div>Was grown a goodly sapling, and they gazed</div> -<div class="i1">Wondering thereat, but loved it nothing less.</div> -<div>But as they looked, a bright flame round it blazed,</div> -<div class="i1">And hid it for a space, and weariness</div> -<div class="i1">The souls of both the good folk did oppress,</div> -<div>And on the earth they lay down side by side,</div> -<div>And unto them it was as they had died.</div> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Yet did they know that o'er them hung the tree</div> -<div class="i1">Grown mighty, thick-leaved, on each bough did hang</div> -<div>Crown, sword or ship, or temple fair to see;</div> -<div class="i1">And therewithal a great wind through it sang,</div> -<div class="i1">And trumpet blast there was; and armor rang</div> -<div>Amid that leafy world, and now and then</div> -<div>Strange songs were sung in tongues of outland men.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>"It is something like that that I feel for any place—and perhaps now it -will be so for this and every place! It was such a blossom and now it is -such a tree. All hangs therein, peoples and nations, things past and -things to come! When I go away I shall find it so in any place."</p> - -<p>"That is what you will do—and I also. Everywhere that Tree, that Man, -that God!"</p> - -<p>The vale widened at the overseer's house. The sycamore by the river -stretched in the sun its great arms of white and brown, and these and -the blue vault made a pattern. A dozen turkeys crossed the path in a -stately, slow-stepping procession. Mary Carter was singing in the house, -and little Roger singing after her. As they approached the tree and the -bench<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> around it other voices reached them; then one voice reading -aloud. They saw the two Danes seated there—Frances, reading a letter. -"So I <i>did</i> travel with you and Mr. Dane. It was so wonderful—it is all -around me now! I don't clearly remember little, sharp bits of it, but I -remember the whole. It has shown me a lot of things. I don't any longer -mind living. It's funny, but father, too—"</p> - -<p>Frances looked up as Curtin and Anna stepped under the tree. Bright -tears stood in her eyes. She shook them away and smiled at the two. -"It's a letter from the crippled boy I told you about—"</p> - -<p>The four walked back to Sweet Rocket House. "Robert and I have but a -week longer. But this place tempers the wind of the whole year. It drops -honey into winter days."</p> - -<p>Curtin asked Robert Dane, "Forth from here you go on with the work you -are doing?"</p> - -<p>"Of course. That is a department of this. But I wish to work without -bitterness or violence."</p> - -<p>The day shone about them. Rain of the night had brought into late autumn -a sense of spring. Spring and autumn seemed to touch across shortened -winter. The air held a divine, sweet freshness. They were aware of new -life, and all objects of perception tossed back vigor and luster.</p> - -<p>"The world renews—the world renews!" sang the river.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p><p>A little later Robert and Frances Dane at their window saw, coming up -from the river, a somewhat worn automobile. Stopping before the porch -the driver and owner descended and mounted the steps. "There's an old -type!" said Robert. "Tall and thin, black clothes and soft hat, low -collar and string tie, white hair, mustache and imperial—look, Frances, -it's a picture! Once it was the horse, and he swung himself down—then -the carriage, and at the door he helped out the ladies. Now it's the -car. To-morrow he will descend from the airship—just like that!"</p> - -<p>She looked over his shoulder. "It's old Major Hereward from Oakwood. He -was here four years ago, that time I came alone. He's all the past! But -that car's symbolic, too. He's all the past beginning to say, 'For all -my fighting I begin to find myself, with all I care for, here in the -present—perhaps also in the future!' He's beginning to think that it -may be so with the airship. There with all that he really, really cares -for! 'I always said that they couldn't get along without me, and now I -begin to see that neither can I get along without them!'"</p> - -<p>Major Hereward appeared at the dinner table. It seemed that he, too, was -a cousin of Linden's, on the other side from the Danes. His place was -Oakwood, twenty miles away. Old Major Linden and he had been boyhood -friends. He breathed knowledge of Sweet Rocket in ancient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> days. His -manner to Marget was delightful, though perhaps he still held in -comparison, in a "this—that," Sweet Rocket House and the overseer's -house. His manner to all was delightful—like old wine.</p> - -<p>Robert Dane pondered that, and also Frances's words of the morning. Like -others, he could speak as though the past, the present, and the future -were islands with nothingness between. But truly he knew it was not so, -and he assumed that much self-knowledge in those to whom he spoke. Now -he had it, in a flash of vision, how the old wine and wheat, how the old -strength of man and woman, did go on. All within the whole flashed and -changed. But the whole held all. The tangential itself only went so far, -then returned, and was met and welcomed. <i>The prodigal son.</i> He saw that -contrary winds were not so contrary after all. "In the whole, and in the -whole only, I am not contrary to him nor he to me. In the end one sail -and one wind—and the sail due to arrive and the wind favorable."</p> - -<p>That afternoon Major Hereward walked over the place; with him, Linden -and Curtin. "I came to talk to you about something, Richard. But we'll -leave it till night. I can always pull things together better -then—after the day. Here's the oak Phil Linden and I planted the day we -heard of First Manassas! He was eighteen and I was sixteen. The next -year we both went in."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p><p>They stood beneath the tree. Said Curtin, "Much water has gone over the -wheel since then!"</p> - -<p>Major Hereward nodded. "Much! But Phil Linden and I seem to stand here -together. Not just of the mind we were, but together! <i>And many a foe -grew to be a friend.</i>"</p> - -<p>The bright day declined. The sun set in a coral sea, a crescent moon -appeared, earth grew an amethyst, the stars came out. Brush was being -burned and wood smoke clung in the air, and there was the multitudinous -chirping, chirping in grass and bush of late autumn. It was almost -November, and they built larger fires. The old parlor gleamed.</p> - -<p>"It's a dear room, a dear, dear room!" said Major Hereward. "I don't -believe any here can love these portraits as I do. Richard may look at -them often, but—" He broke off. "I forgot that he is blind! I'm always -forgetting it! Well, he may see the reality of them."</p> - -<p>Richard entered, and a moment later Marget. "It's a night of the gods! -How the fire leaps!"</p> - -<p>They sat around it, Anna Darcy and Curtin and Drew and the two Danes and -Major Hereward, Linden and Marget. Anna Darcy was saying: "I went down -to Mimy's before supper. The preacher is there for the night—Brother -Robinson."</p> - -<p>Linden answered her. "Yes. He will be here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> presently. He always comes -to us for an hour or so. He's a fine fellow."</p> - -<p>Rising, he fetched Frances's violin. "What deep and dear pleasure you -give, Frances!"</p> - -<p>She played old music and new, into which the old glided, until there -seemed neither old nor new, but a content very vast and rich. The wing -of the music lifted them; music and flame blended. They sat in reverie, -and the wealth of the world flowed, circularly flowed.</p> - -<p>Without, in the night, a lantern passed the windows. "There is Brother -Robinson," said Marget. Richard went out—they heard his voice in the -hall—then he returned with the negro preacher and Zinia. He said, "Mr. -Robinson—friends, all of us!" The circle widened. The preacher sat down -between Linden and Robert Dane, and Zinia sat between Marget and -Frances. "Play a little longer, Frances!"</p> - -<p>The music blended with the flame, the wealth of the world flowed, -flowed, circularly flowed. The Rev. William Robinson sat, a gaunt, dark -figure, in long-preserved broadcloth, with a rugged, deep brown face. -When he spoke his voice had unction—like the voices of most of his -people—unction, but not too much of it. By sheer indomitableness he had -gained a fair education, and he was a good man and a wise one. In her -blue dress Zinia sat beside Marget Land. She kept silence, but her poise -was like her poise in the dining room and pantry, or on the porch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> when -Miss Darcy had taken her breakfasts there. The latter always thought of -her standing beside the pillar, or in the clean, airy pantry, by the jar -of flowers and the open <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>, always heard her rich -voice, saying, "I like that girl Mercy!"</p> - -<p>It seemed that Robert Dane had met Brother Robinson before this at Sweet -Rocket. When the violin was put by the two talked together a little, as -folk might talk who liked each other. Curtin, from his corner, watched -with interest Sweet Rocket in Virginia. A voice from somewhere went -through his head: <i>Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision -nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is -all and in all</i>. He looked at Major Hereward, and the old man, who had -stiffened at the "Mr. Robinson" and the seating in the circle about the -fire, seemed now to rest at ease, in a brown study, as one who regards -the expanse of things.</p> - -<p>Miss Darcy spoke. "At Mimy's this afternoon you had begun to tell me of -the building of your church and schoolhouse down the river. Then they -called me and I had to go—"</p> - -<p>"Tell them now, brother," said Linden.</p> - -<p>Brother Robinson told, and what he told had humor and pathos and -heroism. There passed, as upon a screen, the littles gathered that were -much to spare, quaint efforts at money raising, labor at twilight and -dawn given by laboring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> men, the women's extra work and their festivals. -Brother Robinson was a born raconteur. Into the sheaf of his homely -narrative fell vast swaths of human effort and aspiration. "And Brother -Linden helped us, and old Mr. Morrowcombe gave us five dollars."</p> - -<p>A voice came from the corner of the hearth, from Major Hereward: "I'd -like to help you, too, Brother Robinson! Put me down for ten dollars."</p> - -<p>They left the material building of the schoolhouse and the church. Said -Brother Robinson: "I've got something else I want to tell you. I've had -an Experience, and it's taken the heart out of my bosom and crumbled it -between its fingers and put in a new one! I came to Sweet Rocket to tell -it to you, Mr. Linden. But I don't see anyone here that I'd be afraid to -tell it to."</p> - -<p>"There isn't any such," said Linden. "Tell it!"</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XVIII</h2> - -<p>"I was going to preach," said Brother Robinson, "at Piny Hill Church, -that's twelve miles from Old Lock, where I live. I started out Saturday -afternoon to walk, counting on a lift or two on the road, and I got -them. I was going to sleep at Will Jones's, who works at the mill on -Piny Creek. The first lift I got was from a wagon full of hay going to -Cherry Farm. That was two miles. Then I walked three miles. Then a Ford -came along and said, 'Hey, Brother Robinson, are you going as far as -Llewellyn?' I said that I was, and farther, and the Ford took me to -Llewellyn. That didn't leave but four miles to do, and that was nothing. -So I was a-walking, and the leaves hung red and yellow, and the evening -was powerful sweet! I went through the woods by the Thessaly place. I -was thinking as I was walking. And then, just like that, Mr. Linden, -thinking with words stopped! My old body stopped, too. I just lowered it -under a cedar tree and left it there.</p> - -<p>"But I myself went higher and wider. I was everywhere and all over! I -was in and through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> everything! They were just shapes in me. It was like -being air, or like that inside air you told me about, called ether. You -told me about that, but when you told it I hadn't experienced, and so it -was just words. Now I have experienced. Everything was right here and -now, or there and then, it didn't matter a mite which!</p> - -<p>"The first thing I felt was just infinite cleanness and coolness. It was -me and it was not me. If it was me it was something vast in me that had -got the upper hand. There was a me, a self, like a tired, dirty child. -To that me the other was God. But God turning out to be me, too. I had -preached about God for thirty years, but I never really tasted or -touched God till that day. It was cool and whole and pure, and bigger -than the sky. And it forgave all my sins, or it saw clean through them. -It saw a long way and all at once.... The tired and dirty me was -everybody else, too. It was me and it was everybody, and we were healed -by our God, and that was us, too, us, and more than we had ever dreamed -of in that us! It healed with its might, and the lower part understood -and went up.... I can't give you a description. It was awe and joy. The -little body of William Robinson couldn't have held it, but something -bigger than that held it. And then, just as light changes on the -mountains here—when you are on top of Rock Mountain maybe, and see -everything below you—and it's all there, but it's got another tone and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> -you feel it in a different way—just so that cool awe and greatness -changed a little. It was joy still, but now it was friendly and natural. -It was the whole earth looking like a garden, and all mine, all me, and -in that me was all I had ever thought was you or him or her, and all -that I had ever said was it. The bird and the beast were there, the -trees and the grass and the air. And it was lovely; it was just love, -and beauty!" He brushed his hand across his eyes. "I can't tell you -about that beauty. And we weren't dead; all was living. If you'll think -of the very best moment you ever had, when you were deepest friends with -yourself and found that it took in everybody, it might be something like -that a million times over. It was innocent and wise. And all the times -that I'd ever thought I was happy were just plain misery beside it! I -couldn't hold it, any more than a young robin can hold the flight he -will hold after a while. I reckon we're all fledglings! Back I flopped -toward William Robinson. Here was old Virginia, and the woods and the -road and the hills and the mountains, and Old Lock, and Piny Hill -Church. But just before I settled in I got for just a minute this very -country and our daily life in the light and the glow and the music and -the wonder! All that was fair kept in and strengthened, and all that was -unfair just melted out! I knew then that though we talk about it we -haven't begun to love our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> country. It went, too, into the world. 'For -God so loved the world.' ... Well, that vanished, too. I was back. I was -just the colored preacher, William Robinson. I was back, but I could -remember! I've touched what it's like to be God."</p> - -<p>He ceased speaking, and sat bent toward the fire. A little of that -luminousness of which he had told seemed to show through his flesh, a -dark translucence. He said, under his breath, "'Little children, love -one another!'" and rested silent, in communion with the flame.</p> - -<p>"'For all we are members one of another.' Feeling that," said Linden, -"is to feel as One. Then the One no longer counts as separate his -members. He says I <span class="smaller">AM</span>."</p> - -<p>Stillness held in the old room. The fire gave it crimson and amber life -and warmth. The canvases on the walls, the pictured men and women, -seemed self-luminous. Major Hereward spoke abruptly: "Where are the -dead? Where are my brother Dick, my son Walter, my mother and father?"</p> - -<p>"They are here. Re-member yourself and you shall find them."</p> - -<p>"Where is heaven?"</p> - -<p>"It is here, the moment you begin to perceive it."</p> - -<p>"You mean that you perceive the dead, Richard?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Do not you?"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p><p>The old man stared. He drew a long breath. "Never before did I think -that I did!"</p> - -<p>Robert Dane spoke. "You mean that as the Great Consciousness expands it -becomes aware of itself there, too? That that realm becomes open?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Discovery there is within the grasp of our age. It is not so far -away as many might think! As Power comes through. The 'dead' and the -'living' do meet. They have met all the time. The general recognition -and use of the fact is to be strengthened, developed."</p> - -<p>"It is not the only recognition and use of Oneness impending!"</p> - -<p>"By no means! No. In every field there is ripening corn. How should it -not be so?"</p> - -<p>Major Hereward's voice came in again. "'The spiritual sense of the -dead.' I've heard that phrase. I didn't know what it meant. Do you mean -that when I seem to myself to move about in company with Dick, when -things come into my mind that he knew about or that we did together, -when I seem, as I go on, to understand his character better and better, -and to see life as he did, when he seems here with me or when we are -just happy together in old places—that it's <i>true</i>? And Walter and my -mother and father and Helen and others—oh, scores of others—they enter -my mind and heart just as though they came in at a door! Do you mean -that when I think of them suddenly and strongly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> feel them as it were, -that <i>they</i> are doing part of it, that there <i>is</i> intercourse? Good -Lord! I thought it was only myself!"</p> - -<p>"I mean that," said Linden. "It will grow to be more than that. A -higher, fuller thing than that."</p> - -<p>The old man rose. Face and voice showed emotion. "I've got what I came -for. God bless you, Richard, and God bless you, too, Brother Robinson! -Oh, we've been little! Marget, I'll say good night, my dear. Out of my -life goes fear and loneliness!"</p> - -<p>Brother Robinson likewise, with Zinia, rose to say good night. "I'll see -you in the morning," said Richard. "I want to talk to you about the -school."</p> - -<p>That night Curtin, also, increased his sense of life, life that included -those that were said to be dead. There had been no repetition of the -hour when, lying in the room where now slept Robert and Frances Dane, he -had touched with an inward sense that brother who had fallen from the -aeroplane, who had been jostled out of the body, but who lived! Surely -the life was not quite that of the old life, though surely built from -that; certainly Curtin might not fully understand until he, too, slipped -the body. Yet there was life and living. He had not experienced that -hour again, and he had tried doubting if he had ever experienced it. But -doubt did not prove to be a going proposition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> Memory smiled it down. -Yet the experience had not been repeated, or rather what had come had -diffused itself in the wide awakening of these Sweet Rocket weeks. Nor -did its distinctive <i>klang</i> return to-night. There was not the same -white keenness. That which beamed about him now was more like that which -Marget had spoken of on the summerhouse steps. Not one now, but many of -his dead; not the human only, but the flower and the tree, the bird and -the beast, the scene, the water, land and sky. "The old and sweet is -here, but chosen, redeemed, gathered up, understood, become immortal! -And we have had it all the time. It has been here all the time! Just as -we had electricity and did not know it."</p> - -<p>He fell asleep, rocked by the waves of a sunny sea of love and home and kindred.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XIX</h2> - -<p>Major Linden spent two days at Sweet Rocket, chiefly sitting upon the -porch in the sunshine or walking about the place, sometimes in company, -sometimes alone, but never, Curtin noticed, with an old man's look of -loneliness, though he thought that at times before this Major Hereward -would have shown that loneliness. But now there was vigor in him, vigor -and interest and life. "If they are here, living for me as I for them, -talking to me and I talking to them—it is the strangest thing what life -does when it comes!" His laughter had a clear and happy ring. "I had -thought of all kinds of solutions! And here it is, the needle threaded, -while I was still looking for it in the haystack!" He stood beneath the -oak he had planted almost sixty years ago. "Phil is here. Trying, wasn't -it, Phil, when I said, 'Oh, fancy!' or, 'It's just Wilmot Hereward -talking to himself!'"</p> - -<p>When he met Linden on the porch he said: "Richard, if it's so with those -folk whom we so promptly insisted hadn't any reality in them, isn't it -so all over? When I'm pondering Bob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> who's in England, or when I'm -thinking of nothing in particular and in he walks into mind and -affection—"</p> - -<p>"Yes. It is part of the same truth. It all rests on the oneness of -Being. That is why you must in some wise grasp that Oneness first. A -time will come where there will be no saying 'My brother Dick,' or 'Bob -in England,' because they and Wilmot Hereward and all others will have -advanced beyond all such divisions. But on the road there you will meet -many a fair power!"</p> - -<p>The old man went the next morning back to Oakwood in his battered car. -He went alone and not alone, with a peaceful face.</p> - -<p>In the afternoon Anna and Curtin, Drew and the two Danes, walked down -the river, in among the partly forested, partly grassy hills that here -closed the valley. Indian summer had now stolen over the land. The air -hung smoky amethyst, and still as still! No motion was in the fallen -leaves, the birds sailed stilly by, the stubble fields dreamed, the -river sang low. Wood smoke clung in the nostril. Turning, coming -homeward, the brick house and yellowed pillars stood pictured. They -passed through the orchard and by a small cider mill. Zinia, on the back -porch, poured for each out of an amber pitcher an amber glassful. -"<i>Was-hael!</i>" said Drew, and lifted the glass. Curtin caught from memory -the answering phrase,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> "<i>Drink-hael!</i>" A shaft of wonder, like a gleam -of light, touched them all with strange fingers. Something trembled in -the air. If it said aught it said, "So Earth begins to <i>live</i> Poetry!" -Drew set down the cup with a sharp, clear sound. "Life, everlasting -life!" he said. "I see it now! We have always lived!"</p> - -<p>Again evening in the old parlor, the fire and music, Tam lying beside -Linden, Marget seated by Anna Darcy. Robert Dane spoke. "This finding -ourselves in all and all in us, this lifting the all into a mighty I, -this is it behind the slowly accelerating movements of the ages, behind -all efforts for freedom, for knowledge, for interchange and intercourse, -swifter and swifter, subtler and subtler intercourse—this is it?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Behind a hundred shapes of dawn."</p> - -<p>"Effort does not cease?"</p> - -<p>"No. But effort, too, is finer and far more powerful. You act now from -within upon the within."</p> - -<p>"To touch through and through that we are one! Hercules's labor isn't in -it!"</p> - -<p>"Yet it is done and to be done. Find me if you can an individual to-day -who has not some dim perception of it, or who is not in some wise acting -toward it! Even the most unpromising—look and you will see! It is so -tremendous, that finding, it runs through every fiber. We can cut out no -pattern, but we move from light to light, from love to love!"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p><p>In her room that night, when she had put out the lamp, Anna Darcy, -lying in bed, watched the firelight on wall and ceiling. A cricket -chirped, she could hear the river. Her visit to Sweet Rocket was ending. -"Only it will never end; it is immortal within me!"</p> - -<p>She saw how all life interlocked, how shock to one was taken up by the -whole, how joy to one thrilled through all. "What we call space is -Being; what we call time is our own Story, our colored, toned -lastingness! Give and take, forever and forever, forever and forever! -Find lovely things to give, and from the other side of us take lovely -things, lovelier and lovelier! Know thyself—know thyself—know Thyself. -'If ye do it unto one, the least of these, ye do it unto Me.' 'And all -we made One.'"</p> - -<p>The walls of the room disappeared. Anna Darcy, a slight, worn, teaching -woman, sixty years old, vanished or altered. There was wide life, land -and sea, deep life that did not talk in births and deaths, lofty life -that said, "Better than this wave even, shall you know!"</p> - -<p>It was Strength, it was Peace, it was Wisdom and Balm.</p> - -<p>Across the hall Robert Dane lay thinking. In his youth he had the -passion of a Shelley for a regenerate world. Older, the vision dulled, -and yet he worked on doggedly, heroically, one with thousands of others -breaking and making a road for the feet of Coming Man. He worked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> -heroically, never sparing himself, a devoted life. Sometimes the gleam -shone fair before him, oftener mists made it faint, sometimes he lost -it. Then it shone again. He worked on. To-night, lying here at Sweet -Rocket, his youth came back, but higher, fuller, wiser! He saw what -might be done, what was doing. He saw the interrelated roads and the -travelers upon them, the hosts of travelers. A vision came to him in the -night. His body lay very still, but he himself saw clearly a great -thing.</p> - -<p>There was a City that was country also, and sea and land and sky, that -was a world, harmonious, great, not a dead thing, not unintellectual, -but living, living with a vast fervor and beauty and interest and -knowledge, throwing out even, it might be, silver lines toward a world -yet more light, more fervent, more living! But it was there, all that he -could now image of body and spirit, mind and soul's desire:</p> - -<p>He saw like a pale film another city that was pale and sorrowful to -this. And he saw that city, as it were, send out itself, by rivers and -seas and roads, thousands and thousands of paths, upon a journey to the -other. There was hardly a point—truly he thought there was not any -point—that did not travel. So many living beings, so many ships or -rafts, caravans or solitary travelers to that Desired Haven! All going, -some ahead, some behind, but all going. The pale and sorrowful city was -<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>moving into that other, and brightening as it moved. That other was -drawing it, steadily, steadily! He felt it like a loadstone; he felt it -like a mother calling home.</p> - -<p>The vision passed, but there was left Assurance. He lay still in the -starry night. The mind kept up an underhumming with words like -"reintegration," "superconsciousness," but the spirit dealt only with -the bliss of a great coming to itself. He slept at last, and his sleep -was dreamless and profoundly renewing.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XX</h2> - -<p>"It is the flowering land, it is the music land. You go to it through -every moment and incident and encounter of the day. You read, and it is -behind the words. You think, and it smiles through. It is the Higher Us -that resolves the discords and reaps the fields. Experience it once, and -it is miracle and wonder; experience it twice, and you say, 'Columbus -was not the only discoverer!' Experience it thrice, and you work for it -day and night! You yourself, drawing yourself out of the old man and the -old house. Read 'The Chambered Nautilus.'"</p> - -<p>"It is religion—"</p> - -<p>"It always has been Religion."</p> - -<p>"And the gloom and storm of our day?"</p> - -<p>"It is <i>not</i> gloom, it is <i>not</i> storm. It is the pains of growth. Feel -the epic and voyage that it is!... Every proper and general noun in all -dictionaries now and to come is my name, as it is yours. Every verb is -my doing, as it is yours. The use of language, use and <i>dis</i>-use, is -mine as it is yours—"</p> - -<p>They were walking in the orchard beneath the apple trees, whose leaves -were slow to fall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> There had been, this morning, a heavy frost. The -garden flowers were going, the creeper over Mimy's house had shed its -scarlet leaves, but held its dark-blue berries. The heavens hung a blue -crystal. The air had the cool of mountain water.</p> - -<p>It was the day when Anna Darcy must leave Sweet Rocket. After dinner -Daniel and the phaeton and Marget would take her to Alder to the -north-going train. Now, with Marget, she went the round of the place, -saying good-by. They had been to Mimy's, and had talked to Mancy at the -barn. "Come again!" said Mancy. "But you ain't really going, you know! -Sweet Rocket will hold you, and you'll hold Sweet Rocket."</p> - -<p>They came by the kitchen. Mimy was singing:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"Swing low, sweet chariot,</div> -<div>Coming for to carry me home—"</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>"You gwine back inter the troubled world?" said Mimy. "They say hit's -awful! But, Lord! there ain't any bars ter trouble! I've seen a lot."</p> - -<p>They walked up the river to the overseer's house, where they were made -welcome by Mary Carter and small Roger, and by old Mr. Morrowcombe, who -was staying over from Sunday, which was yesterday. He said, much as -Mancy had said: "I'm sorry you are going! But thar! You ain't going in -the old, harsh ways."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p><p>Marget, sitting beside him on the step of the porch, rested her arm -upon his knee. Her brown, slender hand touched his great horny one. -"Grandfather Morrowcombe!" she said. He answered her: "I see you as a -nine-year-old, Marget, and I see you as a woman in Sweet Rocket Valley, -and I see you as something that stands above child and woman. It isn't -any more big than it is subtle-fine. It's puzzling to find words. But -when I look at you and think of you I seem to hear the air stirring over -the whole world. All kinds of things that I had forgotten, and all kinds -of things that I have read...."</p> - -<p>She and Anna sat for five minutes under the sycamore by the water. -Returning then to Sweet Rocket, they walked in the garden that was -making ready for winter. As it happened, Mrs. Cliff came this day down -mountain to borrow some sugar. She sat on the steps of the back porch, -in the violet light of November. "Howdy!" she said to Miss Darcy. "I'm -glad you stayed on. When I come here I want to stay on, too. But thar! I -take the memory of it up to my home. You wouldn't think how often thar -I'm here, too!"</p> - -<p>To-day she had a braided rug to sell, and Marget bought it. Mrs. Cliff's -long, wrinkled hand put the money in her pocket. "Times isn't betterin' -any, Miss Marget."</p> - -<p>Marget laughed. "Oh, the poor old times!"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p><p>It startled Anna Darcy, too, so joyous and care-free and lilting was -the voice. Mrs. Cliff stared at her. The mountain woman's face was not -what one would call a cheerful one. Whoever was behind it was caught in -a network of fine, anxious lines. Now these held for a perceptible -moment, then faded as though the twine were mist. That one immortally -youthful and insouciant looked forth as it had looked from Marget. Sun -came out over meadow, plain, and hill, and Mrs. Cliff laughed. "I reckon -you're right, Miss Marget! You generally are. I reckon we've seen so -much that we can afford to take it tranquil—which ain't to say that -we're either do-less or keerless!"</p> - -<p>She spoke to Anna. "You remember my tellin' you about that feeling I -had? I 'ain't had it full again. But I've caught glimpses of it, maybe -in the day, maybe in the night. I know the minute when anything like it -comes my way. When you've had a feeling like that all your life's set to -feeling it again."</p> - -<p>But Marget had taken it joyously.</p> - -<p>When Mrs. Cliff had said good-by and gone mountainward the two, crossing -the pleasant porch, entered the house. They walked from room to room, -Anna's consciousness gathering each. "Any time you may feel me here!"</p> - -<p>"We shall feel you here all the time."</p> - -<p>They stood in the study, against the broad mantelshelf. "At first, when -I thought of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> room, I thought, 'Richard Linden's study.' But it is -of and for and to both of you."</p> - -<p>"Ah yes! To both."</p> - -<p>She seemed to give forth light. Anna thought, "Is it only the sun -shining on her?"</p> - -<p>Later, in her own room, all packing done, dressed for her journey, Anna -went and sat beside the window as she had sat the first evening at Sweet -Rocket. She still heard Mimy singing, she still saw the garden, though -it was dreaming now of spring. "I have been here only a month, but in it -I have had years and years."</p> - -<p>The quiet room filled with a sunny stillness, an eternal assurance. -Again, as on that first evening, the mountains were here and the wind of -the sea was here. Love and wisdom and power were here.</p> - -<p>The boy Jim brought Daniel and the phaeton to the door below. Marget -came for her, and they went down, and through the hall to the porch, to -find there Linden and Curtin and Robert and Frances and Drew, and Zinia -and Mimy, and Mancy and Tam.</p> - -<p>Across the river, at the edge of the wood, Marget checked Daniel so that -Anna might look back and see the house again, the house and the trees -and the hills, and the holding arms of the mountains. "But you are to -come again," said Marget. "Never part, and come again!"</p> - -<p>"Yes, oh yes!"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p><p>The wheels turned and went on upon the Alder road. They entered the -forest, old forest, great trees that sloughed their leaves again and -again and again, through centuries past number, sloughed their leaves, -sloughed their old bodies, made soil, and stood upon it and builded -higher. Behind and in and through every stem and leaf rose the -subjective forest, and behind and in and through the whole the ideal, -the spiritual forest, the divine forest. Around and onward went the -wheels on the leafy road. Anna sat beside Marget. The two spoke little, -having now no great need of words. The light came down between bare -branches. Far and near branch and blue air made a marvel of lacework. -Against this pines and hemlocks stood like pyramids and pillars. Song -and twitter of a month ago was not now. "The birds go south—the birds -go south!" said Marget. "But there are enough left for winter company. -There is a bluebird on yonder bough!"</p> - -<p>Round went the wheels, making hardly a sound. The forest hung still, so -still. For one moment, to Anna Darcy, it all went away. It was <i>maya</i>, -illusion, the forest, Indian summer, this day of our Lord, the phaeton -and Daniel, Sweet Rocket and Alder and New York, Marget Land and Anna -Darcy. What was left was fullness of Being. Did it choose to analyze -itself it might be into Power, Wisdom, and Bliss. The revealing flash -went as it came, ere one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> could say, It lightens! <i>Maya</i> again, Marget -Land and Anna Darcy, Daniel and the phaeton, the forest, Sweet Rocket -and Alder and the train to be met. But each time the sheath thinned and -there was left stronger light.</p> - -<p>The train came, the friends embraced. Anna Darcy looked from window at -Marget and then at Alder, the fields and hills and rivers and mountains. -The train roared through a tunnel, and when it emerged the scenery was -changed. There were fields and mountains, but not these fields and -mountains. "And yet they run into those. There is no impassable wall nor -aching gulf. There are the finest gradations—"</p> - -<p>Marget and Daniel and the phaeton went homeward along the Alder road.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XXI</h2> - -<p>November rains wrapped Sweet Rocket. November winds rocked and bent the -trees. The world was gray, or iron-gray, with rust-hued streakings. -Indoors they built larger fires.</p> - -<p>It was five days after Anna's departure. Unless the storm held him -Curtin was going on the morrow. In January his profession would take him -abroad, to the nearer East. He could not tell when he would be -returning.</p> - -<p>"But Sweet Rocket goes with me!"</p> - -<p>"Just. As all the East and you flow here."</p> - -<p>"What kind of a general world are we coming into, Linden? What kind of a -political, social, economic world? I believe that, as to much of it, -Robert and Frances are far seeing. In the large, those changes are upon -us, and in the large they are for the better. They are built into the -road we are going. I agree, I welcome! But I would see more completely -if I could."</p> - -<p>Linden, in the cane chair by the study window, seemed to pay attention -to the storm. At last he spoke. "I cannot see in detail. I think there -will be a great simplification. Power out of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> thousand tortuous -channels mingling, running broad and deep! There are signs on every -side. The old banks crumble. The great sea lifts other continents."</p> - -<p>"I see everywhere how we are seeking."</p> - -<p>"Yes. The seeker finds, the finder seeks on, seeks farther. The great -ages are ever the seekers."</p> - -<p>"You would say it is a great age?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. A very great one. Who is not in some way aware of it? This -friction of opinion on the top is but the wildness of the outermost -leaves as the strong wind blows."</p> - -<p>"And wherever I go I shall find the seeking and the greatness?"</p> - -<p>"The world is One," said Linden.</p> - -<p>The storm continued. Sweet Rocket had early supper. Zinia and Mimy, with -raincoats and a huge umbrella, went by the swaying, chanting orchard to -their own fireside, to Sarah and Julia and Jim and Just So. The Danes -and Curtin and Drew, Linden and Marget, sat or moved about in the old -Sweet Rocket parlor. They might watch the storm from the windows, or -they might sit by the fire. The great wind blew through Sweet Rocket -Valley. They heard the stream rushing, and the trees had a voice, as -though they had taken foot out of ground and were now a herd. The rain -was driven against the panes, and the wind hurled dead leaves with the -rain. Wall and roof and glass shut out the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> physical rain, but the -psychical man cognized it far and near, rain since the world began. And -the fire also, and the warm room, and they in company listening to the -storm. The momentary outlines shifted. There fell a sense of having done -this times and times and times, a sense of hut and cave, so often, so -long, in so many lands, that there was a feel of eternity about it. Rain -and the cave and the fire, and the inner man still busied with his -destiny! There was something that awed in the perception that ran from -one to another, that held them in a swift, shimmering band. "How -old—how old! How long have we done this?"</p> - -<p>The rhythm of the storm, the rhythm of the room, the rhythm of the fire, -passed into a vast, still sense of ordered movement. "Of old, and now, -and to-morrow—everywhere and all time—until we return above time and -place, and division is healed."</p> - -<p>They felt a lightness, a detachment. The spirit soared with the mind and -made it look.</p> - -<p>"There is the natural man and there is the spiritual man. That last -finds himself in all selves, and all selves in him. There is the -spiritual man, and there is the divine man who works with power. Both -are words of inclusion. It is to leave the old small I for the spiritual -I, and it is to transcend the last and enter that which is above. Then -is left the shrunken pond for the ocean! Only we say it upside down. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> -is the ocean that overflows and drinks up the pond."</p> - -<p>"When God enters life there will still be said I?"</p> - -<p>"Otherwise, still pond and ocean, still separation! Who shall lose his -life here shall find it. But never sink to thinking that it is what in -the past we have meant when we said I! When God enters how shall he not -say I? But it is the ocean now that speaks! The pond is gone."</p> - -<p>They sat still, and the fire played and leaped.</p> - -<p>Through the night the rain beat and the wind blew, but at dawn it -cleared. There was wreckage about the world, but life laughed and took -her wreckage and built with it anew. Valley, hills, and mountains -gleamed like precious stones. Navies of clouds rode for a while, then -melted into the deep azure. The upper sea hung so calm and clear that -down through it to the earth bottom ran light that seemed intenser than -the light of every day.</p> - -<p>Curtin said good-by, and went. Marget and Linden drove him to Alder.</p> - -<p>The river ran swollen, the road lay deep in leaves, few leaves now on -the trees. The trees stood still in vast ranks. They seemed to be -holding something, to be turning it over in mind. There flashed across -Curtin, "Who lifts, all lifts."</p> - -<p>"Yes!" said Marget, beside him, as though he had spoken.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p><p>It was what he carried with him from this valley.</p> - -<p>Linden and Marget drove home through the wood. "How still it is! Barring -foot and wheel on the wet leaves you would say there was no stir. We are -passing pine trees. How fragrant!"</p> - -<p>"A bluebird is watching us from a maple. Now here is the great beech. It -holds its leaves, though they are brown and curled upon themselves like -cocoons. The ground underneath is clean and brown. A grapevine goes over -and up with those young trees. There are yet bunches of grapes and they -hang so still! There are brown loops for swings for all the forest -children, whether they be Indians or dryads and fauns."</p> - -<p>"I see them," said Linden, "all the graceful, tawny forest children!"</p> - -<p>"Here is the oak glade with the grass yet green far down it, to where -hangs the purple curtain. The outstanding great roots glisten, and the -moss holds the water drops. You see a long way. Yonder is tree trunk and -stone, light and shadow, that looks like a hermit's cell. It is an alley -for the whole Middle Ages to come riding down—for a paladin to come -riding down, the Red Cross Knight, or Guyon, or Galahad, or Parsifal—or -it might be Robin Hood in Lincoln green!"</p> - -<p>"I see."</p> - -<p>"Here are green brier and red dogwood berries,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> and witch-hazel with -dull gold fingers. Can you hear the water?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Three silver threads of it, like a lute!"</p> - -<p>"The day is a castle and a church, the day is a city and a star! Now we -pass the great rock and the two hemlocks, like cathedral spires. Here -are the little oaks, and there is a guess of crimson about them yet. The -birch and the hickory and the tall oaks, and the tops are far and fine -and melt into the sky—"</p> - -<p>They came down to the river, and crossed. "The light washes the pillars, -the cedars are little earth clouds. The arch of the sky has none, it -springs clear blue. Music of home!"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Music of home!"</p> - -<p>After supper, with Robert and Frances and Drew they watched the fire. -"Anna sends the city to us, and Curtin sends the rush of the train and -the flying scenery. As we send this place and this mood and this thought -to the city and the train!"</p> - -<p>The violin bow drew across the strings. Frances played, and love and -release filled the ancient room. The world entered into harmony.</p> - -<p>The next day rose gray pearl. Linden and Drew went with the woodcutters. -Marget sat at her typewriter in the study. Robert and Frances took a -long walk. Three days, and they, too, must go cityward. Now they walked -by the Alder road, and at the great pine took the Rock Mountain trail.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p><p>The pearly light filled the forest like a water. All sound lay subdued. -When a stone rolled underfoot it was not loudly; when a branch broke it -was with a slow, deliberate, musing voice. When they saw a wild thing, -the wild thing had no motion of flight, but pottered stilly on upon its -business of the time. "We are far away! We have crossed to another land. -It is as though we died, and this is the quiet ground where we take our -reckoning before we find another busy world. Oh, a busy world in each of -us, and a quiet land!"</p> - -<p>They rested upon a bowlder half sunken in brown leaves. "There is a -touch of eternity about this day.... Yet in five days how busy a world -for you and me!"</p> - -<p>"Yet I love that as I love this. How happy that we are so rich!"</p> - -<p>They sat still on the gray bowlder in the gray wood in the pearl-gray -air. Minutes passed. A bird flew across the path, a gray squirrel ran up -an oak. "Something is coming down the trail."</p> - -<p>The something proved to be a man on horseback. The intervening boughs, -branches, twigs, made him to be seen like a horseman behind a great -window filled with small, leaded panes. He came close, and, seeing them, -drew rein. "Good day!"</p> - -<p>"Good day!"</p> - -<p>"From Sweet Rocket?"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, from Sweet Rocket."</p> - -<p>"Do I speak to Mr. Linden? My name is Smith—Malcolm Smith from the -Reserve on Rock Mountain."</p> - -<p>Robert gave their names. Mr. Smith said: "Have you ever seen a stiller -day? It is one of the still days that set you on new action. I thought I -would ride over. I want to see Drew, and there is something else—"</p> - -<p>After a minute or two he addressed himself again to the path. "I'll go -on, as I have only this afternoon and to-night. I must get back to camp -to-morrow." He made no doubt, it might be noticed, of the hospitality of -Sweet Rocket. "I shall see you again?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. We shall turn presently."</p> - -<p>They watched him along the trail until, as the figure had entered, so it -vanished from the leaded window. They sat awhile longer in the -gray-pearl world, and then they rose and followed the horseman down to -Sweet Rocket.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XXII</h2> - -<p>Malcolm Smith and Drew had their talk, walking by the river in the -still, November dusk. Drew said: "I was glad to be on Rock Mountain, and -after a few months, if you will have me, I am going there again. But I -am glad that I came here. I am growing to see that it is not here nor -there, camp on mountain or Sweet Rocket, that a man goes to find -himself. But yet there are helpers.... There's a principle of induction, -don't you think, sir? Those who find start a wave of finding. The wave -caught them, too. There isn't any first or last."</p> - -<p>Turning, they saw fire gleaming through the window. "He says that we -(and when he says that he means the whole of us. When he says 'I' it is -the other word for 'we.' It is the Whole of the many) are growing fast -to-day. Sometimes he says Evolving Life, sometimes the Principle of -Integration, or the Great Synthesis. He may say Humanity Awake, or Going -Home, or Realizing Deity, or Liberation in God, or Becoming Real, or -Fulfilling Want, or Recollection, or Union, or the Eternal, Including -<i>SELF</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> or Love at Last. He seems to think that almost any phrase will -answer if you know the thing."</p> - -<p>Zinia's bell rang from the porch behind them. They went in to the -pleasant supper table, set with wholesome, delicate bread, and fragrant -coffee, cottage cheese, and baked apples and cream. The table talk was -merry this evening, after the dreamy day. Supper over, all walked out to -see the night, and found it clearing, with river banks of clouds and -stars between like lit craft sailing, sailing. The air breathed -exquisitely mild, warm to-night as early October. "Let us sit by the -river and watch awhile." They took capes and coats and went down to -where, before the cedars, was placed a long bench. Sitting here, though -no entire constellation was visible, yet they pieced out the figures.</p> - -<p>They sat in silence, watching the ships of the universe. At last said -the visitor: "I have been thinking a good deal about you down here by -this river, and about Drew, and of two or three things Mr. Curtin said -when he was at camp. So I came down. I have been thinking a good deal. -Look! there is Pleiades, a magic island in a sea. I have had my inklings -of the way currents arise in this world. Let's grant that it is a -universe of thought and will and feeling, and that, from ignoring as -much as we could that fact, and then from wondering about it, and then -from in some wise earning it, we begin to be it—"</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p><p>"Just," said Linden. "Well?"</p> - -<p>The other continued, "Once, when I was recovering from an illness, I -found or was found by—and I don't suppose the expressions matter—"</p> - -<p>"No. They are distinctions without a difference."</p> - -<p>"Once, then, I walked into a state of consciousness that transcended the -level that I had thought was the true level. I was there for it might be -five seconds of our time. But though again in mass we parted, there -remained an influence—like one of those rivers up there. The world has -never since been just the old world. But the main experience did not -repeat itself, though there have been times when I have met the shadows -of it. Until the other night. But I will come to that presently. Though -it was not repeated I have known ever since that there is a -consciousness as much above our usual one as the latter is above the -ape's. A consciousness that it is profoundly desirable to reach. Before -that moment I was like almost any European of say 1491. During it—for -that one minute—I was in America. After it, though I returned to -Europe, I could say, there is America!"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Just."</p> - -<p>"But I had fallen out of America and I could never get quite back, -though I often tried. And then the other night—"</p> - -<p>He broke off, and seemed to ponder the sky.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> "I rode over from Rock -Mountain because the other night I had, not that first experience again, -but one that was again in America—New America. From what I have heard I -felt certain that this place knows these experiences. I wanted to -compare, and be confirmed. So I rode over." He was speaking to Linden. -"I had meant to ask to talk with you alone, but I see that there is -nothing here that jars or makes it difficult. It's a good place, this -bench, with the river sounding, and the clouds and the stars."</p> - -<p>"There is just ourself here."</p> - -<p>"I was coming down from the top of Rock. I had had a still twenty -minutes there, watching the sunset. I had thought of nothing in -particular, only gathered rest. I was halfway down when this torrent -rose and overtook me. I stood still. I remember a pine tree, and beyond -that a great wash of sky. But I—I was in the torrent that now seemed -Ocean, and now seemed Air, and now was Fire. The combination called -Malcolm Smith was gone into that, like rain into sea or a candle flame -into sun. And yet—and that was the miracle of it—there was an I, only -it was oceanic, only it was the sun! It held in a sheaf, it sucked out -pith and marrow of all the small 'me's' in creation, and soared and -rang, an All-Person. But what are words? If I could give you that -sense—"</p> - -<p>"Perhaps you do. As long ago we developed gesture in order faintly to -understand and be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> at one, and then developed speech, so now the Will -within is propelling and the Will within is receiving these mightier -waves. I feel what you would give. Go on."</p> - -<p>"If I could find the words! I passed into a subtle consciousness that -went everywhere, and all our old time became space to it. There was -motion, as of all the winds of the world brought into one current—only -nor air nor fire is swift enough, vast enough! And yet you would say -'Quietude.' ... All the movements of our world penetrated, understood, -furthered—all the honey fields, all the bees, all the hives—and -Valhalla and Olympus and Paradise, where the honey is eaten! And it is -all a figure, but what will you have! I can but stammer. I have seen -home."</p> - -<p>He rose, and walked up and down beneath the cedars. "I talk about it so -calmly, and yet all that I ever believed or hoped, all that I ever -thought or felt or did, is babyhood to that! I am patient, and that -astonishes me; I who am back at Malcolm Smith!"</p> - -<p>"You are not wholly back. The rising pendulum swings, but now a great -part of you is above the old, lower range. And at the last not -anticipation, but reality, not light of home, but home!"</p> - -<p>The river sounded, the stars shone in the upper rivers with the cloud -banks. The clouds made rivers, but, the clouds dissolved, there were no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> -more rivers, but Ocean, but Space, but the Eternal Fire!</p> - -<p>"It is all I have to tell," said Smith. "It sank with long -reverberations, and there was the pine tree, and the camp below, and -Malcolm Smith."</p> - -<p>They sat in silence. At last, said Linden: "America is a term of -vastness. They who adventured there and arrived found all manner of -experience, but all in America. They sailed in many crafts—and yet in -the end all were as one ship, all being for America. They landed north -or south, in varying climes; they stayed by the sea or went toward the -mountains, but all in America. They met with great variety in adventure, -the land being so vast and so rich in might, but all was American -adventure.... So it is, I hold, with the New America, the New World now -lighting the horizon. It resounds and flames thus to this one, and thus -to the other one. But it resounds and flames. The Great Symphony takes -in all the music. Feel it as you can, know it as you can! In proportion -as you draw the breath of the All, comparisons become odious. You have -access as I have access. Enter by the door of your inner nature!"</p> - -<p>"A new man is born?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Everywhere. Including and transcending men. Men fading into Man, -men left behind. Man moving toward his full Consciousness. What in -prophecy we have called Christ."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p><p>They watched the clouds and the stars, and they saw, each of them, a -new Country that was fair and strong and keen and glowing....</p> - -<p>At last they rose and went back to the house, and by the fire listened -to the violin.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> - -<h2>XXIII</h2> - -<p>Day rose in sapphire, tranquil, pure, still and sunny, white smoke going -straight up from morning fires. Malcolm Smith, mounting his horse, -turned again to his mountain. Sweet Rocket bade him good-by, but Linden -and Marget said, "All who come together in this consciousness part no -more!"</p> - -<p>"I believe that."</p> - -<p>He rode away, and in the afternoon was back with his work. But the inner -eye might view, between mountain and Sweet Rocket, a shimmering, -ethereal highway, a nerve, as it were, thrown from space to space, -joining and making one.</p> - -<p>Robert and Frances and Marget, on this last day of the Danes' visit, -walked to the hill with the solitary tree atop. The sapphire day -continued, quiet and sunny, the air being of an extreme fineness charged -with light. Far and near the mountains made a cup of amethyst. Fields -and hillsides at hand were a lighted umber. They saw long rows of -stacked corn, and in the meadows hayricks. Beyond the orchard they made -out the steep roof of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> great barn. There were corn and wheat for the -mill, there were stored apples. In the wood below them they heard the -woodman's ax.</p> - -<p>"I can see," said Robert Dane, "I can see that Humanity is mastering its -own organism. I see that it is lifting toward Unitary Consciousness. -Here, now, in this present year as in past years, each year now with -greater momentum. Reaction and recoil, of course—but back again, and -farther! Everywhere shows the swift inter-approach. All over, all -through, America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the islands of -the sea. The revolutions of our day are woven of it. We are leaving -separation and partialness, fortress and dungeon."</p> - -<p>"Yes. All our 'movements' rush into the one. All our vortices approach -with a fearful joy the Great Vortex. The Correlation will be -established, the Summation made. We go to join and strengthen the -Ancient Heavens. The Ancient of Days draws and redeems and fuses and -Ones another layer of his being. Faster and faster our age begins to see -what is happening. The language men use to describe it does not so much -matter. The poet names it Life, Beauty, and Joy; the scientific man says -Knowledge and Use; the philosopher says Energy and Substance in -conscious union; the Hindu says the <i>SELF</i>; our peoples say God.... All one."</p> - -<p>They came to the hilltop and stood to look about them. "There is such -joy!" went on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> Marget. "Pain and pleasure outgrown, now blooms the joy! -'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.' The -being found and the finding. One after another lays hand upon that -world, clings, braces himself, draws himself up and over and finds the -manna lying around him. Joy, wisdom and power! and the taste of them but -begun. Possession still to be possessed—forever and forever!"</p> - -<p>They sat beneath the tree and all around sprang the valley and the -mountains and Virginia and the world. "Alive—deathlessly alive! The -valley and the mountains, Virginia and the world!"</p> - -<p>Frances spoke. "I know a woman who speaks in the terms of the East. Is -it the Principle of Sensibility—the Buddhic plane?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Atma is yet to arrive. What we see is the light before his face. -When he fully comes that is the Day of the Lord. What all work has been -toward, all toil, all hoping. As Atma rises in us—as Christ rises in -us—comes newer and richer life, fuller and fuller, inner powers and -principalities, thrones and dominions, and their objective garments. But -when <span class="smcap">we are the Lord</span>—I know not! There is Light there that is as -darkness to us yet."</p> - -<p>The exquisite valley heightened its values throughout, became richer. -The mountains around hung in the eye like the Delectable Mountains.</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p><p>"If one grows, all things and all places grow with that one?"</p> - -<p>"Inevitably so! The wealth is for all."</p> - -<p>"The new consciousness that we feel is a pale film to what will be?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. A borderland, the islands fringing the New World. But such as it -is it wipes out the old, blind, scattered, little consciousnesses. To -what shall be felt and shall be known it is the one leaf of green, it is -the olive leaf that the dove brings. But before us are enormous growth, -strange and fair adventure, work, joy, love—"</p> - -<p>Through the air they felt the ether, through the sunlight they felt the -Great Sun. Light and warmth came to them from the Sun behind the sun. It -touched, it passed, but each time it came they strengthened.</p> - -<p>That night by the fire they sat in silence that was full and rich and -understanding. "To-morrow night, here at Sweet Rocket, just Richard and -Marget and Drew—and all the rest of us!"</p> - -<p>The next day dawned, and still it was Indian summer. Robert and Frances -went from place to place, as had gone Curtin and Anna Darcy, saying -farewell. "We wish and hope to bring our bodies here again next year. -But if that is not done, still, still, still we shall have Sweet Rocket!"</p> - -<p>"You have access now to all places and times<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> and peoples. You are -through the gate, you two! All your good dreams now will come true. If -not in this way then in that. Every dream that does no injury to the -Whole."</p> - -<p>Richard and Marget, Daniel and the phaeton, took them to Alder. The -still forest was clothed to-day in purple. For much of the way silence -held within the phaeton as without. But it was the silence that Anna -Darcy had early noted. It was rhythmic, it was thronged, it was fused -and made into the richest solitude.</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>"But such a tide as moving seems asleep,</div> -<div class="i1">Too full for sound or foam,</div> -<div>When that which drew from out the boundless deep</div> -<div class="i1">Turns again home."</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Now and then they spoke. Once Robert said, abruptly, "And all the effort -of the world is to stand and grow in grace?"</p> - -<p>"Just. All the effort. Everywhere! Whether it be stone or plant or -animal or man or over-man. And where the Emerging Character is so mighty -none is to despise his brother's path or rate of speed. Once it was his -own. Everything has been and is our own. Work! but who hates or despises -halts and weakens the effort."</p> - -<p>"But work!"</p> - -<p>"Yes, steadily. In all realms. 'What thy hand findeth to do, do with thy -might.' What thy judgment findeth to do. The other name of Lubber Land -was Good Enough."</p> - -<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p><p>They came to Alder with its churches and sere gardens lying in violet -light. Here was the little station—in a few moments they heard the -train.</p> - -<p>"Good-by!"</p> - -<p>"Good-by!"</p> - -<p>Frances and Robert looked through the car window. The platform had men, -women, and children upon it. Two or three arriving travelers found -friends to meet them; there were the workers about the station and the -loafers, with country folk and village folk brought by some business, -and in the throng Richard Linden and Marget Land. Just the usual village -station. Then all of it sprang into light, into music, into -significance, into importance. The train moved. There was a cry of -"Good-by! Come again!" All seemed to enter into it, to cry it out.</p> - -<p>The houses went by, the village street, the hills, the river, and all, -all, and this train upon which they found themselves had color and music -and significance and importance.</p> - -<p>"The I that says of every living thing, 'It is I,' says it and means it -and understands it and proceeds to live from it, says it of the total -objective, and so takes the objective up into the Subject—that I is -over the verge of the old into the New—"</p> - -<p>The hills went by, the river gleamed.</p> - -<p>Marget and Richard traveled homeward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> through the purple forest. To-day -they hardly used the outer voice. The blind man sat with a smile upon -his lips as though he saw, with such a face as could only have come from -much seeing. The woman, too, sat still, the body relaxed, the spirit -gleaming in the soul. Daniel drew them through the forest; nor did -Daniel, either, lack some sense of growth, dim belief in a higher world, -dim will to reach it. Below Daniel the forest felt that, and below the -forest the rock. The utter stream of pilgrims—</p> - -<p class="center space-above">THE END</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sweet Rocket, by Mary Johnston - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET ROCKET *** - -***** This file should be named 56101-h.htm or 56101-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/1/0/56101/ - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Sweet Rocket - -Author: Mary Johnston - -Release Date: December 1, 2017 [EBook #56101] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET ROCKET *** - - - - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - -SWEET ROCKET - - - - -BOOKS BY -MARY JOHNSTON - -SWEET ROCKET -MICHAEL FORTH -FOES -SIR MORTIMER - -HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK - -ESTABLISHED 1817 - - - - -SWEET ROCKET - -_by_ -MARY JOHNSTON - -AUTHOR OF -"SIR MORTIMER" "MICHAEL FORTH" -"TO HAVE AND TO HOLD" "FOES" ETC. - -[Illustration: Logo] - -Harper & Brothers Publishers -New York and London - - -SWEET ROCKET - -Copyright, 1920, by Mary Johnston -Printed in the United States of America -Published October, 1920 - - - - -SWEET ROCKET - - - - -I - - -The woman driving turned the phaeton from the highway into a narrow -road. Almost immediately the forest through which they had been passing -for a mile or more deepened. It was now a rich woodland, little cut, -seldom touched by fire. Apparently the road knew little use. Narrow and -in part grass-grown, soft from yesterday's rain, dimmed by many trees, -now it bent and now it ran straight, a dun streak, cut always in front -by that ancient, exquisite screen of bough and leaf. The highway dropped -out of sight and mind. The woman to whom this countryside was new, -sitting beside the woman driving, drew a breath of pleasure. "Oh, smell -it! It goes over you like balm!" - -"It washes the travel stains away. Take off your hat." - -The other obeyed, turning and placing it upon the back seat beside a -large and a small traveling bag. She drew off her gloves, too, then, -straightening herself, sighed again with happiness. "How deep it goes -... and quiet! It's thousands of miles away!" - -"Hundreds of thousands, and right at hand!" - -Leaves were beginning to turn. Maples had lighted fires, hickories were -making gold, dogwood and sumac dyeing with crimson. Ironweed, yet -blooming, blotched the roadside with purple. Joe-pye lifted heads of -ashy pink, goldenrod started forth, in places farewell-summer made a low -mist of lilac. The road dipped into a dell. The gray horse, the phaeton, -crossed a brown streamlet, sliding, murmuring. Mint filled the air. The -road lifted and ran on again into mystery. Blackbirds flew across, a -woodpecker tapped and tapped, a squirrel ran up an oak. But for all of -faint, stealthy rustle, perpetual low sound and small movements without -end, deep, deep, deep rest was the note. Rest and solitude. - -The old, strong, gray horse was named Daniel. This was his road since he -was a colt. Sometimes he might find upon it Whitefoot and Bess, the farm -horses, drawing the farm wagon, but oftenest it was solitary like -this--his road--Sweet Rocket road. The phaeton moving its wheels rolled -it, droned it forth--"Sweet Rocket road--Sweet Rocket road." - -"There are five miles of it," said Marget. Her tone added, "I love -it--its solitariness, its ownness!" - -"It's miraculously beautiful," answered her companion. "It aches, it is -so beautiful!" - -"Sweet Rocket road--Sweet Rocket road," said the wheels. "Way to Sweet -Rocket--way to Sweet Rocket." - -"It is straight and single-minded as an arrow. No one goes but one who -wishes to travel to Sweet Rocket. It is our road in and our road out. -There seems to be no other." - -"'Seems'?" - -"I mean that it is the only road made with spade and pick." - -They traveled again in silence. The visitor sat, a small, elderly woman, -with a thin, strong, intelligent face. Something about her, alike of -strength and of limitation, said, "Teacher for long years." She sat with -her hands in her lap, looking at that truly beautiful road and the -forest walls. But at last with a sigh of appreciation she turned to -talk. "Twenty years and more since we last met! But you keep young, -Marget. I had no difficulty in picking you out of the station crowd." - -"Nor I you, dear Miss Darcy! But then I've always kept you in mind and -heart. I owe you so much!" - -"Ah, Marget, not much!" - -"I owe you learning. It is a good deal to take a country girl, charge -scarcely anything for her and see that she gets knowledge and learns how -to get more--and more--" - -"You are of those who reward teaching. Don't let us talk about that -which was neither load nor task and so is no debt. The 'now' interests -me. You look well. Your face is a rose under clear brown." - -"I am well." - -"And happy?" - -"Yes, happy." - -"I know that you couldn't be happy unless you were helping." - -"I don't know how much I help. I help some." - -"You were never given to long letters. There really is much that I don't -at all know about you! And such as they are, I have had very few letters -of late years. It was the sheerest accident my finding out that this was -your part of the country. I might have gone to the Conference and never -known that you were not twenty miles away!" - -"The day before I had your card I knew that something pleasant was going -to happen." - -"Well, tell me what you do--" - -Marget Land looked over Daniel's ears, down the vista of the road. At -this point hemlocks grew to either hand, cones of a green that was -almost black. Between rose sycamores with pale arms and leaves like -silky brown hair. At the road edge the farewell-summer made a lacework, -and above it glowed the sumac torches. Blue sky roofed the autumn earth. -The air just flowed, neither hot nor cold, milk warm, happy. Summer and -winter had made a bargain, struck a compromise, achieved a diagonal. -Gold autumn, crimson autumn, violet autumn, dusky and tawny -autumn--autumn balm--autumn drawn up into a gracious figure--Keats's -autumn--a goddess! - -She drew a light, sighing breath. "I told you that I was happy.... Isn't -it strange--living? Isn't it strange and sweet the way things come -about? There's magic, all right! Sweet Rocket.... I was born in the -overseer's house at Sweet Rocket. That was ten years after the war and -there wasn't much nor many for my father to oversee. I love my father. -He was what the mountain folk call 'a getter-on.' He had ability and a -lot of goodness and a lot of kindness. Education from books had not come -his way, but he knew many things. He had worked hard and saved, and -after the war, when he gave up overseeing, or it gave him up, and when -he turned merchant in Alder, over there, he made money--as we looked at -it in Virginia in those days. Some money, that is. He had ten thousand -dollars in bank when old Major Linden died, and Mary Linden married and -went away, and Sweet Rocket was sold for debt. He bought it--though he -kept a steady face, he was so proud to buy it! I was nine years old when -we moved out of the overseer's house into the big house--my mother, my -father, my two brothers, and I. I loved it, loved it, loved it--love -it, love it, love it!" - -"I remember the very way in which you used to say it, 'Sweet Rocket!'" - -"We became at once land poor. And my father had an illness, and, though -he seemed to recover, never did quite recover. When it came to choosing -and bargaining, making and laying by, he was never again the man he had -been. My mother, too, who had worked so hard when she was young--too -hard--began to fail. Will, my elder brother, went West. Edgar, the -younger, wanted to go, too. He did not like it here. You see ... every -one still said: 'The old overseer bought it. They were all born in the -overseer's house. Now they rattle around in the Lindens' house! Bottom -rail--!' It was still called 'the Linden place.' As I grew old enough to -have cared for what they said I somehow escaped caring. But Edgar cared. -It was hard on the boy.... But I loved Sweet Rocket, loved it, love it! -I love the overseer's house and the big house--which isn't, of course, -very big, for the place was always a simple one--simple and still and -out of the way!" - -She seemed to pause somewhat deeply to vision something within. Miss -Darcy watched the moving walls, now standing close, now a little -receding, now opening as it were into gateways through which were seen -forest lawns and aisles. They shut in again. A golden bough brushed the -phaeton. She who had been speaking put out her hand and touched it. "How -could one help but love it? To me it is forever so old and forever so -new! I lock with it.... What was I saying? Well, Edgar did not like it, -and my mother failed, and father had less money and less money--and -still we went on ... five years, eight years, ten years. Then in one -year my father died and my mother died.... Will came home. He and Edgar -said that we must sell Sweet Rocket. I wasn't eighteen. We knew about -the mortgage, but we didn't know about some other debts. When it was -sold there was hardly anything to divide among us--" - -"The Lindens didn't buy it back, then?" - -"No, not then. Northern people bought it. Will went back to Wyoming, and -Edgar with him. I went to my mother's sister--Aunt Hester--who lived in -Richmond. I went to her with my two hundred and fifty dollars a year. -She's one of the best of women. I never had anything but kindness from -her--and one of the greatest was when she spoke of me to you!" - -She put her hand over Miss Darcy's hand. "I had been to school a little, -of course. There were some books at home, and I had borrowed where I -could. But in Richmond, to you, I really began to go to school." - -"You studied as very few study, Marget. You studied as though waves of -things were coming happily back into memory." - -"Yes. But you released something. Always fire is lit from fire. Always -one comes to any that sit in darkness.... Well, I went to school for -three years. Then off you go from that school to Canada, to England, to -I don't know where! I stayed in Richmond and went to a business school. -I learned typewriting and stenography. I began to earn my living." - -"You were with Baker and Owen?" - -"Yes. And then I passed into library work. I went to Washington. I was -in the library there for five years. I saved. I wrote a few papers that -were published. I took what they brought me and what I had saved, and I -left the library and I went around the world, second class and third -class--and at times fourth--and I learned and enjoyed. I taught English -here and there, and so I paid as I went. I came back in four years--back -to Richmond and Aunt Hester, until I might look about me and see what I -could do, for I must earn." - -"If you had written to me then in New York--" - -"I felt that. But there is something--don't you know there is -something?--that guides us.... I lay one night thinking of Sweet Rocket. -I could always come back here, just as really--come back from the ends -of the earth! I came back often. There has always been, along the -garden wall, sweet rocket--dame's violet, you know. Some of it is white -and some is purple--shining clusters growing above your waist. I could -gather them in my arms and feel them against my cheek. I could get -_into_ the dark cedars that come up from the river. I lay in Richmond, -more than half feeling, more than half seeing.... There's a country, you -know, out of which things come down to you.... It came down--knowledge! -I meant to go back to Sweet Rocket." - -She paused. "Look at that tree--" - -"It is so splendid! A sugar maple, isn't it? And that one?" - -"Mountain linden. It puts on a clear, pale gold, like the old saints' -haloes." - -"I hear water." - -"It is the little stream that we cross. See how sweet and clear and -sounding it goes! Hemlock Run. All right, Daniel!" - -Daniel bent mouth to water and drank. - -"No check rein?" - -"No." - -Gray horse and old phaeton moved again. The wood grew richer and deeper. -"We are nearing the river." - -"And then, in Richmond, you heard about Sweet Rocket?" - -"Aunt Hester had a letter from Alder. Richard Linden, old Major Linden's -nephew, had bought Sweet Rocket. I was glad that some one who must love -it was there. Aunt Hester said that he had visited it once or twice as a -young boy. He would remember it then as I remembered it. The second -letter said that he was almost blind, and alone on the place save for -the colored people. Then I saw his advertisement in the Richmond papers. -He wanted a secretary, one who could read aloud well. So I answered, and -was taken--five years ago." - -"How old a man is he?" - -"He is forty-seven and I am forty-four." - -"You have inner youth--higher youth." - -"Yes. Childhood there. So has he." - -"Do you love him, Marget?" - -"Love him? Yes! But not the once-time way, if that is what you mean. As -he loves me, but not the once-time way. So we shall not marry, in the -once-time way. But we live here together all the same." - -"Well, if it is as fair as this road--" - -"It is just a simple house in the bent arm of a little river and with -hills all around, and behind the hills, mountains. There are fields and -an orchard and garden. It is hidden like a lost place, and happy like a -place for evermore finding itself." - -"Tell me about Mr. Linden." - -"No, let us wait for that. Or I can tell outward things--how we live?" - -"Yes." - -"He has only a small, fixed income. It wouldn't at all go round the -year, so we farm. We have an excellent man, Roger Carter, who lives in -the overseer's house. Wheat, corn, buckwheat, hay, and apples! So we -live and can buy--though with an elegant spareness--books and red-seal -Victor records and more and more flowers for the flower garden." - -"Of course you have help about the house?" - -"There are two colored men and a boy, and Mimy the cook and Zinia the -housemaid. But with the home garden and cornfield and orchard and the -two cows and the chickens and ducks and Daniel and Whitefoot and Bess -there is more than enough to do. You will be surprised to see how much -he does himself." - -"How can he see?" - -"He can tell light from darkness, and the dim mass of things. And then, -when you are blind, you grow so skillful with the other senses! And of -course in a measure all of us are eyes to him. He has a great, strong -body. He hoes and digs. He knows always what is beneath his fingers. He -can weed a garden as well as I can. He gathers fruit and berries and -vegetables and knows the perfect from the imperfect. He does no end of -things. Perhaps he may work with his hands four hours a day." - -"And then?" - -"There are letters. I write them, and I keep his accounts, and, of -course, the house. Then we read. It is a sandwiched business, but we -must average three hours a day with books. He gets up very early and -walks before breakfast, and usually again in the afternoon. Sometimes I -drive him on this road. Sometimes I walk with him, sometimes he goes -alone. After supper we read, or listen to the Victor singing and -playing, or we talk, or sit by the fire, still and thinking. Or on the -porch steps when weather is warm, where I can see and he can image the -stars." - -"I see a good life." - -"We are not without neighbors, though it seems so lonely. And then folk -come to us. His blindness was an accident, you know. He has had life in -the world as I have had life in the world. We _have_ life in the world." - -"He is one, then, that may be loved?" - -"He is a great poet, though he would never call himself so. He just -feels and acts so.... I think his face is beautiful." - -"I think that your face is beautiful," thought Miss Darcy. - -The tawny road turned a little east. Trees yet green, trees that wore -the one color the year round, blended with golden trees and scarlet -trees. Wild grapes with twisted and shaggy stems and yellowing leaves, -with blue grapes hanging over, ran and mounted, held by the forest arms -up to the sun. Sumac that was somehow like the Indian, that seemed to -hold memories of the Indian in the land, grew in each minute clearing. -There arose a little, rustling wind, the ineffable blue air moving -lightly. Brown butterflies abounded. The sense grew strong of -remoteness, of calm that was not indolence, of beauty gathered and at -home. - -Miss Darcy moved a little. Marget Land turned toward her. "You feel it, -don't you?" - -"Yes." - -"They that come feel it. They are drawn. There are centers of -integration. This is one. I do not know who started it. Probably many, -working in at different times. But now it is in action." - -"Is that mysticism?" - -"No. It is fact." - -The forest stopped with clean decision. The road ran through fields -where the corn had been cut and shocked. The shocks stood in rows like -brown wigwams. Daniel and the phaeton came down to a little river, very -clear, falling and murmuring over stones above and below a ford, but at -the ford a mirror, reflecting autumn hills and heaven. Across the ford -stretched a little pebbly beach, crowned with trees and grass, and -behind the trees stood a brick house, old-red, not so large as large -houses go, but of excellent line. It had a porch with Doric pillars, -weather-softened. It stood among fine trees in a small valley shut in on -all sides by hills and mountains, all forested to the top. Only the road -and the river seemed to have way out and in, only road and river and -air and birds. Valley and colored mountain walls were proportioned, -modeled, tinted to some wide and deep artist's taste. The tone was rest -without weakness, movement without fury, solitude that had all company. - -"How could you help but love it!" said the visiting woman. - -"I don't try to help it.... If it burned down--if the hills sank and the -wood was destroyed--still it would endure, and still I could come here. -Now we cross the river. Look at the bright stones and the minnows, -gliding, darting!" - -Up from the river, across the pebbly shore, rose cedars dark and tall. -"They are like warders. Only there's nothing, really, to ward out. All -things may meet here. We go this way, to the back of the house." - -"It feels enchanted." - -"It is so simple. You might call it meek. There are people who pass who -say, 'How lonely!'" - -They were now at the back of the house, where the road skirted the -flower garden. Here was the back door, with three rounded, moss-grown -steps of stone. Daniel and the phaeton stood still. The two women left -the vehicle. A colored man appeared. "Miss Darcy, this is Mancy. Mancy, -this is Miss Darcy, come to stay with us as long as she will." - -Mancy, tall and spare, with an Indian great-grandmother, said that he -was glad to see her, and took her bags. In the brick kitchen in the -yard, Mimy was singing: - - - "Swing low, sweet chariot, - Coming for to carry me home--" - - - - -II - - -"I might stay a week." Anna Darcy spoke to herself, standing at the -window of the room where Marget had left her. She looked down upon -flowers and out to the southern wall that closed in the valley. The -mountains had the tints of desert sands at sunset. They had long wave -forms; they were not peaked, nor very high. They were so old, she -knew--Appalachians--older than Apennine or Himalaya. They were wearing -down here, disintegrating. The weather would be lowering them year by -year. They were removing and building elsewhere. They had granaries full -of memories, and they must have somewhere, springing like the winter -wheat, as many as the blades of wheat, anticipations. Down in the garden -she saw marigolds and zinnias, late blooming pansies, mignonette, -snapdragon and aster and heliotrope, larkspur, mourning bride, and -citronalis. A rosy light bathed garden and fields. This was the back of -the house. She saw two or three cabins and a barn, stacked hay, and a -rail fence worn and lichened, fostering a growth of trumpet vine and -traveler's joy. She heard cow bells. A boy with a good-natured ebony -face crossed the path below, carrying two milk pails. Chickens, turkeys, -and guineas walked about in the barnyard. From the kitchen, fifty feet -from the house, floated a smell of coffee and of bread in the oven. All -the place was clean, friendly. - -She turned to the large, four-windowed room. The walls had a paper of -lavender-gray, on which hung three prints. The bed was a four-poster, -with a linen, ball-fringed valance. Books stood ranged above an ancient -desk; a blue jug held asters. There was a large closet and--modern -blessing--a bathroom, white tubbed, pleasant and light. It had been, she -saw, an old dressing room between the two chambers upon this side of the -hall, with a door for each. Both doors being ajar, she saw Marget's -room, large like this one, furnished not unlike this one. But that, -something told her, was really the spare room, and this that she was to -dwell in was Marget's room. It had the feel of Marget. "It is the -pleasantest, and so she has given it to me." - -She bathed and changed her dress. All the time old, happy rhythms ran in -her head. Dressed, she sat down by one of the western windows, in the -yet warm light. She rested her head against the back of the chair, her -eyes closed. She was no longer a young woman, and she had had a tiring -year, and it was grateful to her to rest thus. Rest! It was the word, -it was the feeling, that was dwelling in this place. Rest, rest, deep -rest without idleness. - -The air was so rare and fine--mountain air. She remembered that they -said that the valley itself lay high. Mountain air. But even while she -thought that she had a sudden sense of sea air, fine and strong and -drenched with sun. - -There would be five or six rooms on this floor. All were large, and the -hall between was large. The stairway was very good, the woodwork -everywhere good. The ceilings were high. They used lamps and candles. -The day had been warm. Fire was not needed. But wood was laid in the -fireplace and the wood box beside it held chestnut and pine. - -This window gave upon the west. Here were grass and the red and gold -trees, and the pebbly beach and the sickle of the water, and the -lion-colored fields and the wood through which they had driven, and the -amethyst mountains. The sun had set, but the sky stayed aglow. The -fatigue went out of the old teacher's face. "'Cast thy bread upon the -waters, and after many days it shall return to thee!'" She did not -consciously repeat this, but the saying overhung her. - -She had slightly opened the door giving upon the hall, so that Marget, -returning, might know that she was ready. Stair and hall floor were bare -wood. A step sounded upon the one and then upon the other. She was -sensitive to the way folk trod. "That is Mr. Linden." - -He passed her door and she heard him enter his room across the hall. - -Marget presently came for her. "Let us go into the garden until the bell -rings." The garden lay spread in breadths of violet brocade. They walked -on brick paths and smelled box and mignonette. Then Zinia rang the -supper bell. - -The two entered the lower hall yet drenched with the afterglow. A man, -tall and big framed, turned at their step. "Miss Darcy, this is Mr. -Linden." He put out his hand; the visitor laid hers in it. It was a -strong hand, likable. His voice, when he spoke, was the voice for the -hand. "I am glad to see you, Miss Darcy! Marget and I are glad." - -There was light enough to show a strong-featured, clean-shaven face. The -eyes were blue-gray. They were not disfigured. She also came to think -his face a beautiful one. - -They went into the dining room, where two lamps were lighted. The -mahogany table had a blue bowl of larkspur. Zinia, in a blue cotton -dress and white apron, waited. There were coffee, delicate rolls, a -perfection of butter and of cream, a salad, coddled apples, and sugar -cakes. Marget sat behind the coffee urn and cups and saucers. Richard -Linden did not take the foot of the table, but sat beside her, at the -right. She aided him quietly, perfectly, nor did he need as much aid as -might be thought. He was so skillful; eyes must be in fingers. Zinia, -too, marked his needs, forestalled things. She called him Mr. Dick. She -had for him a low, rich, confidential whisper. "The salt, Mr. Dick." -"Cottage cheese, Mr. Dick." Marget called him Richard. - -The three talked of the ring of this valley and of the ring without and -around it, of Miss Darcy's doings and of Sweet Rocket's, and of -everybody's. It seemed that papers, magazines, the news, must come here. -Earth was the earth of the beginning of the third decade of the -twentieth century. There was news enough. - -Supper over, they went into the parlor that was opposite the dining -room, and was no more parlor than library. It stretched around, a big -room with old pictures, old furniture, with books. A fire flamed and -sang. They sat in the firelight, Richard Linden on one side of the -hearth and Marget on the other, and Miss Darcy beside the latter. Still -there was talk. The visitor would have gathered where they stood on -questions of the day, then suddenly saw that they stood all round and -through, and that the day to them was so old and young that it included -yesterday and to-morrow. That being so, their solutions were not always -those currently offered. - -She also found that though they talked they were not talkative. With -them conversation became a rhythmic thing--tranquil pause, deep -retirement, then again the word. And it startled her almost, how -completely they were one. - -When they had sat by the fire an hour Marget, rising, put violin music -upon a victrola. Hafitz played to them a Hebrew melody; Kreisler played, -and Maud Powell. The flames danced, the world heightened. Then, one -after the other, came three songs, and between each, as between the -violin pieces, they watched the fire, and the forest and the night wind -were felt around. - - - "Oh, that we two were maying!" - - -The song ended, the fire burned, they heard the river, the forest was -all around. A man's voice was lifted. - - - "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come into - His Presence!" - - -Again the wide and deep pause, and then the third song. - - - "And the world shall go up with a shout unto God." - - -Marget shut the victrola. Again they sat in that quiet. It was systole -and diastole, it was in and out, and inexpressibly it rested! And that -was what she wanted, rest. - -Marget lighted a lamp that stood upon the table. Linden said, "Hadn't -you rather not read, to-night?" - -"No. We won't read long." - -He turned to the visitor. "Do you mind listening?" - -Miss Darcy was glad to listen. Marget began to read. Her old teacher -remembered that she had read well twenty years ago. She read better now. -The book was Lafcadio Hearn's _West Indies_. "We travel so," said -Linden. "We take a right journeyer and journey with him." - -The fire flickered, then seemed to pass into actual fire of sun. They -were in Martinique, under Pelee, in Saint Pierre, in Grand Anse. Again -she was startled to feel how real it was. She touched, she knew, the -people of Martinique. - -Later, when the book had been closed, when they had said good night, one -to the other, when she lay in bed in the dark quiet, she experienced -strongly what a certain number of times in her life she had been able to -experience faintly. She experienced coherence that was wider than old -coherences. She interlocked with this place and her hosts. She held -them, they held her. At the end of the week she must go afar. "But never -any more so far that I lose the tune--never any more!" She went to sleep -with a strange, fair feeling of sea about her. Not that the forest, the -hills and mountains, were not there, but she felt the sea likewise. "Of -course it is there, but I never thought to look at it or taste it! The -sea and mountains and they and me, threaded together, talking together!" -She slept. - - - - -III - - -As she dressed, the next morning, she heard Mimy singing, but no stir of -her hosts. The sun was shining. In at window streamed life-giving air. -Her mind was upon the evening before and its current of happenings. As -she had gone to sleep with the sea, of which they had read, about her, -so now the three songs to which they had listened returned to mind, -returned almost to sense. That was one remarkable thing about this -place--the great vividness and depth of perception.... She knew the -difference between usual or even intent thinking and intuition. Her -intuitions had not been vigorous--she had looked at them with a kind of -gray wonder, as at pale children from afar. They came at long intervals, -but were never forgotten. It now seemed that this was a good clime for -them. - -She stood still in the middle of her room. Her mind opened. "'Oh, that -we two were maying!' That is man and woman love, time out of mind; love -and cry of love! It is Romeo and Juliet, it is Tristan and Isolde. 'Oh, -that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come into His -presence!' That is religious love that goes up from man and woman love. -That is the onward going, the seeking of Great Lovers. 'And the world -shall go up with a shout unto God.' That is when we move and feel and -think, not as men and women, but as Humanity. The Great Mating." - -The little firmament closed like eyelids and hid the greater. She was a -small, gray woman, and she had beaten about in the intellect, and when -gleams came like this she had taken them and promptly, when the sky -closed, had doubted if they had ever existed. But to-day she was less -inclined to doubt. There remained a faint luminousness in mind, a sense -of depth behind feeling. She thought, "If I could stay in that garden I -should indeed know bloom and music!" She moved about the room. "The -point is that there _is_ such a garden." - -She finished dressing, and went downstairs. Zinia met her in the hall. -"Good mahning! I hope you slept well? Miss Marget says you're to have -breakfast on the porch. It's so warm and beautiful this mahning." - -"She has had hers?" - -"Yes'm. She said tell you Sweet Rocket was home. I put the table here. -But if it's too sunny I can move it." - -"It's not too sunny. I like sun," said Miss Darcy. - -"I like it, too," said Zinia, and departed kitchenward. Anna Darcy sat -and slowly ate Catawba grapes. The porch was wide, the table placed -between high, mellowed pillars. Beyond them the autumn turf ran to great -trees colored like Venetian glass. The river crescent sparkled in light. -Beyond it she saw the fields and the woods through which they had -driven. All was closed by the mountain wall, very soft and gracious in -the sun, in the still, warm air. - -Zinia brought coffee and rolls. There was honey upon the table, and an -old blue basket-dish filled with red-amber grapes. Zinia was very dark, -supple, and strong. She had large, kind, African eyes, and beautiful -teeth, and she moved with an ample and conscious majesty. Miss Darcy -loved to watch her. - -The evening before, a collie lay upon the steps. Miss Darcy asked of -him. - -"Tam? He's gone with Mr. Dick." - -Zinia stood by a pillar, watching with kind eyes the visitor's evident -enjoyment of her breakfast. Miss Darcy had noted before, and noted now, -the lack of any servility at Sweet Rocket. They all seemed too much a -part of one another for that. But there was also that fine courtesy and -feeling that did not speak out of the way when speech was not wanted. -They all seemed to sail upon some inner current of understanding. - -She finished breakfast, and, rising, helped Zinia to carry away the -table. Dining room and pantry shone clean and simple. Zinia had flowers -in the pantry, and upon the shelf below the china press an open book. -Miss Darcy glanced. "What are you reading?--_Pilgrim's Progress?_" - -"Yes'm," said Zinia, in her rich voice. "I like that girl Mercy." - -The house was clean and sunny; still, and yet singing somehow, like a -great shell held to ear. She walked about, and at last went out into the -high morning and the flower garden. The brick paths glistened. Box -smelled sweet, mignonette and citronalis. Around flowed bird life and a -vast insect life. Multitudinous song and hum and chirr fell into -harmony. She walked up and down the paths and partook of garden -amusements, then went out by a wicket gate and found herself near the -outdoor kitchen. A brown four-year-old was seated on the stone step. She -stopped before him. "Good morning!" - -"Mahning." - -"What is your name?" - -"Just So." - -"Just So?" - -"Yass'm." - -Mimy appeared in the doorway. Mimy was a small woman with a face like a -carved cherry stone for wrinkles. "He's my grandson, ma'am, Just So." - -"I heard you singing," said Miss Darcy. "I loved it." - -"Singing's like butter on the griddle," said Mimy. "It helps you turn -things!" She sighed portentously, and then she groaned. "I've had a lot -of things to turn! Yes'm, I've lived long and turned a lot of things!" - -Her voice was gloom, and yet carried more than a suspicion of rich -chuckle. She enjoyed her old woes, disaster had grown so shallow. "I, -too," thought the visitor, "have had a lot of things to turn! I, too, -have come to where I can stand back and see the drama and feel the play -thrill!" - -Just So was a solemn young one. He sat and gazed as though in -contemplation of the many things he would have to turn. Then a brown hen -came by, and he put out a brown toe and dug in the earth, and said, -"Shoo!" and laughed. Miss Darcy left him playing with a string of spools -and a broken coffee mill. Mimy in the kitchen was toasting coffee and -singing. The coffee smelled better than good, the singing was without -age in the voice. - - - "Who built the Ark? - Oh, Noah built the Ark! - It rained forty days, - And it rained forty nights! - 'There ain't any sun and there ain't any heights!' - Oh, Noah built the Ark!" - - -Miss Darcy's path led on to the barn. Cocks and hens, white and red, -held the barnyard. She watched them with pleasure, and the sun on the -gray walls and the barn swallows going in and out. Then she found Mancy -sitting under a shed, mending a wagon shaft. - -"Good morning!" - -"Good morning!" - -"It's a lovely day." - -"It is so, ma'am! You're from the city, aren't you?" - -"Yes." - -"I hope you like Sweet Rocket?" - -"I do. It makes you feel whole." - -Mancy glanced at her. He was a long, brown man, with features between -negro and Indian. What you liked very much was his smile. It dropped -over his face slowly, like sun on brown hills, out of quiet, cloudy -weather. "That's a true saying!" he offered. "That's what I think about -heaven. We'll just feel and know that we're well and whole." - -The school-teacher's mind said: "The negro is a religious character. He -is always willing to talk of the Lord and of heaven." - -"All the little torn bits coming together," finished Mancy. - -He sat mending the wagon shaft. It came to her, standing watching him, -to say something of the distracted and warring earth. His slow smile -stole again over his face. "Yes'm. We hurt ourselves right often." - -"You call it that--hurting oneself?" - -"Yes'm. What do you call it?" - -"I don't know.... I suppose it _is_ hurting one's self--suicidal mania!" -she thought. "Perhaps all the history I have ever taught has been the -story of self hurt and self heal--perhaps we fight our self in Europe -and Asia and America. Perhaps, in the tissue wide as space, centers here -and centers there are beginning to learn self heal above self hurt--" - -She stood looking at the mountains while Mancy worked on at the wagon -shaft. Presently she said, "You would say that this was a very lonely -place, but I have touched a thousand things since I came that run out -and touch everywhere!" - -"Mountains aren't walls," said Mancy. - -She left the barn and walked on to the orchard. The apples had been -gathered, but a few red orbs yet hung from the branches. She walked -beneath the trees and she thought of old, dull troubles and anxieties -that had attended her life. This morning light seemed at work among -them, disintegrating them. - -The sun came down between the trees. The air blew soft and fine. She -returned to the house, and upon the porch steps found Mrs. Cliff with -baskets to sell, woven of white-oak splits, in a mountain cabin, by her -son and herself. She was waiting for Marget and seemed content to wait -as long as the sun shone. She wore a faded calico and a brown sunbonnet, -and she dipped snuff. - -"Good morning!" - -"Mornin'!" - -Mrs. Cliff put her snuffbox in her pocket. "Don't you want to buy a -basket? These three are fer Miss Marget." - -Miss Darcy examined and admired. "I'd like this little one." Mrs. Cliff -put it aside. "I hain't seen you here before." - -"I've just come. You've got a lovely country." - -"Yaas. We think so. Do you see yon clearing on mountain? I come from -thar." Miss Darcy sat down, and she and the mountain woman talked of -basket weaving and of the times, which Mrs. Cliff said were hard. "What -do you think sugar is? An' what you got to give fer a pair of shoes? -You've got to sit an' fergit, even while you're rememberin', or you -don't git nowhar! I wish Jesus Christ would come on back!" - -"He is somewhat needed," Anna Darcy agreed. - -"I had a funny thing happen to me yesterday," said Mrs. Cliff. "I had -jest finished that basket. I was setting on the step an' awful tired, -an' I shet my eyes an' leaned my head back against the door. An jest -like that I thought, 'He's in little bits in all of us, an' we've got to -put him together.' An' jest thinking it, all in a minute I felt so big -and rested! But it couldn't last. I wish it would come again." - -Marget's voice was heard, speaking to Zinia. "She's come back. They're -mighty kind folk here!" - -"I know that." - -"They _like_ doin' you a good turn," said Mrs. Cliff, and, getting to -her feet, gathered up her baskets. - - - - -IV - - -In the afternoon the three and Tam went for a walk. They crossed the -river by a footbridge and walked a mile by waterside. This brought them -to valley end. The stream slipped on between close-standing hills, but -the strollers turned aside into a glade from which the greater forest -had been cut. Young trees and tall old trees were set with some -spareness. All wore robes like princes; all glowed in a dream of spring -behind winter. The ground had gray moss and green moss, and all manner -of minute and charming growths. The sun so came into this glade that the -wild grape found and took advantage. It leaned its wine-hued, shaggy -stem against trunks; it climbed and overran, and made bridges from tree -to tree. Its festoons shone aloft, its broad leaves and blue clusters -dreamed against autumn sky. The air breathed dry and fine. Sunshine lay -on ground in shafts and plaques of gold. - -Richard Linden used a staff. Marget kept near him and Tam just ahead. -Walking so, you would not think he was a blind man. Indeed, he seemed to -have a sixth sense, he moved so easily. The three walked without much -speech. The day was the sumptuous speaker; these woods, this feather -air, the admirable poise of the year before its journey from hearth -fire, the plain chant of the crickets, the trill of the bird. - -In a roll over his shoulder Linden carried a wide and thick plaid. -Presently Marget said: "Let us rest before we turn back. Miss Darcy -isn't the tramp that we are!" whereupon they pitched camp for half an -hour, spreading the plaid beneath a tree. Richard Linden, resting -against a chance bowlder, locked his hands behind his head and lifted -his face to the high, free sky. Marget took off her wide hat and lay -down beside Miss Darcy, who sat on a stone. Tam had the dry grass and -moss and the fringe of the plaid. - -Marget spoke. "We are under a young hickory, Richard. It is all gold. -There is a dogwood close by, and its leaves are red, and it is very full -of berries. Wild grape has started by the dogwood and crossed to the -hickory. It is far and near and up and down. The leaves are half green -and half yellow, and there are a thousand bunches of grapes." - -"I see!" he said; "and I hear a woodpecker." - -"It's yonder on a white oak. It's a flicker. There isn't a cloud in the -sky, and far, far up, small as a dragon fly, is a buzzard sailing. -There's a cedar waxwing in the dogwood stripping berries. There is -another--a third! We frightened them away, but they are coming back. -They're after the grapes. There will be fifty in a moment--" - -They kept still and watched, Marget's hand on Tam. Slender, graceful, -tawny, crested birds came in a flock. They entered the hickory and the -dogwood. With quick movements of head and body they stripped the grapes -and the scarlet dogwood berries. They perched and removed, and perched -again. They kept up a low talk among themselves and a perpetual flutter -of wings. It was as though a wind were in the trees, so continuous was -the sound. Blue grapes, dogwood berries, dropped upon the ground. For -ten minutes the flock fluttered and fed, while with intent, pleased -faces the human beings watched or listened. Then Tam became aware of a -rabbit down the glade and started up. Away flew the cedar waxwings. - -"Oh, wasn't it lovely?" - -They sat still. Richard Linden, resting against the rock, kept his face -raised to blue sky. "Their life!" he said. "As we enter upon their -life--" - -Tam came back, the rabbit having vanished. "Lie still, Tam, lie still! -Get into your life-to-be for a little, and be quiet shepherd on a hill -instead of shepherd's dog!" - -"Their life--" - -The visitor to Sweet Rocket sat still, with her eyes upon the gold -fretwork of the hickory. She was thinking of the birds. It was very -sunny, very still in the glade. Her companions also rested silent. They -seemed to be in reverie, to be going where they would in their inner -worlds. - -Miss Darcy followed the waxwings in their flight. She saw the flock that -had been here, and other flocks, stripping wild grape and dogwood and -cedar berries. They were far and near, in many a woodland glade. In -thousands they twined and turned, they talked in the clan, their wings -made a windy sound. And the woodpeckers! Hammer and hammer, through the -forests of the world! And the thrush that she had heard this morning, -and the humming bird in the garden--and the crows that had cawed from a -hillside, the hawk and the owl.... Suddenly she saw in some space an -eagle rise to its nest upon a crag edge. From the one she saw others. -Eagles in all the lands. For one instant she caught a far glimpse of the -Idea, the absolute eagle. There was the rush of a loftier sense. Then -she sank from that, but she saw eagles in all the lands. She saw the -great hawks and the condors. Green waves were beneath her; with sea -birds she skimmed them in the first light, and the cries of her kind -were about her. On the ice floes walked the penguins, the albatross -winnowed solitude. With heron and flamingo and crane she knew shore and -marsh. The white swan and the black swan oared their way through still -waters. In their right circle moved the peacock and the pheasant, the -lyre bird, the bower bird, and the bird of paradise. The nightingale -sang in deep woods, and in southern thickets of yellow jessamine sang -the mocking bird. The lark mounted into the air, the cuckoo called from -the hedge, the wren built under the eaves. In the gray dawn, from a -thousand farms and hamlets, crowed the cocks. Over all the earth clucked -the hen, peeped the downy chick. The swallows crossed a saffron sky and -the whippoorwill cried in the night, and in the morning the quails said -"Bob White!" Migrating hordes, like scuds of clouds, drove before -favorable winds, north, south! She was plunged in the life of birds, -where they waded between deep water and solid shore, where they lived in -a world of green, where they flew aloft and afar, over land, over -sea--all their plumage, shapes, and magnitudes. She seemed to hear their -cheepings, cries and songs, to hear them and touch them, their -sleekness, lightness, threaded beauty! Over all the earth spread the -passionate wooing, the daylong song. Here were the nests, the -multitudes, and the eggs, green and blue and white and dark. The nests -and eggs became transfigured. The straw of the nests burned lines of -white fire, the cup was diamond light, the shell of the egg no more than -a window, and through it was seen the bird-past, and the bird desire and -will and power. Out of the egg the young--she heard the nightingales in -the woods, the lark in the sky! - -"See the love and beauty and power and daring! See the thought and -feeling pressing on--see them trooping into fuller being--see them men -and women, their tribes and nations! When we have gone far, far on, see -their human earth!" - -It was Linden, she thought, who said that. She came back with a great -throb of her heart to the earth beneath a golden hickory, to the October -sun, in a little Virginian valley. Yet the two reclining there seemed -still in a brown study, gone away. She thought: "I am come into a -strange country! Are they knowing, feeling all that life more intensely -than I, for all that they lie there so quietly, thinking, one would say, -of to-morrow's work, of a book they are reading, or of the cedar -waxwings?... It is all in the range of perception, could I run like -light all over the earth! There are those birds and their life. I only -saw what _is_!" - -But she felt that while she had had a wave of it those two had a whole -breadth of ocean. She felt that they were expert, adept. She felt again -the breath of wonder. It was at once wonder and homelikeness. -"Glad--glad--glad that I came! My gray road turns!" - -Richard Linden dropped his hands from behind his head and passed them -over his eyes. Marget rose to her knees. There was deep light in her -face. She lifted then let fall her arms. "Oh, the _beauty_ when life is -seen as a landscape, heard as a symphony, smelled as a garden, tasted as -nectar, dwelt in as a house!" She rose to her feet. "The sun is gone -from the grass. It is dawn in Tibet. Come, Tam, let us be going home!" - -They folded the plaid and left the hickory and the dogwood. The glade -was turning violet, but the hilltops showed golden and the mountains -stood in light. A rich scent breathed from the earth, while the air -carried a spear from the north. Leaving the wood, they took again the -path by the river, that sang toward them, that held pools of light. - -Walking so, Marget fell to talking of Anna Darcy's life, the manner of -it, her steadfast work from year to year, and all her kindnesses, and -all that she had given. At first Miss Darcy tried to stop her, but then -she could not try any longer, the appreciation was so sweet. Her life -had been difficult, isolated for all the stir around her, subject to -sorrows, a little withered and gray. She felt the exquisite caress of -their interest. It was more than that to her; it was recognition. - -How would it be if all were truly interested in all? If there were -general recognition? - -As she walked, the valley and the hills, the river and warm, dusky air, -the collie, the man and woman with her, herself, seemed to shift and -quiver into one. Walls vanished. There happened rest, understanding, -imperviousness to harm, blood warmth, and new and strange aspiration. - -It was impossible for her to hold the moment. She seemed to herself to -sink again to the rigid and small shape of Anna Darcy, like an Egyptian -figure graved on stone, a plane figure. But she did not wholly fit back -into the figure. She felt that above it was fullness and youth and song, -and that they were hers as well as another's. - - - - -V - - -Again, the next morning, she found neither of her hosts. "We breakfast -early and work early," Marget had said. Again Zinia served her alone, -again she walked in the flower garden, again she went farther afield. -The day was brilliantly, vividly clear, white clouds in the sky, and -between, great seas of cobalt. She went at once to the river path, but -turned this morning up the stream. The day hung joyous, the high and -moving clouds, the light and shadow had magnificence. She felt very -well; she really looked five years younger. Before her, beyond a spur of -orchard, she made out the roof of a building. When she came nearer she -felt an assurance that this was the overseer's house. "Where Marget was -born," she thought; "where she lived with her father and mother and -brothers." - -Presently she stood still to regard the place. - -The house was a small one, two-storied, frame, painted white with green -blinds. It had a small porch with a window to either side. At the back -she made out a wider porch, and there were outbuildings. The whole was -buried among locust trees and old shrubs, that when she came nearer she -recognized for lilac and althea and syringa. Door and windows stood -open. At first she thought she would turn from the river to the house, -but then she said, "No, not till she herself brings me here some day." -But the place was plain before her where she stood. When she had moved a -few paces she looked full to the door, between locust trees and bushes. -She was now beside a giant sycamore, very old, all copper colored as to -leaf, with dappled white and brown arms. Built around the bole was a -wooden bench, old and weather-worn. "She played here when she was a -child. They have all set here beneath this tree. She comes here now, I -fancy, often." - -She took her seat. No one came in or out of the house door a stone's -throw away. The place was sunny and deserted. There came, as it were, a -veil over it. She shut her eyes the better to look at child life here -with father and mother and Will and Edgar. The old overseer, who had -fought in the war for the old order, but who, when it came crash! had -built in the new; and the mother, Elizabeth Land, overworked and -uncomplaining; and the boys with their desires and broodings and -hopes--she felt them all. - -Sitting with her eyes shut, she passed into feeling them very strongly. -The place turned to be of thirty, forty years ago. She moved with the -overseer as he went to his work and came from it. With Marget Land's -mother she was cooking, sewing, cleaning. She was with the three -children, the boys older than the girl, at tasks and in play. Swim in -the river, swing under the locust tree, go for berries, for persimmons, -chinquapins, walnuts, for grapes and haws, go for the cow, work in the -garden patch, shell the peas, shuck the corn, look for eggs, pick the -currants and gooseberries, split the kindling, gather the chips, wash -the dishes, clean the lamps, sit by the fire and study reading, writing, -and arithmetic--she was deep in it, deep in a slow, steady current of -participation. It did not seem to curve, but now it was her own -childhood, her parents and brothers and sisters, an old town house and a -leafy town square--life, life, so varied and so the same! Deep, deep -wash of deep waves, and so pleasant, so sweet, all the pang and ill -lost! A past that was winnowed, understood, forgiven, appreciated, loved -by mind and heart of Farther On, and that was present, gone nowhere, -here, in finer space and finer time, a vast country capable of being -visited! Going into it was to find the deathless taste of eternity. It -was not dark; you could fill it with golden light. The forms there were -not immovable, not dead. As you understood, they lived and were -yourself. As you remembered, you saw that you were remembering, that you -were re-collecting from far and near, your Self. - -Anna Darcy sat very still. "I had to wait till I was fifty-eight years -old to see that." - -As on yesterday it had grown out of a commonplace of imagination and -memory. Memory and imagination had, by degrees, entered _their_ deeper -selves. - -Again, as on yesterday, she could not hold it. Increased energy, -increased perception, what the ancients called the Genius, and the -mystic called illumination, or voice of God, and the moderns higher -vibration, superconsciousness--whatever it was, and perhaps the name did -not much matter, she had touched it and then lost it. But she knew that -it had been touched, and that it was desirable to know it or its like -again. - -She was a member of the church, a praying woman. She bent her forehead -upon her hands: "O God, let thy kingdom come! As it comes near us, send -thy breezes!" - -Presently, rising, she went on up the stream. It was not wide; it just -came into the category of river, headwater, she knew, of a greater -river. October painted it with russets and golds and reds. Midcurrent -showed the ineffable blue of the sky, or when clouds drove by the -zenith, the clouds. She walked on until before her she saw the eastern -gate of the vale. The hills closed in, leaving a bit of grassy meadow on -either side the stream. This narrowed. The hills grew loftier, -insensibly became mountains. She was in a mountain pass, gray cliff to -the right, hemlocks overhanging the water that was broken now by -bowlders, debris of an ancient rock. The path was cool and dark and -washed by the scent of the conifers. Only here and there the climbing -sun sent splashing through an intensity of light that showed every -fallen needle, every cone or twig or leaf upon the path. Not far before -her the path turned and went up over the mountain. She thought, "That -will be the way to Mrs. Cliff's." - -She came upon a fisherman. He sat among the roots of a hemlock, and was -engaged in reeling in his line. He was a man neither old nor young, with -a long, easy frame, and a short, graying beard. His dress was that of a -fisherman who goes forth from the city to fish--but not for the first -nor the second nor the third time. Nothing that he had on was new, but -all was well cut. - -"Good morning!" he said. - -"Good morning!" - -He worked on at his reel. "Each time that I do this I say that it is the -last time." - -"Why?" - -"I grow too damned able--I beg your pardon!--to put myself in the fish's -place." - -"Have you caught any?" - -"This morning? Not a ghost of one! Yet they say this is a good stream! I -think that I warn them off the hook. 'Monsieur Black Bass, or Signor -Trout, as it may be, my desire not to take you is gaining, I feel, upon -my desire to take you! Your own desire naturally aiding the first, I -grow to feel that we make a strong combination!'" - -He laughed, putting up his rod. Then his mustaches went down and his -face became serious enough, "So much mangling! I've had my fill." - -"How did you come? Over the mountain?" - -"Yes. I am camping with a dozen New York and Washington fellows on -another little river over there. The others fish that stream. I'm like -Mrs. Elton. I adore exploring! I slept last night in a mountain -cabin--Cliff's. Can you tell me how far I am from Sweet Rocket farm?" - -"Less than a mile." - -"No! I didn't think from what the mountain folk said that it was so -near. I knew before I came that he was somewhere in these parts." - -"Do you know Mr. Linden?" - -"I was his classmate at the university. Then, fifteen years ago, I met -him in Southern Russia. We had a couple of weeks together, and then I -must hurry on to Constantinople, where I was due. He went into the -Caucasus. I lost sight of him. It was two years later that I heard of -that accident which blinded him, and I've heard since only second-and -third-hand things. The other day in the club a man told me that he was -living where his people had lived, down here in Virginia. I meant to go -to see him, but I meant to write first." - -"I am a visitor at Sweet Rocket. But I am sure that Mr. Linden would -wish you to come on to the house. Had you not better do so?" - -"Why, yes, then, I think that I shall." He stood up from the hemlock -roots. "You are very good. My name is Curtin--Martin Curtin." - -She gave her own. He took up fisherman's paraphernalia and a light coat. -They moved out of ravine into meadow strip; before them lay the jewel -valley. Mr. Curtin drew a deep breath. - -"And he hasn't eyes to look at it!" - -Anna Darcy found herself answering with certitude. "He sees it and a -thousand places beside." - -They walked on, Mr. Curtin gazing at river, hills, and mountains, and -quiet valley floor. "I have known of his doing some splendid things in -life--simple and splendid--the kind that steals into folk, and they do -likewise!" - -"Yes, I should think that." - -"What is that house?" - -"In old times it is the overseer's house. Now the young farmer who helps -him lives there." - -"'In old times it _is_'--that's an unusual phrase." - -"I mean that to me, for reasons, it stays that way and _is_." - -"I agree! When you turn to a thing it _is_. Turn with decision enough, -and your overseer would come out to meet you. That's a sycamore for you! -Do you ever feel the Indians by these streams? If you can see your -overseer you can see your Indians, too." - -They walked on. "Is that the house?" - -"Yes." - -"It's a simple place, too--but I like it. Houses, now! I make a -specialty of keeping them in duration." - -Anna Darcy thought, "A week ago I wouldn't have understood that." - -The house where she was born, the house facing, across a row of box and -a finely wrought iron paling, the old, leafy city square, walked bodily -into her. She was through it, up and down, like the air. It seemed to -her that there wasn't anything she didn't know about it, and it all came -together into an inner aroma, taste and tone, dry, warm, pungent and -likable, idiosyncratic, its very own. It had been a loss, a grief, when -the city had taken and torn down that house. And all the time it was -waiting for her, in a deep reality, to walk in and take possession! - -She thought: "What is happening? I shall never be lonely again!" - -Mr. Curtin looked from side to side of Sweet Rocket valley. "It's like a -beaker of Venetian glass! You'd say there was a magic drink in it.... -But how clean and drenched with sun is this air!" - -"Yes!" - -"He never married? Archer said he thought not." - -"No, he didn't marry." - -"He's rather the kind that marries the world." - -"Yes, I think so. We turn here to the house. Have you the time?" - -"It's almost noon." - -"He will be home, then. He works upon the farm as though he had eyes." - -They left the pebbly beach and went by the cedars up to the house. Tam -came to meet them, and Linden rose from the bench upon the porch. - - - - -VI - - -"And so he was killed," said Curtin, speaking with strongly controlled -emotion. "And I can tell you that when I heard it I felt physically that -shock and crash and mortal bruising. It wasn't only my heart that was -wounded. My nerves and my flesh felt it. Even now I think that there -must be but one body--I got away for a time after he was buried. I went -down to Hyeres. I used to sit there by the sea. He was a lovable fellow, -square as they make them. We were brothers and friends, too. Well, that -is the way it runs! Life--death. Life--death! I would give a good -deal--" - -He had been thirty-odd hours at Sweet Rocket. They had sent up mountain -to Cliff, who took down to his camp news that he would be gone for some -days. They had given him the room next to Linden, and he had become at -once delightfully at home. - -When with Miss Darcy he had stepped upon the porch Linden had said: -"Don't think you take me by surprise! I saw you in my looking-glass this -morning!" - -"It is good to find you again, Linden! What do you mean by your -looking-glass?" - -Linden laughed, his hands upon the old classmate's shoulders. "Only that -I had been thinking of you. And the other night I was with you by the -Sea of Azof. I thought, 'I should like to see him again!' And you know -yourself that when you make a current boats appear upon it!" - -Now, as the four sat about the fire in the big parlor, before the lamp -was lighted, he had been telling of the death of his brother, an -aviator. There had followed silence; then, "Well, let us talk of -something else!" said Curtin. He took up the pipe he had laid upon the -hearth beside him, and raking out a coat from the fire, relit it. "What -do you think is going to happen now, Linden?" - -They sat and talked, and the flames leaped, many and small, in the -mahogany of the room. At ten they rose to separate for the night. - -"Come look at the sky," said Linden. "The first week in October, and -diamond clear!" They went out to the porch, and then, so majestic was -the night, to the sweep before the house, whence they might see the -great expanse. It was very still. The river sounded, but the air rested -a thin and moveless veil. It was not cold. Richard Linden stood -bareheaded, his face uplifted to the vault that writes forever its runes -before men. - -"By George! I forgot!" thought Curtin. "But doubtless he knows them so -well that he knows where they are, season by season." It seemed that it -might be so. Linden spoke as though he saw. "See the Pleiades and -Capella and Aldebaran! The Great Square is at its height. The Cross and -the Eagle and the Lyre. The mountains hide Fomalhaut." They walked a -little way upon the road. Immense and tingling was that view, looking -outward, looking inward, upon those stars. At last they came indoors and -said good night. - -Martin Curtin lay in a big four-poster bed and stared out of window. -Upon going to bed he had slept quickly and soundly. Now he was awake, -and he thought it might be past four of the morning. He felt the subtle -turn toward the day. He heard a dog bark and a cock crow. He was aware -that he had waked suddenly and completely. He was wide awake, and more -than that. There was a keenness, an awareness; keen, sharpened, but also -wide. His body lying very still, he began to remember, but it was -remembering with a deeper and fuller pulse than was ordinarily the case. -He remembered that younger brother who was dead, and not him alone, but -many another, kindred and friends and associates. The past lived again, -but lived with a difference. What multitudes of kindred, and friends, -and associates! The meeting went deep and wide. Had he touched all those -in one life or had it been in many lives? Was the whole texture coming -alive, and in effect did it include the whole past, the whole dead and -gone? However it might be, it was a world transmuted and without pain. -He lay still, regarding it. It was strong and light, and he and it grew -together with a sense of frictionlessness, of exquisite relief, even -with a kind of golden humorousness. None had been truly any better or -worse than another, nor in any way miraculously different, and now they -could understand and laugh together! The sense of union was exquisite, -and the sense of variousness hardly less so. The variousness was without -hostility. It glided and turned smoothly, much as personal thought and -mood might glide and turn. The sense of well-being flowed in every -realm. The perception included environment. Remembered, recalled persons -meant remembered, recalled houses, towns, country, forest and river, -fields and gardens, a thousand, thousand places! Where were they all? -They were all over the earth--light and golden--loved places and the -right people in them! There was nothing rigid--even the places -understood one another. Curtin felt a profound happiness. This one body, -lying at Sweet Rocket, was not wholly forgot nor relinquished. It came -into the pattern of variousness. But Curtin himself was moving in a -wider consciousness. All these people, all these selves of himself! and -he understood their old difficulties and he understood their old -misunderstandings. The _piece_ understood, the beautiful tissue! The -music understood, the notes moving so richly together! It was throbbing -in the present and in the understood, the appropriated past. He never -thought, "How grotesque the thought that we are dead!" The thought could -not even occur. - -For one flash, for less than an instant, the plane lifted. There started -forth a high, a tremendous sense of unity--Presence. It towered, it -overflowed him, he was of it--then the instant closed. As it had come -like a towering wave, so it sank like a wave. But there was left the -lasting thrill of it, and there was left undying aspiration. "Ah, to -find it again! Ah, if it will come again!" - -Where had been sense of the whole, again befell fragmentariness. -Loss--great loss--and yet was there falling sweetness, exquisiteness -still of order! He felt again the wide world that they said was dead, -and yet surely was no such thing. There happened again wide and subtle -change. Out of a stillness, a silence, an isolation, exquisite and -tingling, a state of clarity and poise, one spoke to him _within_, -"Martin!" - -He answered in that space. "Yes, John.... No, grief is absurd!... Just -because we're ignorant!" - -"You can be content. We can be content." - -"Yes, I see! We are all in one, who cannot be destroyed." - -There came no more, but the world was a rhythm, swinging, swinging. -There reigned great rest and calm. Out of this, with much of it yet -clinging, he sank to the square, clean, sparely furnished bedroom at -Sweet Rocket, with the cock crowing, with the old clock in the lower -hall striking five. Curtin lay very quiet in the big bed. Dawn was -coming, but his sense was that of an afterglow. He had felt beauty and -still wonder like this in high mountains, watching Alpine glow. It faded -and faded, but there was left with him assurance, rest, the sense of a -dawn to be, a consciousness behind this consciousness, another -consciousness towering, sun-gilt, in the future. He lay very still, at -rest, hardly wondering. The great things, the beautiful things, were the -natural things. The wholly full and blissful would be the finally -natural. Dawn came in rose and amethyst. - -When it was full light Curtin left his bed, dressed, and went -downstairs. He thought that he would walk by the river or in the garden. -The house was still, the front door open. Early though it was, he found -Linden on the porch starting forth with Tam. He had found, he said, that -he must see Roger Carter, who was riding to-day to Alder and would be -starting presently. "Will you walk with me? But you shouldn't miss your -breakfast. I've had bread and milk." - -"I won't go now," answered Curtin. "I'll walk up and down before the -house for a while. Something happened to me last night, or I happened -into something. I'd like to talk to you about it, Linden--but it won't -fade before you come back. I don't indeed think it will ever fade." - -There was that in Linden's remembered face, when Linden himself had gone -away toward Roger Carter's, that made Curtin think, walking now before -the house as they had walked the night before under the stars: "Does he -know what I felt? Could he even have helped--put a shoulder to the -wheel, seeing that I was grieved and uncertain?" Not so long ago he -might have answered, "That's fantastic!" but he did not so answer now. - -He went into the garden and walked up and down. Before seven Marget came -out to him. "I saw you walking in the dawn like a man in a ballad. Could -you not sleep?" - -"I slept till nearly five." - -They walked by the late asters and the stocks. Said Curtin: "I remember -a line of Masefield's: - - - "... the dim room had mind, and seemed to brood. - - -And again: - - - "And felt the hillside thronged by souls unseen - Who knew the interest in me and were keen - That man alive should understand man dead. - - -Miss Land, do you think that is true?" - -"Yes. Surely." - -"Do you think we can be reassured about the dead--all the dead--and -ourselves when we die?" - -"Yes, I do. Very safe, very sure." - -"Well, I think so this morning." - -They walked by the marigolds and larkspur. "Where do you meet the dead? -In this space?" He indicated it with a wide gesture. - -"No. In space that permeates this space. In added space. When and where -we make space. Though I think," said Marget, "that one day the edges -will have so flowed together that we shall say 'in this space.'" - -"You and Richard Linden both have that assurance?" - -"Yes. Many have it now." She added, "I think, perhaps, that it is more -easily felt in some places than in others." - -He thought, "As we put telescopes on heights." - -They walked by the wall with the ivy. Her quiet, dark eyes were upon -him, friendly, kindly. He thought: "No less than Linden she hoped such a -night for me. Perhaps--" - -A bell rang. "That is for us. Miss Darcy, too, comes down early now." - -They went indoors. Anna Darcy met them in the hall and they went -together into the bright dining room, to their pleasant breakfast, and -Zinia waiting, with "that girl Mercy" still at heart. - - - - -VII - - -The next day was Sunday. Zinia and Mimy and Mancy walked early to their -church, two miles down the river. Marget and Miss Darcy, Linden and -Curtin, went to Alder in the phaeton, drawn by Daniel and Bess. It was -as sunny and still a day as might be found in any autumn land, and most -beauteous was that forest through which they drove. Anna Darcy was glad -to see it again. It rested forever in her mind, a true magic approach. -Marget drove, Curtin sitting beside her, Miss Darcy and Richard Linden -behind them. The jewel miles went by and the pleasant, pleasant air. -Here rose Alder on a green hill, and Alder had three streets, a hundred -dwelling houses, and three white-spired churches. The houses were brick -or frame, with shady yards and late-blooming flowers. They drove by a -small, quaint courthouse, a rambling hotel, and several stores, closed -to-day. The trees were maples and Lombardy poplars and a few ancient -mulberries. Folk were going to church, and they spoke to Sweet Rocket -and Sweet Rocket to them. - -Before them rose a church of white frame, set in an ample churchyard, -all glowing maples with a mosaic of red and gold leaves underfoot. -Street before it and bordering lane held horses and buggies and Fords -and Buicks. The second bell had not rung. Men and boys waited around the -doors, talk and laughter at a Sunday pitch. Women were entering, some -with children in their hands. Sweet Rocket folk, leaving the phaeton, -walking up churchyard path, took and gave greeting. They entered the -church, Marget's hand upon Linden's arm, just guiding him to a pleasant -pew by a pleasant, open window, the weather being yet so warm. Curtin -took his seat, and, turning a little, watched the folk enter. He did not -know when he had been in a village church like this, nor, indeed, had he -been for long in any church at all, barring the cathedrals and churches -abroad, into which he went as artist. A clear, sweet sound, overhead, -rang the second bell. Men and youths came in; the building filled. A -simple place, it was well proportioned and to-day filled with a dreamy, -golden, softened light. In that soft, flowing atmosphere, men and women -and children were gathered as in a bouquet. The choir assembled, the -young woman who was the organist took her place. A woman in the pew -behind Curtin leaned over and gave him an opened hymn book. The minister -appeared, a kindly faced, small, elderly man. The bouquet became more -and more Sunday. - -Curtin glanced at Linden. He sat as always, with ease, and a certain -still power. He seemed to Curtin as simple and whole as a planet in the -sky. This village Methodist church seemed within his frontier, as, when -you thought of it, all other places seemed within it. Curtin remembered. -They were talking, he and Linden, in Odessa, in their hotel, after -having been to a great service in a great church. Linden was telling him -that Religion held all religions, and that he, Linden, belonged solely -to no one church, but liked at times to go sit in any one of them. He -had gone on to say other things, but Curtin--and Curtin remembered this -with a certain pang--had yawned, and said that it had been a tiring day -and that he would off to bed. "My God, I was crass in those years!" -thought Curtin. He still watched Linden, who could not know that he was -being watched; and at the thought Linden turned his head and smiled at -him. His face said as distinctly as if his voice had uttered it, "Yes, -that night at Odessa!" - -Again Curtin, startled at first, felt the startling vanish. He -thought--and, as on last night, his thought seemed to lay hold upon and -give form to a down-draught from some upper region--"Truly the startling -should be over mind broken from mind, not over mind beginning to heal!" - -He sat in a deep study. There came like a picture into his mind Jesus -of Nazareth's parable of the talents. "Ability to perceive thought! If -the world should take that talent and improve it, a different world we -should have anon!" - -"Let us pray," said the minister. When they had prayed, he said, "Let us -sing hymn number--" - -They sang: - - - "Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear, - It is not night if thou be near--" - - -"I will read," said the minister, "from the twenty-fifth chapter of the -Gospel according to Matthew." - -Curtin heard read the parable of the talents. He thought: -"Intercommunication. It widens and deepens and heightens perpetually. -Now it gets to be wireless, independent of gesture or the vocal cords, -or the handwriting." There thronged echoes of his experience of the -other night. "Intercommunication becomes communion. Communion becomes -identity. At last 'we know even as we are known.'" - -The reading ended. They sang - - - "Rock of Ages, cleft for me." - - -All the congregation sang; men, women, and children's piping voices. -They sat down. The minister took his text from the parable he had read. - -It was a good, plain sermon, in which the preacher said more than he -knew he said. The air came in at window, bees buzzed without, a brown -butterfly passed. The congregation breathed gently, rhythmically. The -sun gave life to the flowers upon the women's and the children's hats. -There were young faces and old faces, dull faces and quick faces, intent -faces and wandering faces. Some were rich flowers, and others little -flowers not far from weeds, but all were in the garden. Curtin thought: -"They are like the thoughts and moods of a man, many and various, but -all in the man. One Man.... It was Balzac who said, 'There is but one -animal.' One Man--his name Adam-Eve, or Humanity, as you choose--or, -perhaps, when he finds himself, his name is Christ." - -He looked again at Linden, sitting with that pleased and quiet light -upon his face. The sermon was not extraordinary, the congregation the -average village and country congregation, the church had no especial -grace of interior or exterior. Linden was not habit-bound to it, he did -not hug the letter of its creed. Any one of those around might say: "No, -he does not belong to any church--which is a great pity! No, it isn't -his church." Yet Curtin saw that Linden, sitting there, loved this -place, the feel of the folk around him, the sense of what they were -doing, were striving to do, and, on the whole, were slowly doing. He -comprehended that to Linden it was very simply his own, as were the -other two churches of Alder, and the colored church down the river, and -the Greek church at Odessa. He saw that Linden's possessive was -large--Linden's and Marget Land's. - -Miss Darcy sat very still, her thin hands crossed in her lap. At first -she had listened to the sermon, but now she was in the old church in the -old city, and there was another congregation around her, and another -clergyman, a kinsman, in the pulpit. At first it was like opening a -potpourri jar, and then warmth and light came back to the rose leaves. -"I am there, they are here! Never could I do this or feel this until -now--or I did it so weakly and palely that it did not seem to count!" - -The sermon ended. "Let us pray.... Let us sing." Benediction followed, -then a moment's pause, and then the folk turned from the pews and moved -slowly toward the doors. There were greetings for Sweet Rocket, and -Sweet Rocket greeted in return. All had a grace of friendliness. Anna -Darcy thought: "That is another thing that has come or is coming! What -does it matter now if your name is or is not on the register of a -church? It didn't use to be so. Something gracious and understanding, -invisibly binding, is coming!" She thought: "Those two are the most -beautiful here, but in their degree all are beautiful. And all move on -to completer beauty. Oh, life is coming alive!" - -They drove through Alder and by Alder highway, and at last upon that -lovely forest road to Sweet Rocket. Curtin and Linden fell to talk of -their student days, of such and such teachers and mates, and such and -such happenings. "I had forgotten that!" said Curtin, and again, "I had -forgotten that!" At last he said, abruptly, "You've got an astounding -memory!" - -Linden answered, "Oh, we learn how to use and deepen memory!" The smell -of the forest, the voice of the forest, circled and penetrated. "I -should like to know how you do it," said Curtin. - -"It is like all other things. Practice makes perfect." - -"It is not only remembering. You remember with a strange understanding -of things. You direct later light upon the past. The line is there, the -form is there, even the color and tone, but you make it understood as I -am very certain we did not understand it then! I see now what we were -doing! It's intelligent at last, and bigger." - -"All that you have," said Linden, "isn't too much to apply to the past. -The past has served you, now serve the past. Serve and redeem! Bring it -up, even and great, into the present! To understand past time is to have -present power. Only by understanding it can you love it, unless you wish -to remain infant and love with infant's love." - -The many-hued woods went on, the leafy, narrow, remote road, the scents -and sounds, the miracle of many centered into sole delight. The air was -so fine you could gather what the upper air must be. Daniel and Bess, -the phaeton, the four, stepped and rolled through a magic world, artist -world of the Ancient of Days. Here was the river and the flashing water -of the ford. - -That afternoon they walked upstream as far as the overseer's house. It -was shining, late afternoon. They saw, seated on the porch and the porch -steps, Roger Carter and his wife, with Guy, her brother, who worked on -the farm, and old Mr. and Mrs. Morrowcombe, her parents, paying their -Sunday visit. A little Roger, three years old, played absorbedly with a -chinquapin string and a rag doll that his grandmother had brought him. - -"Let us go across to them," said Marget. "Just so did my father and -mother use to sit." - -Carters and Morrowcombes made them welcome. Linden and Curtin sat upon -the porch steps, Tam beside them. Miss Darcy now played with the young -Roger and now listened to Mrs. Morrowcombe's gentle, flowing talk of -turkeys, and rag carpets, and Sam come home from the war. Mary Carter -had dark eyes and wavy hair, bright color in a round cheek, a shy and -tender smile--a Murillo face. She sat holding a year-old babe, and she -talked shyly and listened with intent eyes. There listened, too, old -Mr. Morrowcombe, with a long, white beard, and a gnarled hand resting on -a stick marvelously carved by himself in prison, long ago, in the old -war. Roger Carter proved a quick, dry talker, with not a little wit and -power of mimicry. He had a way of throwing what he saw and heard and -concluded into a homely story, both telling and amusing. He seemed to -love to make Linden and Marget laugh, and they loved to draw him out. -Curtin saw with what skill they opened fields to him where he might -rejoice in his talent. He saw how they understood fellowship. - -Presently Marget asked Mary if she might take Miss Darcy into the house -and out on the back porch and to the lilac hedge. "Certainly, Miss -Marget, you go right in! It's all straight. Go upstairs, too. Anywhere -you like." - -The two went. "This was mother's room. Here I was born. When I was a -little girl I slept in this tiny room next door. The rain on the roof -drummed me to sleep. This was the boys' room. This is the back porch, -where we did much of the work. It is so lovely and broad! There is the -old well. Yonder is the lilac clump where once, in May, I saw the Spirit -of the Lilac." - -When, half an hour later, they walked homeward along the river bank, -there renewed itself the question of prolonging a visit. "Well, I'm -going to stay, anyhow," declared Curtin. "I like it better here than at -that camp. If you will keep me a month--" - -"Oh, we will!" - -Anna Darcy said: "I can't stay that long. But I'll stay just as long as -I can." - -That matter settled, they walked on, quietly, in the amber and violet -hour. There was a sound of water, a smell of wood smoke. The house rose -before them, richly colored in the sunset. - - - - -VIII - - -The weather changed. On the heel of soft sunshine and quietude came -autumn storm, wind and rain, lashed trees, leaden and heavily sagging -cloud. In the late afternoon Zinia appeared at the parlor door. "Miss -Marget, there are two men on horseback. They've come over Rock Mountain -and missed their way. They say it's getting late, and they say, could we -take them in for the night?" - -"I'll go see," said Linden, and left the room. - -"Of course you will?" - -"Yes, of course," answered Marget. "I had better go see about the room." -Curtin and Miss Darcy, left alone, watched the flame. At last Curtin -said, abruptly, "Had you ever thought of humanity moving on into -superhumanity?" - -"I think that I have been blind and deaf to a great many things! I -suppose I thought that there would be slow, general improvement. But I -did not think of marked betterment here. I thought of the soul at death -springing alive into heaven." - -"Or hell?" - -"Yes, we were taught that." - -"And it was going to reach heaven or hell at one stride! No degree -here, no degree there!" - -"It was irrational!" - -"Naturally, being yet in Time, there are those ahead. Some cross the -line earlier than others." - -Marget returned. "They are two young men, foresters, I think, from the -government purchase on Rock Mountain. They are wet through. Mancy has -built them a fire and Richard is looking after them." She stood by the -window. "The gray rain is chanting up and down the mountains! Queen Rain -and King Wind!" - -Curtin put a chair for her as she came to the hearth. She sat down, and -bending herself, looked into the fire. She held her hands to the flame -and appeared to gather it into them. "The fire!" said Marget, "the -spirit that is fire, that is will--that are living, endless powers, the -Host of the Lord!" - -There fell a silence that was voice. Then said Anna Darcy: "I have -always said, 'I remember--I remember.' But since I came to Sweet Rocket -I have learned far and away more of how to remember." - -Marget turned toward her with a great sweetness. "When we have found a -good thing we so naturally wish to share it! Now you must learn the -Universal Man's present sharing--and his future sharing. You who have -always said, 'I remember,' and who have been unselfish, will have little -trouble." - -Her look included Curtin, who sat staring into the fire. He drew a long -breath. "Two weeks ago I should have said that adventure and youth had -passed from my life." - -"You are just beginning to find them! Henceforth you will find rest and -romance, salt in life and the true wine and the uncloying honey and the -bread of right wheat. You will find water of Moses's spring, and the -Burning Bush." - -The rain and the wind sang against the pane. The fire made shape upon -shape. The high, inward vibration lowered, but it left a memory of -itself. There was the Jericho rose in the sandal box to say, "When there -comes moisture again to my root, then shall I bloom again!" - -Linden entered the parlor with the two guests, now with dried clothing, -rested and refreshed. It was growing dusk. The room looked warm and -bright to them, a happy haven after a battering day. They were young -men; twenty-seven, twenty-nine, forestry graduates, resuming forestry -after an interlude of war. Linden presented them. "Mr. Randall--Mr. -Drew." - -The evening closed in stormy. They had supper, a small bright feast, -with talk and laughter. Randall proved lively, good company. Drew was -much the quieter of the two. Supper over, they returned to the big -parlor and the generous fire. The boy Jim had brought in a great armful -of wood. It was a night to heap logs, as the rain drummed against the -pane. Randall was talkative. He flowed like a mountain stream, trilled -like a care-free bird. - -Forests and forestry came into the room. It appeared that both had had -from childhood a taste, not to say a passion, for woodland life. Randall -had lived in the country, so it came natural. But Drew had lived in a -city. But forests were a passion with him; he had to get into them, and -did so at every chance, and at last left for good a clerkship in a -stockbroker's office, and scraped together enough for that course in a -forestry school. This gave him surface learning, but he exhibited a -deeper knowingness, gained somewhere. "Drew's like an Indian in the -woods!" - -"No. Not like an Indian," said Drew. - -Linden asked, "Like whom, then?" - -He sat in a corner of the great fireplace, Tam, who came indoors upon -nights like these, lying at his feet. "Drew," said Randall, "tell them -about that night in France! He's got a curious story. He won't tell it -to everybody. But I don't know--somehow we're all at home here." His -quick song went on. "You see, my folk and Drew's are English. We're just -a generation from fields and things that we've heard about all our -lives. So when England went in, we thought we'd better go over, and we -did. We were in the same company, and this was before Verdun. Go on, -now, Drew!" - -Drew began at once, without prelude, his eyes upon the blind man. "It -was something that happened to me. Sometimes I think that it was a -dream, and then I know that it wasn't. I'm more and more certain as time -goes on that it wasn't. I've got a kind of feeling about Reality, that -we are like swallows skimming it. I suppose that now and then a swallow -tumbles into it. Well, it was a big, dark wood, fairly early in the war. -A detachment, sent we did not know by whom nor for what, moved through -it from one station to another. I was second lieutenant. Well, there -came news of a trap, and most of us turned off in a hurry, out of that -wood. But--I don't to this day know how it was--as many as twenty were -away from the rest, sent to find out something, somewhere. It was night, -and there was no path. We got the warning, too, and we swung round and -tried to get back to the main body. There came a spattering of shot. -There were men besides ourselves in that wood. They rose like partridges -and struck like hawks. We struck back. There was fighting. Something -came down on my head like a falling tree. I remember that I thought it -was a falling tree. Then everything went black, and it seemed both a -long time and a short time till dawn. - -"It came at last, dawn. I sat up, and it had been a falling tree. My -forehead had an aching lump and a gash, but luckily just a branch had -struck me and I had rolled clear. It was a very old oak, brought down -by the high wind. Upon the branch beside me was growing mistletoe. I -wouldn't touch it, for I thought, 'It is not for me to touch it, but -surely it saved my life!' There was gray light, and one red streak far -down the forest where, after a time, would be the sun. And then I -remembered that it was Lutwyn who had saved my life, crying out, and -pushing me away, where I had thrown myself down for one moment's rest. I -looked beyond the mistletoe and I saw that the tree had caught and -pinned down a man. I crept on hands and knees, for I was dizzy yet, and -I found Lutwyn. He lay pale and twitching, his leg and part of his body -under the trunk of the oak. It was very still and lonely in the forest, -and the first cold light made me shiver, and I was afraid of the -mistletoe, so near. I got Lutwyn from under the tree, and it took all my -strength to do it. The spring that we called Red Deer was hardly a spear -throw away. I had on a cap of otter skin, and I filled this with water -and brought it back to Lutwyn. When I had dashed it over his face and -put it between his lips, he sighed, and came to himself, opening his -eyes and trying to sit up. He said, 'I thought it would catch you, and I -tried to thrust you out of its way--' - -"I said: 'Are you badly hurt? Can you walk?' - -"He tried, but he could only drag himself a little way, holding by a -branch of the tree. The light had grown stronger, the red line down the -forest was a red splash. We were both thinking of Guthlac and his men, -who were after us because, being outlaws, we had set upon and stopped a -bullock wagon and helped ourselves. We had strong belief that when they -found us they would hang us. We had no great start of them. - -"Lutwyn said: 'You go on, Oswy! I'll make myself at home here, by the -mistletoe.' - -"That couldn't be. I couldn't carry him. He was, if anything, a little -taller and larger than I. He tried again to move, but it was not his leg -alone; his body had been hurt, terribly hurt, I now saw. He could not -make a step. It was I who drew him back to the tree. He settled down -into the hollow made by the trunk and a bough, and I looked at his -hurts, but could do little for them. I saw that they were filled with -danger. The mistletoe grew so near him. I looked at it, and I wished it -would heal. Lutwyn said: 'Now you go on, Oswy! I don't want you to be -hanged.' I said, 'Save your breath!' and sat down beside him. We rested -side by side against the tree, and he said that he was not in pain, but -only now and then drowsy. He was very clear in his mind and wanted to -talk. I listened for Guthlac and his men, and looked at the mistletoe. -The sun was up now and it was growing gold--the mistletoe--a great bunch -of it. I did not hear Guthlac. It was likely to be some time before -they found us, having to wait till day to see our track. Now and then I -felt Guthlac's rope around my neck. And then I looked at the mistletoe, -and it seemed to be growing by Woden's chair. Then Lutwyn came awake -again and we talked. We were twin brothers. We talked of when we were -boys, and of our mother, and Lutwyn the Strong, our father, and of -places we had seen and the earth we had trod. The Earth that was us, we -thought, springing up in us all toward Father Sun. And all the wrong -that we had done went away, and the mistletoe grew more golden. He -drowsed away for longer and longer times. - -"Far away I heard Guthlac's horn. It blew, and another answered. They -had found our track and were drawing together. Lutwyn waked, and heard -it, too. 'But there's another horn for me,' he said. 'Don't you hear -that one?' He had slipped from the hollow of the oak and his head was on -my knee. The horn blew louder and nearer. The mistletoe was all golden. -I could feel Guthlac's rope around my neck. But I was glad they would -not hang Lutwyn. He was dead. - -"The horn blew louder in the wood. I heard them shouting. The mistletoe -was burning gold. I said, 'Woden, Woden! we be brothers, Lutwyn and me!' -They broke upon us, shouting, and all went black--" - -Drew stopped speaking. He sat bent over, looking at the fire. Putting -down a hand he stroked Tam. Straightening himself, he looked at Linden -and Marget. "All that was actual," he said. "Just as actual, just as -real, just as day and night and earthly and conscious as this room and -the fire and we six and the dog!" - -He made a movement toward Randall. "You tell the rest." - -Randall's voice came in. "The detachment drove the Germans out of the -wood and chased them a good long way. It was dawn when we stopped and -went back to gather up our hurt and dead. There were a dozen dead, -Germans and us, and a good many hurt, all scattered through that wood -that was full of big trees. We found Drew propped against a very great, -old, fallen tree. He had been struck over the head in the hand-to-hand -fighting and had a cut or two besides. Nothing odd in that, but what was -odd was that he was cherishing a dead German--had his head lying on his -knee! Of course, enemies lying as close as lovers wasn't any novelty! -But Drew had crept some little way to this man, and had tried to stop -his bleeding, all there in the dark, and had given him water, and then -had gathered him into his arms. He said: 'Yes, he was Drew, but he was -one Oswy, too. Yes, that was a German, but it was Lutwyn, too.' He said -they were twin brothers. We were used to men out of their heads, so we -gathered him up and took him on. He wanted us to stop and bury the -German, but there wasn't time for that. The funny thing is that he -certainly isn't out of his head now! Yet he still believes that story, -though he won't tell it to every one...." - -The rain beat, the fire burned. "I've tried to get back," said Drew, -"back to Guthlac and the bullock wagon and why we were outlaws. If I -could find even now what we did--if I could get farther back still, to -the point where we decided to do it, and redecide, decide more wisely, -having long light upon it, I think that even now I could change in some -way the whole world! Changing it to Lutwyn and me would mean changing -the whole texture." - -"You are right," said Linden. "And seeing it that way you have begun to -put your change into operation." - -The fire shined, the rain beat upon the panes, the wind came with the -impact of sea in storm. Pictures shifted before the inner eye. Lands and -times held the earth. Now they seemed foreign pictures, now there was a -faintly conscious participation. "We are Earth, to-night," said Linden. -"All these are in our memory. Earth is growing conscious. A conscious -Spirit. That is what we mean to-day when we say, 'There is a new world -just beneath the horizon.'" - - - - -IX - - -In the night the storm ceased. The household woke to a high, clear, -stirring morning, the clouds riding in archipelagoes with, between -isles, a sea bluer than the AEgean. The shaken trees had spread a Persian -carpet. All the flowers hung heavy with wet, snails marched on the -paths, Sweet Rocket glistened. - -Randall and Drew must ride away, so at ten o'clock Jim brought their -horses. - -Marget and Anna Darcy walked through the flower garden. "I am going to -Mimy's house for a little. Will you come, too?" - -Marget had a basket upon her arm. "It is full of silk and cotton scraps -for Julia's quilts. The day I met you in Alder I begged of two or three -friends and they gave me all this! It is Julia's intense industry and -happiness, piecing quilts." - -"Who is Julia?" - -"Mimy's lame daughter. Lame in her body and just a little lame in her -mind." - -"Where does Just So come in?" - -"Oh, he's Susan's! Susan has been away upon a visit, but she's home -again. Zinia is Mimy's niece, and Jim is her grandson. Mimy and her -husband, old Uncle Jack, who is dead, 'belonged,' as they call it, to -the Lindens. When Richard bought Sweet Rocket she was living in Alder, -and she rode over in a wagon one day and told him she wanted to come -home--just like me!" said Marget, with a happy laugh. "The old cabins -were tumbling down. Richard built her a real house. He said that any who -came and said, 'This is home'--" Her dark eyes looked afar to the valley -rim. - -"Where does Mancy live?" - -"Over there, behind the big field. He and Delia, his wife, and William, -who is Roger Carter's right-hand man." - -Mimy, in the kitchen, was singing: - - - "Roll, Jordan, roll! - I want to go to heaven to hear Jordan roll. - Oh, roll, Jordan, roll!" - - -Marget stopped at the door. "We're going to your house, Aunt Mimy, with -quilt pieces for Julia." - -Mimy interrupted her singing. "Are you gwine take company?" - -"Well, she isn't company." - -"You'll find a mighty mess in that house! I don't think I ought to let -you go, Miss Marget! You see, Susan's been away, and Julia can't get -around, and when Zinia comes from the big house she wants to _read_! -instead of straightening up. I reckon you better not go." - -Marget laughed. "Aunt Mimy, you know how we'll find the house!" - -"Well, go along!" said Mimy, gloomily. "Julia'll be glad to get the -pieces." - -They left the kitchen behind them. - - - "And I want to go to heaven to hear Jordan roll!" - - -Marget's low, warm laughter sounded again. "Her house is like a pin, and -she's so proud of it, and she wouldn't for anything miss having you see -it! The same little rhyme is said to every guest we have. And '_read!_' -Mimy's so proud to see Zinia sit at a table and read! Jim can read, too, -but he doesn't like to. But Zinia is fond of books." - -Mimy's house rose beside the orchard, a pretty cottage with a dooryard -filled with cockscomb and larkspur and marigold. At the gate grew a bush -of myrrh, and the porch had over it a gourd vine. Just So sat in the -middle of the path, playing with red and blue blocks. At the sound of -voices Susan appeared, a clear-brown, neat, and active woman. "Just So, -don't you clutter up the path like that! Come this-a-way, Miss Marget!" -She took them across the porch, where the gourd vine made so pleasant a -pattern, into a little parlor, bright as a pin. They sat and talked, and -then Susan said that she would bring Julia, and, leaving the room, -reappeared, pushing a wheeled chair. In this sat Julia, who was almost a -middle-aged woman, and had a slender, pleasing face, and was only a -little lame in her mind. - -Marget emptied the basket. "Oh, my!" said Julia, and again, "Oh, my!" -With eager fingers she spread the bits of silk and velvet and satin and -striped or flowered ribbon. "Flower-garden pieces! It will be a -flower-garden quilt. I'll make a quilt like they have in heaven!" - -"Shoo! Julia!" exclaimed Susan. "They don't have quilts in heaven. It -ain't cold there!" - -Julia's face took on an imploring, almost a frightened look. She turned -to Marget. "If they don't have quilts I won't have anything to do!" - -With all that she knew of Marget Land, Miss Darcy could but wonder at -the luminous sweetness, the depth and the play with which Marget, seated -by Julia, dealt with the latter's fears. All the bright pieces were -spread over the knees of both. "In heaven you'll put rose and blue -together, and this violet and green. And look how these flowered pieces -go! Your quilts are for warmth and beauty, Julia, aren't they? Shut your -eyes and see warmth and beauty, warmth and beauty!" She put her hand -over the lame woman's hand. The latter's plaintive look changed, her -eyes brightened, and she nodded her head. "Yes! To keep us warm; and -they are lovely, like the flowers! Warm like the sun is!" - -"Yes. Warmth and beauty--warmth and beauty! So in heaven you're to keep -on with warmth and beauty. And you'll learn, too, how well wisdom goes -with them. Their quilts aren't just like these quilts, but you won't -care for that. You'll be putting together and giving beautiful, bright -things!" - -Julia caressed a length of flowered ribbon. "That's what I think. -They're warm and beautiful, warm and beautiful! And every one I give a -quilt to says, 'I'm so glad I've got one!'" - -"When you put that piece in, think 'warm and beautiful' for Mrs. Gray. -She gave it to you. And Miss Lucy Allen gave the beautiful blue piece." - -When they had quitted the porch with the gourd vine, and the dooryard, -and the gate by the myrrh bush, and were under the orchard trees, Marget -said: "She's been making quilts for twenty years. Perhaps two a year, -and into each one goes I do not know what dim thinking and feeling, -warmth and beauty, for such and such a one!" - -It was Miss Darcy's habit to rest a little in her own room after dinner. -In the midafternoon, coming downstairs, she found the door of Linden's -study open. Linden turned his head, hearing her step. "Come in! Here are -Marget and Curtin." - -It was the first time she had entered this room. Her eyes took it in as -she crossed the threshold, and found it a simple, grave place, as simple -and grave and charged with its own aroma and spirit as a pine wood. It -spread a large room, with plenty of space for pacing up and down. The -bookcases, the desk, the chairs, an old, long cane and wood sofa were -for use. The plain walls held a few prints. In one of the deep windows -stood a large globe. - -Curtin put Miss Darcy a chair. "I've just come in," he said. There had -grown between them, beginning the morning upon which she found him -fishing, or not fishing, in the gorge that closed the valley, a quiet -liking and friendship, with a sense, perhaps, of standing even in the -inner world. "Linden was saying--" - -Marget sat before the desk not far from the fireplace, in which burned a -light flame. She had been writing, and Linden dictating from his big -cane chair by the long window. She had turned from the desk and he had -moved his chair to where he sat, half in firelight, half in tawny -sunlight. To Anna Darcy's sense the room had strongly that luminousness -which in some sort she found in the whole of Sweet Rocket, in valleys, -hills, house, and folk. The whole made a sun-filled cluster that, acting -as a cluster, redoubled so all effects. But undoubtedly Linden and -Marget were the center of the cluster. - -"I am glad you have come in," said Curtin. "Linden was speaking of -their life here--" - -"I told you, you remember, driving through the woods, of our outer -life," Marget said. "Sitting here before the fire we had begun to talk -of that far larger life within the outer." - -Linden spoke. "Martin asked me, and I was telling him as clearly as I -could. It is not wholly clear, you must not think, to Marget and me, our -progression and our life. 'Man is a bridge,' says Nietzsche. A living -bridge that crosses from himself to himself. Always the provisional, the -halfway, gone afar even while we say, 'Here am I!' How to name a thing -that travels so fast! The life of Marget and me changes and grows, as -does yours and yours. The history of one--the history of all. There is -at once divine difference, divine sameness. No hand and no word will -hold our life!" - -"I don't know anyone like you," said Curtin. - -"No. But you will presently begin to know more and more who differ from -us and yet who belong in the order--the order of those who are aware -that present man is a bridge and who begin consciously to act, feel, and -know in a larger existence." - -"And that is still inward?" - -"The world still calls it inward. To those in that existence inward and -outward, past, present, and future, come into one. The old words, then, -are but retained words of convenience. As to the ultimate mind Martin -and Richard, Marget, Anna, are but words of convenience, names for -strands of experience. All are comprehended, combined, surpassed." - -The sun lighted his hair, his bronzed face, his quiet eyes, the sight of -which he seemed so little to miss. After a moment's pause he spoke on: -"To-day many and many are aware of the richness of destiny. Some more -so, some less so, but aware! Faculties that in a host are but germinal -build in and for others realities. The momentary, superficial present, -not being the true present, there _are_, not 'there have been' since the -dawn of history, many such men and women. Very many; a host. There are -many to-day; to-morrow there will be more. If you regard with intentness -you may see the new Humanity forming." - -"What of those who neither dream, nor divine, nor wish, who come on so -slow?" - -"Their not divining nor dreaming nor wishing is more apparent than real. -All come on. The slowest, who thinks he has no direction, is drawn -unconscious until the day when he discovers the compass." - -"Will any never cross?" - -"I don't think so." - -"And when the last human being has crossed?" - -"Then will the others come on into humanity--they that we call the -animals. And those behind them will lift to where they were. But our -wave goes on into the spiritual world that is the world of subtler -matter, vaster energy, understanding at last, love at last, beauty at -last. Well, Marget and I are conscious travelers thitherward, as are you -and you." - -"Ah, you are ahead of me!" - -"And of me!" - -"In some ways we may be ahead. And in others you may have store of -energy and experience that sets you ahead. That matters not in the -least. Whitman said that when he said: - - - "By my side or back of me, Eve following, - Or in front, and I following her, just the same. - - -Like him, too: - - - "Content with the present and content with the past, - - -yet lassoing the past and the present with the future!" - -Curtin shook his head. "You have powers that are not mine." - -"If we have them, they will be yours. Marget and I think that we have, -as it were, a blueprint. But not yet do we walk in the full and great -temple! We do faintly and weakly what one day we shall do with all -vigor. And many things that we do not yet dream we shall do! And you -also, you and Anna. When you begin to feel continuity, when no matter -where you move you take possession of yourself--" - -He rose from his chair, and, standing before them, put a hand upon -Curtin's shoulder and a hand upon Anna Darcy's. "'With all your getting, -get understanding.' 'The kingdom of heaven is within you.' God is _I -am_." - -The sun struck through the western window, the fire burned, the room was -lighted and warmed. Flame and stirring air made a low singing. - - - - -X - - -The next day Drew came back. Curtin, seated on the porch, saw him cross -the river and ride up by the cedars. Shutting his book, he descended the -steps to meet him. "Good day, Drew! Glad to see you back! Nothing -wrong?" - -Drew dismounted. "No. I wanted to talk to Mr. Linden." - -Jim, coming around the house, took the horse. "He's out somewhere on the -place," said Curtin. "Miss Land, too. But they will be back by twelve. -Did you ride from Rock Mountain this morning?" - -"Yes. It's not so far once you know the way." - -He took the chair that Curtin hospitably pushed forward, and sat -apparently in a brown study, while the other speculated. At last said -Drew: "This is a good, big farm with room, I shouldn't be surprised, for -another worker. At any rate, I've ridden over to ask Mr. Linden to -employ me." - -"Do you like farming better than forestry?" - -"I like it better plus some other things." His eyes swept the hills -that shut in the vale. "There is rich forest here. Any woodland that he -has I could cut and replant. I know something of farming, too, and I can -learn more. I'd give good work in return for the other things that they -can teach me, and that I want." - -He regarded Curtin with brooding eyes. "Ever since I could remember I -have been beset by the past. A man told me once that I was conscious -there, but hadn't co-ordinated it with the present and the future. It -was some time ago, and he went away at once and I never found his like -again--until I came here. I don't think there are many of them, living -at any one time. The only wisdom I've got is the wisdom of going where I -think I may find help." - -"How about Randall?" - -"I'm very fond of Randall. But he can't help me here, nor I him. He -thinks it's just my 'queerness.' There's a man in Washington who will be -mighty glad to get my job. He's a friend, too, of Randall's. I want to -stay here for a year. Then I may go foresting again with Randall. I -don't want to lose him. If Mr. Linden can't use another man this winter -perhaps he will take me in the spring. In that case I'll go, and come -again. I've talked it all out with Malcolm Smith, our chief at Rock -Mountain. Brown in Washington will come down right away." - -At twelve appeared Linden. He stood in the hall door. "Is it you, Drew? -I will be down in a moment to shake hands." They heard his step going up -to his room. "Blind, and not blind!" said Curtin. "There's some profound -development of sensibility." - -"I am not a scholar," said Drew. "I haven't got the names to give to -things. That's a part of my need." - -Marget and Miss Darcy came up from the river path. They had been, it -seemed, to the overseer's house. Marget gave her hand to Drew. "I am -glad to see you again!" There was no surprise in her warm and happy -voice. "Your room is all ready for you." - -They had dinner. When it was over Drew went with Linden into his study. -The three others lingered a little in the pleasant, wide hall. The day -was again right October; amber and garnet and sapphire; balm with -nothing of lethargy. - -Said Curtin, "When we come and come, what do you do at last?" - -Marget laughed. "Oh, you come and go! You never really go, you know! But -you have to take your bodies here and there over earth. But once come, -we keep you and you keep us!" - -"You know people all over the earth?" - -"Yes." - -"Do they write?" - -"Oh, now one and now another writes! But we hardly need letters. That -is, they are needed, of course, for minute information, for news of -bodily movement. But there is communion whether we write or not." - -Marget returned to the dining room to talk with Zinia. Anna Darcy went -up to her chamber for her rest, and Curtin took his book to the porch. - -The books at Sweet Rocket. He fell to pondering them. There were, -perhaps, five thousand, not in one room, but up and down. Many were old, -and many neither old nor new, and many new. They seemed to touch all -subjects. - -Curtin, pondering, going deeper and deeper, fell into some border -country of Reality. With swiftness, with electric shock, he touched, not -thousands of leaves of paper printed over, but conscious, intelligent, -and powerful life. Or rather, it seemed to touch, to descend upon him, -to well through him, coming down, coming from within, occupying space -internal to all this tranquil, outer, October space. It was presence, it -was personality, overwhelming. Books! What were true books? Will, -Desire, Intelligence, living, active, not unclothed or unbodied, living -Presence, present Activity, being in mass, active being, present and -active here in this valley and present and active elsewhere, present and -active throughout he knew not what infinity! He felt again that wide and -deep shock of reality. The world lived!--had always lived--only he had -not known it. - -Vigor streamed into vein and nerve. He sprang to his feet, and, leaving -the porch, moved down past the cedars to the river path, and along it. -"It is not Richard Linden and Marget Land, nor the one nor the other! It -is all of us. It is the Whole. The Whole has found them and is bringing -them in accord." He felt exquisitely a touch of bliss. "It will bring me -in accord, too. Drew and Miss Darcy and me--and many others." He felt a -satisfaction such as he had never dreamed. "All others. One by one, all -accorded, all remembered. The Already Remembered, forever increasing in -strength, gathering, drawing, the scattered and fragmentary and -incipient!" - -He walked, hardly knowing that he walked. "Goodness and largeness! The -dawn of them is synchronous with the dawn of Allness. All our words, -mercy, justice, love, wisdom, power, joy, are but terms for the natural, -habitual feeling of the One who is Whole. It is not that they are -'virtues'! They are the hue and tone and sense of health!" - -He went up the river as far as the overseer's house. Here, upon the -bench built around the sycamore, he found old Mr. Morrowcombe, who had -stayed over with the Carters. In his old brown clothes, with hair and -long beard, pale as the pale patches of the sycamore trunk and boughs, -leaning forward upon his stick, he looked, as it were, the huge old tree -come forth into human form. - -Curtin sat down beside this old man. The cane upon which the elder -leaned was now close to his eye and he saw that it was covered with -finely cut words. Thick, and shaped like a shepherd's crook, the graving -ran all over it. "May I look?" - -"Surely!" said Mr. Morrowcombe, and gave it into his hand. "The year I -was in prison at Camp Chase I carved around it the twenty-third psalm." - -Curtin examined the quite beautifully done work. "Trust and Consolation -in your hand--walking with them for fifty years!" He sat musing. - -Mr. Morrowcombe's old, gentle voice began like the zephyr in the -sycamore, whose beginning you could hardly guess. "Yes, sir! That -staff's me now. Just as a good dog that goes with you gets to be you. -It's helped me, week days and Sundays; that staff I made myself. I made -it myself, and I didn't make it. I didn't make the tree that grew it and -I didn't make the psalm; nor David that made the psalm. But I cut the -staff from the tree and I carved the words there. So I reckon I have my -part." - -"You cut it in prison?" - -"Do you see that piece just thar?" The old finger traced the line. -"'_Thou settest me a table in the presence of mine enemies._' I cut that -deep and fierce!" - -He looked at the river and then again at Curtin. "Now, whatever it -means, I know it doesn't mean what then I wanted it to mean!" - -His old, gentle face grew meditative, contemplative. A more tranquil -form and face it would have been hard to find. "I kind of sense the -meaning, but I can't put it into words. But when you feel at last with -folks and things you can't feel against them. When I was young I must -have hated a lot of folk! I don't now." - -"What is your healing herb?" - -"Put yourself in his place. Don't oust him from the place, but -understand him. Flow into him deep! Then you'll find that there is -Something inside or above you and him which understands and straightens -out both of you. Next thing you find is that you haven't got any real -controversy." - -"Do you call that something God?" - -"That's what I call it. I used to think that you _had_ to call it God. I -don't now. But it's a mighty good word! We've hallowed it. It's the -biggest word we've got." - -"Mr. Morrowcombe, when we join God, don't you think we shall say 'I'?" - -"_That_ will say 'I.' Yes." - -They sat gazing at the river and the colored hills. "Ain't this a lovely -place?" said Mr. Morrowcombe. "It's like Beulah Land!" - -"Do you ever talk to Mr. Linden?" - -"Surely! Him and Marget Land. They're of those in our time who are -remembered early." - -He glided into one of his gentle silences. Curtin pondered that matter -of re-membering, re-collecting, re-storing. - -Said Mr. Morrowcombe, "I knew Marget Land when she was a little girl and -came to Sunday school. She was baptized in our church, but she ain't now -one of our church members. That used to grieve and puzzle me--make me a -little angry, too, I reckon! Now I don't bother about it. She's in the -Living Church, all right." - -He looked up into the bronze and silver sycamore. "I've sat on this -bench in old Major Linden's time, when John Land was overseer and lived -in the house yonder. His wife, Elizabeth, was just the salt of the -earth. Those children used to be playing around this tree. I remember -Marget, a bare-legged, big-eyed little thing. She's sat by me often on -this bench and made me tell her stories. Now it seems a long time ago, -and now it seems yesterday!" - -His voice sank again into the October sunshiny stillness. His lips -closed, but Curtin felt him speaking on in thought and consciousness. It -came to him, in another of those revelational flashings: "That is the -ultra-violet of speech, the high, subtle, inaudible, continual speech! -When we begin to catch it, when we begin to hear thought--" He felt -again the shock of going together, of rivers pouring into ocean. - -Mr. Morrowcombe's lips parted. "The war turned me serious, and I found -religion two years after the surrender. I'd tell her Bible stories. I -had a kind of gift that-a-way. Roger Carter, that's my nephew as well as -my son-in-law, has got the same gift, though it ain't always Bible -stories that he tells--except I reckon as all true stories are Bible -stories! I used to tell her about David and Jonathan, and Joseph and his -brethren, and Ruth and Naomi, and Mary and Martha and Lazarus, in -Bethany.... Mary and Martha in yourself, and Lazarus who was long dead -but could be raised, and Christ, who could judge and portion and raise, -all in yourself! She used to listen, sitting just there. She had mind -then, and she's got mind now--more'n I have in a lot of ways. She and -him. Mind and goodness, and spirit that is power, and a body that you -love to look at! They're the kind of folk that ought to be. Yes, sir, I -was thinking when you came along of Marget sitting there, a little -thing, and saying, 'Now tell me about the children of Israel'--or 'about -Bethlehem,' as it might be." - -With distinctness Curtin felt that which the old man also seemed to -feel, for he turned his head, lowering it and his eyes a little, and -smiling. The movement was precisely that of turning and smiling into a -child's eyes. Again through Curtin poured that thrill of a freshness of -knowledge. If this tree, this place, were strongly in a consciousness, -in a memory, surely then that conscious spirit itself might in some -sort be felt here! At any rate, he was aware of Marget, though to all -outward senses appeared only the warm-colored October air. He had again -the sense of etheric life. He lost it. It was so bright, it was so -transient! The unquenchable desire was to bring it lasting. - -He presently walked back to Sweet Rocket House. Drew was on the porch. -"I'm going to stay. I'll write to Brown, and ride to Rock Mountain -to-morrow to tell Mr. Smith and Randall, and pack up my things." - - - - -XI - - -The next day Drew returned to Rock Mountain to make his arrangements. -"Why not ride with him?" Linden looked at Curtin. "There is a fair -trail. You have an extraordinarily fine view from the top." - -Drew urged it likewise. "But I haven't a horse." - -"Roger Carter has a good saddle mare. He will be glad, I know, to let -you have her." - -Drew, mounted as he came, Curtin on Dixie, set out before noon for Rock -Mountain. The cliffy crest that gave it its name peered above the -southern hills and ridges facing Sweet Rocket. Crossing the river the -two kept for some little distance to the Alder road, then at a pine tree -left it for a just discernible track. "This is where we changed, Randall -and I, the other day. Until we saw the river we thought that we were -going to Alder, but we were going to Sweet Rocket instead." - -The trees closing in behind them, they were plunged into forest. There -was now no green save the green of occasional pine or hemlock. All was -gold or red or russet. Moreover, the earlier trees to turn were fast -flinging their mantles upon the earth. The sky met less obstruction, the -sunlight spread a royal carpet. The air equaled exhilaration. As Curtin -rode he thought that he faintly remembered all the forests of the world. -"Is it infectious? Is it because in some sort Drew remembers, or is it -because I have been--and surely I _have_ been--in all the forests of the -world? Like him, I remember best the temperate and the northern forests, -because in time they are the nearer." - -For a while they rode in silence. There was only the sound of their own -breathing and movement, and the very inner voice of the forest, low -speech of branches that brushed them, break of twigs, flutter of wings, -tap of woodpeckers, whisk of squirrel, and once, a little way off, the -heavy whir of a pheasant. At last Drew broke the silence. "My mother -died when I was fifteen years old, and my father when I was twenty. I -remember my mother's mother and my father's mother and father. I know a -good deal about their life after I was born and their life before I was -born. I have a fair notion of my grandparents' parents, and I know -something of the way of life of the generation behind that one. I have -been told and I have read. Of course there are presently ancestors of -whom I have been told nothing, and behind these countless others. Of -course I know that people often imaginatively share the experience of -parents and kindred. They say: 'It must have been so and so with my -mother and my father--or with my grandparents--or my ancestors -generally. They had these experiences and they must have felt and done -this way. It seems almost as if I were there!' I think when you say that -you are beginning. But it's grown to be more than that with me. After -all, what are you but your parents, your grandparents, your -great-grandparents, and so on? Your experience under your immediate name -and your experience under your old names--their names. And alike, what -are they but you? Share and share, comprehend and comprehend, include -and include! I tell you that I am aware of the pyramid behind this -cleaving point that is talking to you. I _remember_." - -"Do you mean that you remember actually thinking, feeling, doing what -men say your ancestors did?" - -"I don't get it clear. It's all wrought into some kind of unity. I don't -remember clearly sharp, isolated experiences--except that one time I -told you about, and that was clear and sharp repetition. But I remember, -all the same. I don't feel any wall between my father and myself, -between my mother and myself, my grandparents and myself. You don't know -how curiously I seem to share their life! Sometimes, lying still at -night, I simply, naturally, am Edward Drew as well as Philip Drew. I -look out of the Edward Drew window--or out of the Andrew or Robert or -Margaret or Janet window--and then I turn and look out of the Philip -Drew window. I had a great-grandfather who was a sailor. I can't tell -you what feel of the deck beneath my feet, what a sense of sea by day -and by night, I have at times!... But then, of course, in the far back I -must join many sailors.... I _am_ those folk. That's my own life they -led. I lead their life. Wherever they are, they lead mine!" - -He fell silent, and Curtin, too, rode silent. They were now above the -valley, their road climbing. Overpassing a great hill they came to a -threadlike, green vale, and crossing this climbed Bear Mountain, behind -which rose the great head of Rock. When they reached a gushing mountain -spring they dismounted, and, seated on moss and leaves under a tall -mountain linden, all palely gold, ate the bread and cheese and damson -tart and drank the cider that Sweet Rocket had put in the bag they -carried. Their feast ended, they rested on the springy, fragrant earth. - -Drew began again. "Remembrance! If I had a hundred per cent better -brain--and I suppose one day the brain of all of us will be a hundred, a -thousand per cent, ahead of what it is now--I am convinced that I could -remember not only down the stalk of myself, but out into the branches -right and left. The tree conscious from leaf to root, from root to -leaf! The whole tree conscious, aware up and down and to and fro--and, -as somewhere all the forest joins on, the forest conscious and aware up -and down of its history. Then the forest runs into all the forests high -and low. The everlasting Forest and all its adventures!" He looked as -though he rode in that forest. "Out of it comes the Tree that sheds the -forests! And never once need we lose consciousness in finding that Tree! -That's what Mr. Linden said to me. He said: 'You're the Ash Yggdrasil. -You're all things and all people. You share them and they share you. -You're to extend, extend, your sense of that. The One is to come down -and lay hold upon you--and still you shall find it home and yourself!'" - -On they rode over Bear Mountain, and at last up Rock. Five hundred feet -below the top lay a green depression named Hall's Gap. Here a half-dozen -cabins made Hall's Town. The people now owned Rock Mountain, its rich -forests and rushing waters. A road was in the making and that and other -department plans brought to Hall's Gap preliminary groups, the present -group being a surveying, engineering, and reporting one, with Malcolm -Smith for head. Under him he had Cooper and Morris, Randall and Drew, -with axmen and spademen hired from the mountain. The cabins in the Gap -lodged them all. - -Curtin and Drew reached this place before sunset. The men were coming -in, dogs barked, the smell of coffee and bacon hung in the air. Randall -welcomed them, and presently Malcolm Smith appeared and shook hands. -They had supper in Hall's big double cabin, with Hall and Mrs. Hall and -half a dozen flaxen-haired young Halls, but after supper they went to a -neighboring cabin, for the time being their own. Pine knots blazed on -the hearth. Malcolm Smith and Cooper and Morris, Randall and Drew and -Martin Curtin stretched tired limbs and smoked and talked. Morris and -Cooper presently played checkers. Malcolm Smith read the newspaper, but -after a little put it down and talked. He talked of aviation, and -wireless, and of Einstein's notion of space, and of atomic energy. "I've -an idea that ideas, ideation generally, imagery, perhaps memory, are -simply that energy functioning! We imagine, and that energy has -constructed a form in ether. We use it blindly, weakly, unintelligently. -But if--" - -"I see." - -"But if we used it enormously more strongly--and wisely--we'd be -creators all night! It's getting very important to know what we do want -to create. If we don't look out, presently we may find that our -imaginations have life! We've got to choose, I suppose, what kind of -life we'll give; silly or monstrous life, or intelligent, kindly, -strong, beautiful life!" - -Curtin enjoyed the evening on Rock. Flame and odor of burning pine, and -the pleasantly grotesque shadows on the cabin walls, made for rich -fancies. In one of the easy silences the men grouped in this brown and -flame-hued place seemed to him genii, gathered here before they drove -their roads over mountains or harnessed their plunging water steeds. He -thought: "We are genii! How wonderful it is to be what we are--and shall -be!" - -Men at Hall's went to bed before ten. Curtin found in a small cabin a -hard couch and honest sleep. He slept without turning till five of the -morning, when he waked with a great sense of refreshment. "Where I have -been I don't know, but it was where vigor flows!" The stars shone in at -his window. He lay still for a few minutes, then rose. The air was not -too chill. He found when he was dressed that he was warm enough. Opening -the cabin door he went out, moving softly so as not to waken Drew and -Randall. The morning star hung in the east, and near it the moon in her -last quarter. The cold, first hyacinth of dawn streaked the sky. Drew -had pointed out the path to the top of the mountain. Curtin, finding it, -climbed it alone. Half an hour brought him to the summit. When he -reached it the earth was bathed in the cool and violet first light. He -found a great projecting rock, shaped like a chair, and took his seat -here. The planet, from gold, was become silver, and the moon hung like -a dream canoe. Here or there mist hid the vast expanse below, but for -the most part earth lay clear. The outthrust rock that was his seat gave -him two-thirds of the circle. - -Stillness with depth and power possessed Curtin. He looked out, and -down, and over. Range on range, with narrow vales between, rolled the -mountains. In the strengthening light the autumn hue of them gave desert -tints; then he picked out clearings, and white points that were hamlets -and farmhouses. He turned eyes to where would be Sweet Rocket, though he -could not see that valley. It was dawn. Richard Linden would be up. -Perhaps, guessing that Curtin might watch dawn brighten from this rock, -he might be here in mind and spirit. - -Even as he thought this, the presence of Linden not there but here, or -both here and there, came to Curtin in a wave. He felt company in -solitude, doubled life. And not, as he presently perceived, Linden only. -Linden meant thousands of others, as thousands of others meant Linden. -Thousands and thousands.... That was himself ... thousands and -thousands. - -He looked north and east and west; by rising and moving he looked south. -The horizon rim lay very far. Using knowledge, he let it farther drop -away, drop away. Underneath him was the bulk of the earth. Use power and -make it as crystal, penetrable as water or air! Overhead and all around -was air, thinning afar into ether. He saw his globe in space and time. A -ten-minute road of light ran between it and the sun. He sat very still, -but within he moved into the land of contemplation. Here much time came -into no-time, so subtle swift was motion. He entered into touch with -much for which he had not yet found name or names. He might say, there -is deep water and rich land. He might say, the world is other than we -thought it. There are Americas ripe for discovery, and there are farther -and future Americas forming. - -By degrees might lessened. Muscle could not yet hold, nor sense be -aware. He came nearer surface. Yet still there was vision. Phosphor was -paling, the moon a dim curve of pearl, and all the spread of earth in -stronger light. Curtin gazed, and the eyes of the mind outran the eyes -of the flesh. Not just Virginia, but all the forty-eight states. Not -just the forty-eight, but all America, Canada, and Mexico, and the -islands and the republics of the South. He looked to the Atlantic and -saw on the farther side Europe and Africa, and on to the east Asia and -the Pacific. He saw the continents and the nations. It was not so much -that he saw their earth, their body, though he saw that, too. But he saw -them, touched them, heard them, as persons. The most of them had lately -been at fierce war, fibers of each dissenting, but the bulk warring. -Exhausted from war, haggard and torn, yet still they made gestures with -broken weapons. He saw them in the throes of economic and political -change, of change from knowledge to knowledge, and of religious change. -He saw traits and actions, deep, deep; yesterdays at the point of -to-day, and all the morrows being built of yesterdays and to-days. He -saw as it were stain and chaff and guilt, and through all these -white-running Fire and Life and Upspringing. They were Persons, but a -greater Person held them. Light broke. He saw the earth and the world -and the heavens as Person. Upon him broke in deluge the vaster Selfhood. - -The sun rose over Rock Mountain, the long ranges and the vales. The air -had the exquisite fresh energy of Hope. Curtin moved down the path to -the cabins. All his being seemed lit and harmonized. "It is what the old -saints called conversion. My times fall into the hand of the One that I -Am!" - -The rosy light shone on Hall's below him as it shone on Sweet Rocket and -Alder and the Virginia farms and villages and towns, and the farms and -villages and towns of every state, and of all the Americas, and of the -earth. Fragrant smoke rose from the chimneys. He heard the cheerful -voices. A great love of the neighbor pervaded Curtin's consciousness, -and with it entered the neighbor. His consciousness and the neighbor's -consciousness became to a degree one. - - - - -XII - - -The men at work had breakfast at Hall's in great beauty of weather. -Afterward Curtin went with them along the proposed line of road. It -proved a cheerful group, doing basic work well. The wine of the air and -the lift of the earth and the beams of the sun helped amain. Axes rang, -pick and shovel sounded. There was a center of work and there were -outlying explorations. One hallooed to another. Morris was a master -whistler, and you heard him like a redbird. Dave Hall had an -interminable mountain ballad which he chanted as he worked. The buzz of -the whole might be caught a long way over the mountain slope. Where they -worked would be a great driveway for holiday folk. Young and old would -pass that way, drinking the great views and the mountain air, pierced by -beauty and largeness. Young and old, man and woman, a many and a many, -through years heaped like sand! - -"I like public work!" said Randall. - -Drew answered: "I like it, too! If a scholar wants to help all and a -teacher wants to help all, then going to school and teaching are public -works. But I'm coming back to help hold the forests for themselves and -the people." - -The morning went by quickly. At noon they had dinner by Indian Creek, -that rushed and leaped. Three young Halls brought their food in baskets. -It was spread under hemlocks, and they ate as it were in Arden. Dinner -over, for half an hour they smoked and rested, stretched out beneath the -trees. - -"Tell us a story, Cooper!" - -"I haven't one. Call Dave Hall over." - -Dave came, tall and lank and brown as ale. "Sit under that tree, Dave, -and tell us a story." - -"I kin sing you about John Horn and Betsy at the dance." - -"No. Tell us a story. Tell us about the mountain woman you began about -the other day when the storm came up." - -"Miss Ellice?" - -"Yes, Miss Ellice." - -Dave settled himself, with his back to the wine-red trunk of a hemlock. -He was lean and tanned, wide-eyed, with a rich, drawling voice. "She was -a see-er, that woman! This-a-time that I was telling about the mountain -barked like a dawg at her, and showed its teeth and tried to -bite--because she said an awful thing! She said that a time would come -when every man and woman could do the things that Jesus did. She said -Christ was an abstract description of the state of being folks would -come to some day, and Jesus was a great laborer who got there earlier -than 'most anybody else. Said he was an example, sure enough, and a -shower of the way, and who could help loving and wondering? But, -'cording to her, the best way to love Jesus was to _learn_. Stop jest -do-less wondering, and grow! Said that Bethlehem and Nazareth and -Galilee and Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem were where any man or woman -was! Brother Carraway preached against her, and the mountain decided she -wasn't healthy for it. She was living all alone, but the mountain -decided that her cabin had better be emptier yet. She was a tall woman, -about the age of my mother, and when you looked at her you'd think at -first she wasn't strong.... - -"Brother Carraway, after he had preached, went on home, but James Curdy -always took what he found in the Word and tried to do it. What he found -was usually right harsh. James had black eyes pushed 'way in, and long -hair that always seemed to me to be blowing in a wind. He was awful fond -of the word 'punish.' 'Now you're Punished!' 'God will Punish you!' He -used to stride around and do his best to see that God didn't forget it. -He was one to see that God did his duty, was James! He couldn't always -make the mountain look at things same as he did, but after Brother -Carraway's sermon, and the lightning striking Barber's house and killing -old Mrs. Barber, he got two-thirds of it worked right up to his -feelings! That was Tuesday after Sunday, the lightning having struck on -Saturday, and Mrs. Barber buried on Monday. He got about thirty men and -boys together at John Williams, and a lot of them had had whisky--I -don't know that this air interestin'? I could sing to you about John -Horn and Betsy." - -"No, go on! They were going to drive Miss Ellice off the mountain?" - -"That was the intention. But this very Indian Creek about a mile from -here makes a pool that's called Dumb Child Pool, because little Johnny -Nelson that was dumb was drowned there. He fell in while the children -were gathering nuts and he couldn't make them hear. Well, those that had -had something stronger than water, they were all for seeing if Miss -Ellice wasn't a witch! You know how folk used to prove a witch? That was -about twenty of the eager ones, mostly young men. This wasn't very -recent. I wasn't living on this mountain, but on Stormy Mountain over -thar. I came here when Lucinda Nelson and me married. But I've heard all -about it." - -He spat vigorously. "Now, this is where her seeing with other eyes than -like yourn and mine comes in! And how I come to know about some things -that others don't was that that very Lucinda Nelson that I married -happened to be at Miss Ellice's that day. Nelsons ain't afraid of -anything, and Miss Ellice had done them neighborly turns, sitting up -with the sick and sharing coffee, and such as that. Anyhow, Lucinda was -there, and Miss Ellice was braiding a rug and seemed extraordinarily -cheerful and sunny. 'Long about two of the clock, as it were, she broke -off her talk and finished her row, as it might be, without looking at -it. Then she says to Lucinda--and Lucinda says she was that still and -sunny, like a day that comes sometimes, that she was 'most afraid of -her, just as you're 'most afraid sometimes of that kind of day, and yet -you want to stay by it and it to stay by you--she says, says she, 'I'd -like you to stay longer, Lucinda, but I find that I've got something to -do! You go along, honey, and if I don't see you again I want you to -remember that I like you and think you're on the right road!' And with -that she got up and kissed Lucinda and stood in the door to watch her -down the path. Lucinda went along home. Well, in about two hours, here -they come, James Curdy and Mat Waters and Jonathan Morgan, and the -others, drunk with whisky and with what they thought was the Word of -God. They had a rope, and they meant the Dumb Child Pool." - -He spat again. "'Twas Jonathan Morgan that told me, and Lucinda the rest -of it. He was young and wild in those days. Jonathan says he hadn't been -drinking, and for all that now and then he shouted with the rest he had -never seen a day so sunny and still, and just the minute after he'd -shouted he'd see the whole as in a picture--his crowd and the Dumb -Child's Pool, and Miss Ellice's cabin. Kind of saw it out of himself as -it were, as though he was sitting on the bough of a tree looking, seeing -thar as well as here. But the rest of them, I reckon, didn't see nothing -but a witch and something exciting to do--unless it was James Curdy--and -what he saw and felt Lord knows! Something like a nightmare, I reckon! - -"Miss Ellice's cabin was high on the mountain. They stopped shouting -when they got nearly up thar. They thought that if before that Miss -Ellice heard them she'd just think it was some jamboree going on -alongside of mountain. James Curdy had such a rule that he could bring -even the drunken ones quiet for a bit. So they stole up the path, and -Jonathan said that the cabin above them looked like a goldy leaf hanging -still, or like an empty nest. So they went up in a string till they got -to where the trees stopped and there was just some bushes and grass. And -then they spread out, and went on in a bunch, and James Curdy cried in a -loud voice, 'Woman, come forth!' But the shut door didn't open. Then he -cried it again, and then he opened that tight mouth of his the third -time. He had more learning than most of the mountain and he used big -words. 'Blaspheming atheist, come forth!' But the others wouldn't stay -quiet any longer, and they shouted, 'Witch! Witch!' - -"The door stayed shut, and Jonathan said that the cabin hung like a -goldy leaf or a nest high up on a bright, still winter day. Jonathan -says there was something so still and sunny there that it stilled the -shouting. Then they opened the door, for it wasn't bolted, and those -that could get in went in--James Curdy at the head. Those outside spread -around so's they could catch her if she run out. But Miss Ellice wasn't -at home. She was gone. - -"Thar was her half-braided rug and her chair and a little fire on the -hearth. But she wasn't there. It turned out that she had taken a bag and -a basket with her clothes, and a little money she had. And then Mat -Waters found the letter on the table, and Jonathan Morgan read it, -because James Curdy had left his spectacles at home. And if you'll -believe me it was directed to 'James Curdy and Matthew Waters and -Jonathan Morgan and their Company.' Inside it said just this: 'I've -loved this cabin and this mountain. But now I remove myself from among -you. Yet I love this place where I have been, and am, and shall be. Now -abideth Faith, Hope, and Charity, but the greatest of these is Charity.' -And then there was the name, Ann Ellice. - -"Jonathan said half of them were still drunk and outrageous because they -couldn't have their fun at Dumb Child's Pool. A lot didn't even listen -to the letter, seeing with their own eyes that Miss Ellice was gone. -James Curdy listened, and his face got white and his eyes red coals. -'She's brazen!' says he. 'The devil talks Scripture to his own -damnation!' He went out of door and looked about him. But most of the -rest didn't see anything but that they'd lost something exciting to do. -They began to break up the furniture. Then some one raked the coals and -brands out over the floor and they set the straw bed on fire. But -Jonathan took the letter and a book or two she had--Lucinda's got the -books now. But James Curdy stood outside and looked down mountain. -'That's Harris's cabin a mile over thar. It's likely she's thar.' And he -began to go down over mountain side. Mat Waters and Jonathan Morgan -followed him, and so did about half of the others. The rest stayed to -burn the cabin. The witch had gone off on a broomstick for them! - -"The Harrises were a kind of lonely folk that didn't go much to church -or nowhar. They mightn't even have heard of Brother Carraway's sermon. -She might be thar, as James Curdy thought. But she wasn't. She had been -thar, they said, jest a minute. She'd looked in on old Aunt Viny Harris -and said she was going away. Said she was going to foot of mountain to -Norwood, whar you get the train. Aunt Viny asked when she was coming -back, and Miss Ellice smiled and said she didn't think she was coming -back. 'Whar was she going to live?' She said she didn't exactly know, -but she had kinsmen who would take care of her. 'Aye,' said Aunt Viny, -'you're a master weaver and worker, and any folk ought to be glad to -have such a handy woman around!' Which shows that the Harrises hadn't -heard anything. And so Aunt Viny said Miss Ellice said good-by very -friendly, and went on down mountain. James Curdy wanted to set a hound -of Harris's on her track, and the drunk ones shouted at that, and one -staggered out to get the dawg. But Jonathan, he represented that Miss -Ellice would be 'most down mountain now and out on big road where the -tracks would be all mixed up and covered, and anyhow the folk down there -wouldn't understand and let it be done. By that time the cabin was -burning up on mountain above them. They could see the smoke and light. -James Curdy had to let it be, though doubtless he had some hard thoughts -of the Almighty. Well, that is the end of it! She didn't ever come back. -It ain't much of a story. I don't know why I told it to you." - -"You don't know where she went?" - -"No. Mountain folk ain't curious in them ways. You'd better have let me -sing to you about John Horn. Lucinda says she took her body away, but -not her spirit. Says she can feel her any still and sunny day. I reckon -Jonathan Morgan feels the same way. I don't know. It's been a long time -ago! Brother Carraway's dead and Jonathan Morgan is Brother Morgan now -and preaches in the old church. Things air sure changing in this world! -Last summer I heard him say myself that Christ was inside us and not -outside--might never have been outside us, so much in the world being -parable! James Curdy's so old now he couldn't do anything but look mad -as an old beast in winter and get right up and go out of church, looking -like a snow cloud and talking to himself.... Lucinda says people keep on -acting and persuading if we see them or if we don't see them!" - -He lifted himself, long, lank, and brown, and moved from the hemlock. -"You air welcome--Mr. Smith, you'd better speak to Jim Harris about them -logs." - - - - -XIII - - -Malcolm Smith, talking with Curtin in the cool twilight, before Hall's, -had no word against Drew's departure for Sweet Rocket. "He's a valuable, -likable fellow! There's a curious sense when you are with him of depth -or background that he doesn't understand himself. Violin wood! He says -that this friend of yours has something to teach that he wants to learn. -That's all right! I can generally tell when a man's real destiny is -ruling him. I've got that feeling now about Drew. He needs to buy in a -certain city and he's going there. If we're here next year--and there's -a lot to do on Rock Mountain--I'll be glad to take him on again." - -Bedtime came. Again Curtin slept profoundly, restfully, waked early, and -climbed again to crest of mountain to see again the sun rise over so -great expanse. He sat in the stone chair and before him hung the morning -star and the senescent moon. Below them was spread violet and jonquil -and one strange sea of blue. - -Again he felt the Spiritual Sun. He thought: "This is what they have -perceived at Sweet Rocket. They have not waited for death. They live -now, and forever, and know it. This body will go from them, but they are -building or remembering--I do not know which, and perhaps it is both--a -life that will not go from them. And I also, also, though I am a babe -yet--" - -Sitting in the hollow of stone at the top of the upraised wave of earth -he watched the sunrise from Rock Mountain.... He conceived that what was -true of him was true of others, had been true age after age, was true -now over this round earth of others. He thought: "There has always been -a fellowship. The eidelweiss does not guess the roses and the -heliotrope, nor the violet and the meadow rue. But at last the garden of -the earth guesses! It becomes the living garden. The living garden -becomes the living man. Naught is right, naught is reasonable, until you -get it from the whole." - -The sun rose, the earth turned ruddy. Curtin went down the path to -Hall's, breakfasting there with the men who worked with head and hands. -This morning he and Drew would start for Sweet Rocket. Drew's slender -luggage was going down mountain to Norwood, whence the train would take -it to Alder. Every one liked Drew, even Cooper who laughed at him. "Good -luck, old farmer! Ride over and see us sometime!" - -The two rode down Rock and crossed a vale, like a green and gold ribbon, -and went up Bear Mountain, where the oaks were all deep colored, and -down Bear and over forested hills and on by the trail that struck into -the Alder road. They went rather silently, but in a deep, contented -companionship. Once Drew spoke. "He said, 'A good present is one in -which the past betters its condition.'" When he said "he" there was -meant Richard Linden. After this there was silence again, both having -struck some road within, where is the network composed of all the roads -of the world. - -They approached Sweet Rocket. The forest fell away. Before them shone -the river, the wheat and orchard land, and the ruddy house with its -pillars of mellowed white, and the hills that inclosed. Through part of -the day clouds had been driving across the sky. Now they were sinking -before the southwest wind, leaving the blue arch. They were variformed, -castles and towers, bridges, alps, cities, ships, mythical beasts, -giants. Light embraced them in a spray of colors. Crossing to it, for -one instant, Curtin saw Sweet Rocket transfigured. All that was strong -and fair became a hundredfold stronger, fairer. All that deterred or -roughened or overweighted or twisted or weakened vanished in warmth and -light. A sheath, or husk, or burr fell away. Interior power rousing -itself, he saw the place in its seraph aspect, eternal in the heavens. -Drew seemed to share the perception. He said, abruptly, "There is -splendor!" - -They felt splendor; then it closed, like light withdrawn, warmth -screened away. There stood Sweet Rocket in its earthly estate. That is, -they thought it its old earthly estate. But by that much it had become -endowed and was not the old earthly estate. They had checked their -horses. Curtin said, "So it was always in poetry!" - -The younger man had a curious gesture. "We gather all the household gear -into the long ship, and put forth!" - -But Curtin thought, "In the Bible Noah gathers all the lifeseed into the -Ark and rides the waters into a new world." - -They crossed the river and went up the little glistening beach and by -the cedars to the house. Sweet Rocket welcomed them home, the white folk -and the colored folk and Tam. They found the household increased by two. - -Linden said, "These are my cousins, Robert and Frances Dane, who come -for a little while each year to Sweet Rocket." - -They were a married pair, a little above forty, perhaps, the mark of the -city upon them. They had quick and nervous bodies, thin, lined faces, -eyes well apart, burning deep and very steady, lips tending to -compression. They seemed tired--about them breathed something of -soldiers after a long day's march through hostile elements. This was -bivouac, this was rest! At first they were too tired, there was almost -resentment. "O God, _how_ can you be still and ageless?" This changed, -little by little, at Sweet Rocket. The overtension disappeared. They -were left taut, collected, wary--workers worthy of praise in a dangerous -world. - -At the supper table that evening Curtin made out more and more of their -life. They had come yesterday, a little before their set time, and Anna -Darcy had the start of him in acquaintanceship. Intellectual radicals -certainly, members of some group in action, probably of more groups than -one, jack of all agitations and master of one. He could hear them -speaking, in halls, and under open sky, and he could see the face of the -throng to which they spoke. They would be speaking of Soviet Russia, of -Guild Socialism, of Employer and Employed and the Course of Labor that -did never yet run smooth. There were causes, not so apparently economic, -for which also they would work. He heard them speaking for the Suffrage -Amendment and likewise for the release of Conscientious Objectors. They -belonged here, they belonged there. The one, he was later told, was -Associate Editor of a Journal that was making the step from liberalism -of the left to communism of the right. The woman was an admirable -violinist. He knew that they lived on little and gave much of that -little away. They lived where it was possible to live in one big room -and three small rooms. They had a son who was doing well at a school -they liked in the country. To look at them was to see how hard they -worked, and to look into their eyes was to see the beacon that set them -and kept them at work. They also had vision of Oneness. - -Though in talking Linden and Marget used in a much less marked degree -the terminology used by the newcomers, it seemed to present no -difficulties to them. They seemed to understand these guests, as they -understood those others who had come to Sweet Rocket this October, to -understand and to travel with them. Curtin thought: "They sympathize. It -does not occur to them to say, 'Do something else, take another road!'" -He thought: "That is their strength. They utterly share." - -Frances Dane had brought her violin to Sweet Rocket. Yesterday it had -been laid in the parlor. Now, after supper, sitting by the fire in the -old room, the violin spoke. It told of the player's passion for the -world, of the man who wrote that music's passion for the world, of the -passion for the world of all makers of violins, and of the trees whose -wood was used, of the passion for the world that is progression and -revolution, of the passion for the world that is the slower rate that is -called withstanding progression and revolution, of the passion for the -world that is music, of the passion for the world yesterday, to-day, and -forever, of the passion for the world that every heart of us knows! - - - - -XIV - - -"It is something like this," said Linden. "We are One Being with its -mighty potencies. All that comes in comes to us, all that goes forth -goes from us. The points that take, ponder, sort, combine, alter to -better liking; the mighty poles, the mighty afferent and efferent that -flow from pole to pole, all that is movement, that is gravitation, that -is cohesion, that is justice, that is harmony, that is love, are Ours. -We go as we have gone through time, from and toward--the from that is -also toward, the toward that is also from. But something beyond Time as -we have known it, beyond Space and Causation as we have known them, -increases upon us. Consciousness in some sort of the whole orb, -awareness through and through, is momentously upon us to-day. In the end -all desire is desire for that." - -"We shall move then in four-space?" - -"If you choose to put it so. It is an allowable figure. All that present -language can devise is but a word, a figure, a symbol. What we mean is -the next advance in consciousness. When you have it you know it." - -They were treading a slender path through October fields. Now they were -in a great, climbing cornfield, all stacked corn like brown wigwams, and -here and there upon the brown and stubbly earth the orange of pumpkins. -The air folded them in violet and gold dust and faint frankincense. The -hills had changed in color, so many leaves being shaken down. On days -like this the mountains were evidently entranced. It was Indian summer -before the Indian summer time. "A new consciousness?" said Frances Dane, -walking with Curtin. "A farther-on consciousness? It is in the air -to-day!" - -"Yes." - -"Wise men saying, 'We have seen His star in the east--' Oh, that's a -figure!" - -"There is some Reality, or thousands of us would not be hearkening, as -we are hearkening.... A new man, a new creature.... It's a consummation -devoutly to be desired!" - -The heaped corn stood around, the orange globes made constellations on -the earth. They were now well up the slope, at their feet Sweet Rocket -and the little sliding river. All was reflected, all was veiled, but now -and again eyes looked through the veil. Reaching the top of the hill -they found there a tall, solitary tree--a black gum--and built around it -a bench. It linked in Curtin's mind with the sycamore before the -overseer's house. - -They sat upon the bench and upon the ring of brown grass that ran -around the tree. The view was fair and they rested in silence. It was -Anna Darcy who noticed how much silence there was at Sweet -Rocket--silence that sang, that caressed. Moments went by, silence held -them, fair solitude, sense of one person here alone. Tam moved, coming -nearer to Linden. The latter's hand dropped to Tam's head. Anna Darcy -heard a low sigh of relief and burden lifted. It came, she thought, from -Frances Dane, who sat near her upon the grass. But it might have come -from more than Frances, from all. - -Stillness and silence deepened. There grew a cathedral sense, a desert, -an ocean sense. Into that entered a wealth of light and strength. A vast -wave of freedom, an access of life, lifted them. They had life and they -had it more abundantly. They seemed to themselves to flash together, and -of them all was made a god. For an instant there held an intense vision -of this valley and of Sweet Rocket transfigured. Color and sound lived, -every movement was of joy. That broke away, vanished like the image of a -rose into the image of a garden of ten thousand. Then that was gone into -an image of all the earth, and then that into intense, sheer, mighty -Living, with small regard to old space and time, abounding, keen, a -Reality leaving old reality behind. - -"When it is all done, when it is all known, all felt, when we are fully, -completely ourself, when we remember our Godhood and live it, when we -do not look through storm for the lighthouse ray because we are Light, -when we do not cry Father and Son because we are both and know it, when -there is glory of home, glory of health, glory of love--" - -Who had spoken they did not know; it seemed their common voice. Perhaps -it was Linden, but if so he spoke as their common voice. Into it came -not only the voice of the seven there, but the voice of old Mr. -Morrowcombe and the Carters, and of Mrs. Cliff and Mimy and Zinia and -Mancy and the others; not just the voice of Sweet Rocket, but the voice -of Alder, and of many an Alder, big and little, the voice of the city -and the country, the land and the sea. "To be well! Oh, rise within me, -truest Self, with healing in thy wings!" - -The great, golden feeling passed, leaving echoes, leaving memory. These -folk were separate again where they had been one, but not so separate. -In and out hovered that breath of transfiguration, a day of spring in -late winter, dying, but with a tongue to tell of a time when it would -not die. Where all had been vivid, singing, laughing, now was the wonted -gentleness of this valley, a dreaminess shot with gold, taking and -giving, but doing it subtly, silently, only now and then bestowing -evidence of a vast interpenetrative life, showing like the eyes through -the veil of this Indian summer day. - -They went down through the corn and out by a gate, set in the gray and -lichened rail fence, where grew sumac and farewell-summer and the -feathery traveler's-joy. They walked in meadows by the river, and at -last through the orchard, and so to the house. Mimy, in the kitchen, was -singing: - - - "Oh, Jesus tell you once befo', - Babylon's fallin' to rise no mo'. - Oh, go in peace and sin no mo', - Babylon's fallin' to rise no mo'!" - - -In the evening Frances played again to them, and the rich and sweet -music filled the old room. The violin put by, they talked by the fire; -then Linden said, "Read for a little while, Marget." She took up a -volume of Blake, and read. "Read that letter to Butts." She read: - - - "... Over sea, over land - My eyes did expand - Into regions of fire, - Remote from desire; - The light of the morning - Heaven's mountains adorning; - In particles bright, - The jewels of light - Distinct shone and clear. - Amazed and in fear - I each particle gazed, - Astonished, amazed; - For each was a Man - Human formed. Swift I ran, - For they beckoned to me, - Remote by the sea, - Saying: 'Each grain of sand, - Every stone on the land, - Each rock and each hill, - Each fountain and rill, - Each herb and each tree, - Mountain, hill, earth and sea, - Cloud, meteor and star, - Are men seen afar.'... - My eyes, more and more, - Like a sea without shore, - Continue expanding, - The heavens commanding; - Till the jewels of light, - Heavenly men beaming bright, - Appeared as One Man, - Who complacent began - My limbs to enfold - In his beams of bright gold; - Like dross purged away - All my mire and clay. - Soft consumed in delight, - In his bosom sun bright - I remained. Soft He smiled. - And I heard his voice mild, - Saying: 'This is my fold, - O thou ram horned with gold, - Who awakest from sleep - On the sides of the deep.'..." - - - - -XV - - -"Energy in larger units, affinities gathering strength and flowing -together with power!" said Curtin. "Everyone has seen it and felt it in -some wise. When it is blamable, unguided, 'mob spirit'! When it is -praised, '_esprit de corps_, mass heroism, mass enthusiasm, -conflagration of genius, voice of the people, unity of spirit,' what -not! Most folk have a glimpse of the fact that there is an ocean of -desire, emotion, will, as well as rivers and rivulets." - -Marget came and sat with them on the steps of the little summer-house in -the flower garden. She wore a great check apron, denoting housekeeping -and helping Zinia. She sat down beside them. "What have you been doing, -Marget?" - -"Once a week Zinia and I have a general straightening day. Then my -mother and I have been visiting together." - -"Truly, truly, Marget?" - -"Truly. But in a little wider order, my dear, a little wider order! The -order above this order--into which this will melt. Mother and father, -and Will and Edgar." - -"Two of those are living and two are dead." - -Marget smiled. "Ask Wordsworth!" - -"I see," said Anna Darcy. - -"Very well. Do more than that. _Touch!_" - -With a trail of ivy in her hand she looked past the snapdragon and -marigold and larkspur, still blooming, so rich and mild had been this -autumn. "Then, as the rooms grew clean, I was with my mother in her -birthplace, two hundred miles from here. We were there as adults, -moving, loving, understanding with a grown mind, but there in her -childhood and girlhood as well, loving to contemplate all the past that -was us two! Mine as hers, hers as mine. Mind and feeling ran and caught -up with her brothers and sisters, her parents and friends. Her parents -remembered their parents and those remembered theirs. Home rose after -home, garden after garden, loved place after loved place." Her eyes were -upon Drew, whose eyes were upon her. "Do you not see that you can, that -you will, recover it all? All that you have been, and you have been very -much; all that you are, and you are very much!" - -Mimy's singing floated to them from the kitchen: - - - "There's a great camp meeting in the Promised Land, - Oh, pat yo' foot, chillun, don't you get weary! - There's a great camp meeting in the Promised Land." - - -"And then," said Marget, "I was in Rome with Richard. The sun shone, the -wind was in cypress and pine, the fountains made liquid sound. Father -Tiber glided, Saint Peter's stood. We went to the Sistine Chapel, and -then it was the Capitol within and without, and then the Appian Way and -all the Campagna--all Rome--not to-day alone, but _all_ Rome. And then -not Rome, but starlight nights from the decks of ships. And then--" - -"This was actuality, while your hands swept and dusted the parlor -there?" - -"My body was in its duty and happy there. Yes. Actuality, but of another -order, an order we are coming into. The order of intensified, guided, -_realized_ memory and imagination." - -"And of reason?" - -"And of reason. Profoundly so. It is reason that is guiding. Reason has -its higher levels, grows comprehensive, knows longer sequences, -completer syntheses. And from the decks of ships we were in the desert -watching the stars, shepherds on the hills and shepherds on the plains, -shepherds and villagers and wanderers of far days!" She lifted hand and -arm in a curious and commanding gesture. "Watching the skies above Queen -Rain and King Wind! In desert and plain and upon hills and on seas, -thousands and thousands of us strewn in time!" - -For an appreciable moment, to some degree, those listening to her became -aware of, made, as it were, junction with their own far wandering, far -wondering, savage and barbarian self. It was evident that Drew made -junction. They touched the mind struggling there, and the lifted gaze. -The sense was one of enormous, calm pervasion. They entered into, they -aided, their own early man, where he marked the heavens, and around them -was the wistfulness of early lands. - -Marget spoke on. "Then while I worked we were building pyramids and -mountains of the god. We were watching and watching, patterning and -naming, comparing, all the skies, the moon, and the planets and the -times of the sun, and the white path through the heavens and the great -named princes--everywhere, swarthy folk and pale folk! Now we were many -and many. Then in us rose the Devoted, the Searchers of the skies, -seeking from city roofs and temple roofs knowledge of the Whole for the -Whole." - -Their interior self opened its wings and used its eyes. As space -expanded, so did time. They were there in the October sunshine, on the -summer-house steps, but likewise they attended, and in some vast, -liberated way they were that collective effort, that process. They might -carry the method over into all processes. There swam across the mind -other words--"commerce"--"government"--"family"--many and many a word. - -Marget's voice went on. "Now one has made a telescope. Our theories -change; we stand on dead theories and study on. Thousands of us -studying, thousands building knowledge, learning vision! We gaze, we -watch, we turn to desks and write and figure, we reason, we divine, we -better our instruments, we gather results and make fortunate guesses, we -hearken to intuition. We stand on a mossy stone in space and study the -Promised Land, the universe that is ours, the ever perpetuating, the -ever bettering! Time widens. Here are mountain summits and the -observatories of this day, and the clockwork and the pierced dome, and -the great eye that we have made, and the photograph. Mind sits at the -knee of Great Mind and learns its alphabet. And all the thousands that -were and are and will be are one Astronomer, and it is I, still working -to know!" She ceased to speak, and sat wrapped in the golden light. - -Said Robert Dane: "We follow where you step. You make us follow you." - -"I do not make you. You walk with me because you can walk. We walk. It -is your Self as it is mine." - -"We move and we feel, then, where you are. You live there more fully and -keenly than we, but we can breathe and feel and see. Go on! We would -have your life, as you have ours." - -"Then, after the stars, while I wound the clocks, I walked into the -minute. Again thousands of us working and watching, noting, -divining--thousands and thousands, years past and to-day and to-morrow! -And one devises the microscope. All the laboratories!... Into the cell, -into the atom, the infinite dance of relativities and small collections! -And the intensed, pointed endeavor, using perception as fine as the -millionth part of a hair--we knowing, marking, understanding ourself -there, where we are moving clouds! We working there, patient, patient, -the god working! The great and the small. We who forever remember and -make richer ourself. We the I-- And then I was again with my dead, who -are just as much and just as little dead as I myself! And then I came -out into the garden." - -They sat on the summer-house steps, and the marigolds glowed around -them. She spoke again. "Here and there, throughout the past, and often -now I think in our own day, a man or woman lays hold upon faculties that -some day all will lay hold upon. _And greater things than these._ -Forerunners, pioneers! Regard this late flood of books describing -communion with the dead and giving detail of the life hereafter. What -they describe is the widening consciousness here and now! The increasing -awareness. One does not wait for death. Richard and I would not have you -think that we are deep, deep, deep in that realm. Were it so nothing -could hide it. Were we or any full in the next order you would see the -shining. We are not there, but we are in motion toward it, as are many -to-day. The road thitherward has its great scenery and long, thrilling -adventure! And you, too, all of you, too, are in motion toward it. In -this day of ours, each day of the sun, more and more are in motion." - -She rose from the step. "I have rested this body that we call Marget -Land and now I shall put it again to work in the house we call Sweet -Rocket." - - - - -XVI - - -That evening, after she had played to them, Frances fell to telling of a -crippled boy, almost a man, living in a poor flat in New York, the -father an overworked head clerk, the mother a strong, gadabout, -well-meaning person, more apt to reproach than to sustain. There was a -sister, a stenographer, who meant to marry, if she could, some employer. -This nineteen-year-old boy had a passion for travel, who could rarely -travel as far as the street. At intervals, when his father had leisure -to accompany him, he went to a movie. If the piece had scenery, country -and ocean and strange cities, moving throngs and great buildings and -places of which he had read, he was happy. He took the _Geographic_, and -got travel books from a library. He knew more of the earth's surface -than did many a "traveled" person. But it was hot in the city, in his -little stuffy room, or it was cold in the city in houses that could -never buy coal in quantity. He had a good deal of pain, and his eyes got -bigger and bigger. - -Curtin had claimed the small bedroom at the end of the upper hall. Drew -slept in the dormer-windowed room above. Frances and Robert Dane -possessed the large room opposite Marget's, next to Linden's. Here were -four windows and each narrow bed placed where it might look forth. This -night the Danes talked awhile, then addressed themselves to sleep. -Robert slept, but Frances found that she was wakeful. Yet she had -definitely turned from care and question of the day, from concern for -her own work left in suspension, even from the face and incident of -Sweet Rocket. From her pillow she saw the stars as they rimmed and rose -above the mountains. At first she seemed to be over there, with the -shadow below and the diamond above, but then to herself she left it all. -There seemed naught about her but cool space. She lay without fret at -wakefulness, though she was intensely awake. - -She became aware that, waking, she was becoming rested, refreshed, as -though she had profoundly slept. She was awake above the old waking. The -old waking was dreaminess to this state. Vigor poured into her being, -and all the past was passed. That is, it was passed in its heaviness and -friction, its strain and anxiety. All that seemed to drop away, like -dross leaving gold. It was curious, her sense of gold color of all -things in a gold light of their own, not from without. She became -distinctly aware of influences. They were good. She acquiesced, "Yes, I -will travel with you." Will consenting, her strength was added to those -other strengths. In the plane where she now was flashed out -co-operation. - -Marget--Richard! Certainly they were where she had been wont to call -"within her." But certainly she felt them, was aware of them, presently -saw them, as never had she done before in that "within," though often in -memory, thought, and imagination she, like others, had been with Marget -and Richard there "within." She had used those words as a matter of -course. Even then that "within" had, when you examined it, its own space -and time, its own mechanics, warmth, color, and sound. That "within" and -this "within" were of a piece, but where that had been faintly real this -was vividly real. She had no doubt of its reality. It was so, but -reality of another, of a farther on, order. Marget that afternoon had -talked of another order. It seemed that one might rise or deepen into -it. She was consciously there now, though in the order below it she -rested at Sweet Rocket. It was not the plane of tremendous power and -illumination, but it was a state of developed powers. It was as far as -just then she could go. - -The boy Stuart--Stuart Black. How many a time had she wished that she -could give this boy travel! "If I might take him and let him see!" As he -had longed, as he had imagined himself traveling with Mr. and Mrs. Dane. -"If I could travel with you!" And now to-night they had somehow caught -and held to the ether and were seeing what they wished to see. The -influence, the individuality that was Marget and Richard strongly aided. - -She was in Rome with Marget and Richard and Stuart Black. She did not -question them nor him, and the boy did not question. They were there, -and it was sunny weather, and they were strong and happy. They stayed in -no hotel, they depended on no cab nor car, they needed no food of the -old sort. When they looked at one another they saw body, since where is -still multiplicity must still be body. There was something of old bodies -in these bodies, but also there was difference, and all to the good. Old -defect had vanished. Stuart Black was no cripple; she herself had lost -fatigue. There was translucence, a golden appearance, and where they -wished to go they were. She wished for Robert, and immediately felt that -in wishing she had said to the others, "I wish." They strengthened her -wish with theirs. Here, then, was Robert with them, though -intermittently, not on the whole so strongly, but coming as he could -answer, sleeping there at Sweet Rocket. And now and then another joined -them, though somewhat dimly, and that was the boy's father, whom he -loved and wished to include in his joy. - -The body of Rome, too, was like and not like the old body of Rome. Rome -had a Self to match this Self of theirs. Spirit and body and mind and -soul, Rome understood itself better. There rose a Rome richer, purer; -nothing of fair and wonderful lost, all such quality strengthened; the -unfair, unwise, unstrong of old, everywhere tending to drop the prefix. -Yet to the new self Rome was herself, singing, enchanted, of the past -and present and future. - -Marget and Richard, who seemed truly Marget-and-Richard, one word, had -said, "a week in Rome," and that was what seemed to pass. They saw as in -old travel they had seen, they went about as in old travel they had gone -about, they enjoyed as in old times they had enjoyed, but with freedom -and power and joy that left the old behind. All was vigor, heightened -and transfiguring perception, and yet friendly, homelike, not solemn nor -stilted, the boy here enjoying like a boy. Frances became aware of a -control, keeping experience to a vivid and fair finiteness, not -sacrificing current form. That was for the boy's sake, perhaps for her -and Robert also. - -And after Rome, Athens--an Athens, too, sublimed. And after Athens, for -the splendid richness of things and for the boy, the vast North, forest -and plain, and an intense exhilaration of life that swept out upon the -great sea and encircled the earth. They spent long, bright days in ships -and at ports of call. Then they went to China, and India, and Egypt. -They crossed the desert of Sahara, and again in a great ship passed -between the Pillars of Hercules. Followed ocean days, and that greater -will and awareness slowly diminishing, gently returning upon its still -habitual self. Diminishing, diminishing, slower, slower, a little -melancholy, but tranquil, with a subtle smile.... A sense of a giant -woman in stone rising from an islet in a harbor--a sense of a familiar -city in the year 1920--a sense of dreamy farewells, a quiet darkness and -lapse.... - -Frances turned herself in her bed at Sweet Rocket. Starlight flooding -the room dimly revealed walls and furniture. Across by the other window -Robert lay sleeping. How much time had passed, or how little, or how -widely could you live in no time at all? Here was reality, but there, -too, had been reality! It had been real, that companionship and that -travel. The memory of it was memory of reality. Mind had attended there -not less, but more than here. The whole compound self had achieved a -unity and power. Achievement--ungrown wings--first flights! She thought: -"The possibilities! O life of life, our possibilities!" Old warmth and -drowsiness took her. There was a kindly fatigue, as though she had -walked on a bright day to mountain top and back and now thrown herself -down for rest. She saw the stars through half-open eyes, then slept. - -The sun was streaming in when she waked; Robert already up and -dressing. She raised herself upon her arm. "Good morning!" - -"Good morning!" - -She rubbed her eyes. "There is a strange and happy feeling of 'there' -being here!" - -Robert said: "That somehow hits it. I had the most vivid dream of long, -sunny travel, with you and Marget and Richard and Stuart Black! It -wasn't like a dream. I feel as if I were just off the ship--had all the -memories and a most tremendous refreshment! I could take down any wall -this morning!" - -"Why do you put it that way?" - -"I don't know. We have so walled ourselves in from wide doing--are so -afraid of our own landscape!" He stood by the window. "I think I'll ask -you a question that never, never would occur to Mr. Gradgrind to ask! Do -you remember it, too? For instance, Athens and some dim, northern -forest--and a lot of islands with palms? Do you remember music?" - -"Oh, it was all music--and I think that I'll play it all my life!" - -Dressed, they went down to the others, Zinia's bell ringing for coffee, -omelet, honey, and cakes. Linden and Drew had eaten and gone to meet -Roger Carter and William where the winter wood was being cut. Marget sat -behind the coffee urn. "Good morning, Robert and Frances!" Her face of a -subtle, moving beauty, more of look than of feature, did not turn upon -them with a "Do you remember?" It seemed to assume that they remembered. -Frances thought, "Certainly she remembers, and as much more strongly -than I as I remember more strongly than Robert!" It was of a piece with -all that they had talked of. "At last, with all of us, talk passes to -action." Frances Dane drank her coffee. All of them in the room seemed -bound in a ribbon, Linden and Drew also, wherever they might be in the -forest, and Stuart Black in that small, dark room in New York, and how -many others! She did not name them, but she knew they were many, in fact -all. In a flash she saw how, to Marget and Richard, might appear not -many selves and binding ribbon, but One Self. To realize this was to -realize that for her, also, there was but One Self. - - - - -XVII - - -Three days after this Curtin and Anna Darcy, who often walked together, -having gone to the pass of hemlock, cliff and tumbling water, turned in -the broken sunlight and shadow back to Sweet Rocket. The maples of the -upper slopes had cast almost all their leaves, but the oaks stood yet in -carmine. Yesterday had fallen light rain. Earth lay moist, and soil and -leaf and fern and moss sent out a haunting odor. The sun stood in -Scorpio. The drama of the year was on the homeward road. It saw ahead -the Archer and the Goat and the Water Bearer, the Fishes of the great -deep, and the Ram that, springing forth, should take once more the road, -the old road, the new road, the old-and-new road! - -Now Curtin and Anna Darcy spoke, and now they were silent. It was a -blessed feature of this valley that none need be talkative in order to -convey, "I am at home with you." - -Her visit was approaching its end. That was what people would say. -"Physical presence and metaphysical presence!" said Curtin, answering -her thought. "Physical and above-physical--and the generations to come -will find the inclusive word." - -"Oh, I shall be here still--or 'here' will be with me in the city--or it -will be both. At any rate, no desolate parting!" - -They passed from under hemlock and gray rock to beech trees and a -dappled path. The small river calmed itself and began to flow through -cultivated land. Gentian and farewell-summer made a purple fringe for -the way. - -"In old romances one walked into an inn or house by the road--always -saying, 'It is by the road that goes on as it went before, and I -presently again with it!' But never again as it was before, and never -again I as before! For just there befalls the adventure that sets one -climbing to a new road." - -Sweet Rocket vale opened before them. Each time they looked it grew -fairer, and that, they had begun to see, was because it was not -separated from anything. - -Said Anna Darcy, presently: "Do you know Morris's _Earthly Paradise_? Do -you remember the Story of Rhodope? I used to know almost all of it by -heart. When Rhodope is born the countryman, her father, dreams, and he -seems to himself to be standing with the mother, watching - - - "... a little blossom fair to see." - - -Then:-- - - - "The day seemed changed to cloudiness and rain, - And the sweet flower, whereof they were so fain, - Was grown a goodly sapling, and they gazed - Wondering thereat, but loved it nothing less. - But as they looked, a bright flame round it blazed, - And hid it for a space, and weariness - The souls of both the good folk did oppress, - And on the earth they lay down side by side, - And unto them it was as they had died. - - "Yet did they know that o'er them hung the tree - Grown mighty, thick-leaved, on each bough did hang - Crown, sword or ship, or temple fair to see; - And therewithal a great wind through it sang, - And trumpet blast there was; and armor rang - Amid that leafy world, and now and then - Strange songs were sung in tongues of outland men. - - -"It is something like that that I feel for any place--and perhaps now it -will be so for this and every place! It was such a blossom and now it is -such a tree. All hangs therein, peoples and nations, things past and -things to come! When I go away I shall find it so in any place." - -"That is what you will do--and I also. Everywhere that Tree, that Man, -that God!" - -The vale widened at the overseer's house. The sycamore by the river -stretched in the sun its great arms of white and brown, and these and -the blue vault made a pattern. A dozen turkeys crossed the path in a -stately, slow-stepping procession. Mary Carter was singing in the house, -and little Roger singing after her. As they approached the tree and the -bench around it other voices reached them; then one voice reading -aloud. They saw the two Danes seated there--Frances, reading a letter. -"So I _did_ travel with you and Mr. Dane. It was so wonderful--it is all -around me now! I don't clearly remember little, sharp bits of it, but I -remember the whole. It has shown me a lot of things. I don't any longer -mind living. It's funny, but father, too--" - -Frances looked up as Curtin and Anna stepped under the tree. Bright -tears stood in her eyes. She shook them away and smiled at the two. -"It's a letter from the crippled boy I told you about--" - -The four walked back to Sweet Rocket House. "Robert and I have but a -week longer. But this place tempers the wind of the whole year. It drops -honey into winter days." - -Curtin asked Robert Dane, "Forth from here you go on with the work you -are doing?" - -"Of course. That is a department of this. But I wish to work without -bitterness or violence." - -The day shone about them. Rain of the night had brought into late autumn -a sense of spring. Spring and autumn seemed to touch across shortened -winter. The air held a divine, sweet freshness. They were aware of new -life, and all objects of perception tossed back vigor and luster. - -"The world renews--the world renews!" sang the river. - -A little later Robert and Frances Dane at their window saw, coming up -from the river, a somewhat worn automobile. Stopping before the porch -the driver and owner descended and mounted the steps. "There's an old -type!" said Robert. "Tall and thin, black clothes and soft hat, low -collar and string tie, white hair, mustache and imperial--look, Frances, -it's a picture! Once it was the horse, and he swung himself down--then -the carriage, and at the door he helped out the ladies. Now it's the -car. To-morrow he will descend from the airship--just like that!" - -She looked over his shoulder. "It's old Major Hereward from Oakwood. He -was here four years ago, that time I came alone. He's all the past! But -that car's symbolic, too. He's all the past beginning to say, 'For all -my fighting I begin to find myself, with all I care for, here in the -present--perhaps also in the future!' He's beginning to think that it -may be so with the airship. There with all that he really, really cares -for! 'I always said that they couldn't get along without me, and now I -begin to see that neither can I get along without them!'" - -Major Hereward appeared at the dinner table. It seemed that he, too, was -a cousin of Linden's, on the other side from the Danes. His place was -Oakwood, twenty miles away. Old Major Linden and he had been boyhood -friends. He breathed knowledge of Sweet Rocket in ancient days. His -manner to Marget was delightful, though perhaps he still held in -comparison, in a "this--that," Sweet Rocket House and the overseer's -house. His manner to all was delightful--like old wine. - -Robert Dane pondered that, and also Frances's words of the morning. Like -others, he could speak as though the past, the present, and the future -were islands with nothingness between. But truly he knew it was not so, -and he assumed that much self-knowledge in those to whom he spoke. Now -he had it, in a flash of vision, how the old wine and wheat, how the old -strength of man and woman, did go on. All within the whole flashed and -changed. But the whole held all. The tangential itself only went so far, -then returned, and was met and welcomed. _The prodigal son._ He saw that -contrary winds were not so contrary after all. "In the whole, and in the -whole only, I am not contrary to him nor he to me. In the end one sail -and one wind--and the sail due to arrive and the wind favorable." - -That afternoon Major Hereward walked over the place; with him, Linden -and Curtin. "I came to talk to you about something, Richard. But we'll -leave it till night. I can always pull things together better -then--after the day. Here's the oak Phil Linden and I planted the day we -heard of First Manassas! He was eighteen and I was sixteen. The next -year we both went in." - -They stood beneath the tree. Said Curtin, "Much water has gone over the -wheel since then!" - -Major Hereward nodded. "Much! But Phil Linden and I seem to stand here -together. Not just of the mind we were, but together! _And many a foe -grew to be a friend._" - -The bright day declined. The sun set in a coral sea, a crescent moon -appeared, earth grew an amethyst, the stars came out. Brush was being -burned and wood smoke clung in the air, and there was the multitudinous -chirping, chirping in grass and bush of late autumn. It was almost -November, and they built larger fires. The old parlor gleamed. - -"It's a dear room, a dear, dear room!" said Major Hereward. "I don't -believe any here can love these portraits as I do. Richard may look at -them often, but--" He broke off. "I forgot that he is blind! I'm always -forgetting it! Well, he may see the reality of them." - -Richard entered, and a moment later Marget. "It's a night of the gods! -How the fire leaps!" - -They sat around it, Anna Darcy and Curtin and Drew and the two Danes and -Major Hereward, Linden and Marget. Anna Darcy was saying: "I went down -to Mimy's before supper. The preacher is there for the night--Brother -Robinson." - -Linden answered her. "Yes. He will be here presently. He always comes -to us for an hour or so. He's a fine fellow." - -Rising, he fetched Frances's violin. "What deep and dear pleasure you -give, Frances!" - -She played old music and new, into which the old glided, until there -seemed neither old nor new, but a content very vast and rich. The wing -of the music lifted them; music and flame blended. They sat in reverie, -and the wealth of the world flowed, circularly flowed. - -Without, in the night, a lantern passed the windows. "There is Brother -Robinson," said Marget. Richard went out--they heard his voice in the -hall--then he returned with the negro preacher and Zinia. He said, "Mr. -Robinson--friends, all of us!" The circle widened. The preacher sat down -between Linden and Robert Dane, and Zinia sat between Marget and -Frances. "Play a little longer, Frances!" - -The music blended with the flame, the wealth of the world flowed, -flowed, circularly flowed. The Rev. William Robinson sat, a gaunt, dark -figure, in long-preserved broadcloth, with a rugged, deep brown face. -When he spoke his voice had unction--like the voices of most of his -people--unction, but not too much of it. By sheer indomitableness he had -gained a fair education, and he was a good man and a wise one. In her -blue dress Zinia sat beside Marget Land. She kept silence, but her poise -was like her poise in the dining room and pantry, or on the porch when -Miss Darcy had taken her breakfasts there. The latter always thought of -her standing beside the pillar, or in the clean, airy pantry, by the jar -of flowers and the open _Pilgrim's Progress_, always heard her rich -voice, saying, "I like that girl Mercy!" - -It seemed that Robert Dane had met Brother Robinson before this at Sweet -Rocket. When the violin was put by the two talked together a little, as -folk might talk who liked each other. Curtin, from his corner, watched -with interest Sweet Rocket in Virginia. A voice from somewhere went -through his head: _Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision -nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is -all and in all_. He looked at Major Hereward, and the old man, who had -stiffened at the "Mr. Robinson" and the seating in the circle about the -fire, seemed now to rest at ease, in a brown study, as one who regards -the expanse of things. - -Miss Darcy spoke. "At Mimy's this afternoon you had begun to tell me of -the building of your church and schoolhouse down the river. Then they -called me and I had to go--" - -"Tell them now, brother," said Linden. - -Brother Robinson told, and what he told had humor and pathos and -heroism. There passed, as upon a screen, the littles gathered that were -much to spare, quaint efforts at money raising, labor at twilight and -dawn given by laboring men, the women's extra work and their festivals. -Brother Robinson was a born raconteur. Into the sheaf of his homely -narrative fell vast swaths of human effort and aspiration. "And Brother -Linden helped us, and old Mr. Morrowcombe gave us five dollars." - -A voice came from the corner of the hearth, from Major Hereward: "I'd -like to help you, too, Brother Robinson! Put me down for ten dollars." - -They left the material building of the schoolhouse and the church. Said -Brother Robinson: "I've got something else I want to tell you. I've had -an Experience, and it's taken the heart out of my bosom and crumbled it -between its fingers and put in a new one! I came to Sweet Rocket to tell -it to you, Mr. Linden. But I don't see anyone here that I'd be afraid to -tell it to." - -"There isn't any such," said Linden. "Tell it!" - - - - -XVIII - - -"I was going to preach," said Brother Robinson, "at Piny Hill Church, -that's twelve miles from Old Lock, where I live. I started out Saturday -afternoon to walk, counting on a lift or two on the road, and I got -them. I was going to sleep at Will Jones's, who works at the mill on -Piny Creek. The first lift I got was from a wagon full of hay going to -Cherry Farm. That was two miles. Then I walked three miles. Then a Ford -came along and said, 'Hey, Brother Robinson, are you going as far as -Llewellyn?' I said that I was, and farther, and the Ford took me to -Llewellyn. That didn't leave but four miles to do, and that was nothing. -So I was a-walking, and the leaves hung red and yellow, and the evening -was powerful sweet! I went through the woods by the Thessaly place. I -was thinking as I was walking. And then, just like that, Mr. Linden, -thinking with words stopped! My old body stopped, too. I just lowered it -under a cedar tree and left it there. - -"But I myself went higher and wider. I was everywhere and all over! I -was in and through everything! They were just shapes in me. It was like -being air, or like that inside air you told me about, called ether. You -told me about that, but when you told it I hadn't experienced, and so it -was just words. Now I have experienced. Everything was right here and -now, or there and then, it didn't matter a mite which! - -"The first thing I felt was just infinite cleanness and coolness. It was -me and it was not me. If it was me it was something vast in me that had -got the upper hand. There was a me, a self, like a tired, dirty child. -To that me the other was God. But God turning out to be me, too. I had -preached about God for thirty years, but I never really tasted or -touched God till that day. It was cool and whole and pure, and bigger -than the sky. And it forgave all my sins, or it saw clean through them. -It saw a long way and all at once.... The tired and dirty me was -everybody else, too. It was me and it was everybody, and we were healed -by our God, and that was us, too, us, and more than we had ever dreamed -of in that us! It healed with its might, and the lower part understood -and went up.... I can't give you a description. It was awe and joy. The -little body of William Robinson couldn't have held it, but something -bigger than that held it. And then, just as light changes on the -mountains here--when you are on top of Rock Mountain maybe, and see -everything below you--and it's all there, but it's got another tone and -you feel it in a different way--just so that cool awe and greatness -changed a little. It was joy still, but now it was friendly and natural. -It was the whole earth looking like a garden, and all mine, all me, and -in that me was all I had ever thought was you or him or her, and all -that I had ever said was it. The bird and the beast were there, the -trees and the grass and the air. And it was lovely; it was just love, -and beauty!" He brushed his hand across his eyes. "I can't tell you -about that beauty. And we weren't dead; all was living. If you'll think -of the very best moment you ever had, when you were deepest friends with -yourself and found that it took in everybody, it might be something like -that a million times over. It was innocent and wise. And all the times -that I'd ever thought I was happy were just plain misery beside it! I -couldn't hold it, any more than a young robin can hold the flight he -will hold after a while. I reckon we're all fledglings! Back I flopped -toward William Robinson. Here was old Virginia, and the woods and the -road and the hills and the mountains, and Old Lock, and Piny Hill -Church. But just before I settled in I got for just a minute this very -country and our daily life in the light and the glow and the music and -the wonder! All that was fair kept in and strengthened, and all that was -unfair just melted out! I knew then that though we talk about it we -haven't begun to love our country. It went, too, into the world. 'For -God so loved the world.' ... Well, that vanished, too. I was back. I was -just the colored preacher, William Robinson. I was back, but I could -remember! I've touched what it's like to be God." - -He ceased speaking, and sat bent toward the fire. A little of that -luminousness of which he had told seemed to show through his flesh, a -dark translucence. He said, under his breath, "'Little children, love -one another!'" and rested silent, in communion with the flame. - -"'For all we are members one of another.' Feeling that," said Linden, -"is to feel as One. Then the One no longer counts as separate his -members. He says I AM." - -Stillness held in the old room. The fire gave it crimson and amber life -and warmth. The canvases on the walls, the pictured men and women, -seemed self-luminous. Major Hereward spoke abruptly: "Where are the -dead? Where are my brother Dick, my son Walter, my mother and father?" - -"They are here. Re-member yourself and you shall find them." - -"Where is heaven?" - -"It is here, the moment you begin to perceive it." - -"You mean that you perceive the dead, Richard?" - -"Yes. Do not you?" - -The old man stared. He drew a long breath. "Never before did I think -that I did!" - -Robert Dane spoke. "You mean that as the Great Consciousness expands it -becomes aware of itself there, too? That that realm becomes open?" - -"Yes. Discovery there is within the grasp of our age. It is not so far -away as many might think! As Power comes through. The 'dead' and the -'living' do meet. They have met all the time. The general recognition -and use of the fact is to be strengthened, developed." - -"It is not the only recognition and use of Oneness impending!" - -"By no means! No. In every field there is ripening corn. How should it -not be so?" - -Major Hereward's voice came in again. "'The spiritual sense of the -dead.' I've heard that phrase. I didn't know what it meant. Do you mean -that when I seem to myself to move about in company with Dick, when -things come into my mind that he knew about or that we did together, -when I seem, as I go on, to understand his character better and better, -and to see life as he did, when he seems here with me or when we are -just happy together in old places--that it's _true_? And Walter and my -mother and father and Helen and others--oh, scores of others--they enter -my mind and heart just as though they came in at a door! Do you mean -that when I think of them suddenly and strongly, feel them as it were, -that _they_ are doing part of it, that there _is_ intercourse? Good -Lord! I thought it was only myself!" - -"I mean that," said Linden. "It will grow to be more than that. A -higher, fuller thing than that." - -The old man rose. Face and voice showed emotion. "I've got what I came -for. God bless you, Richard, and God bless you, too, Brother Robinson! -Oh, we've been little! Marget, I'll say good night, my dear. Out of my -life goes fear and loneliness!" - -Brother Robinson likewise, with Zinia, rose to say good night. "I'll see -you in the morning," said Richard. "I want to talk to you about the -school." - -That night Curtin, also, increased his sense of life, life that included -those that were said to be dead. There had been no repetition of the -hour when, lying in the room where now slept Robert and Frances Dane, he -had touched with an inward sense that brother who had fallen from the -aeroplane, who had been jostled out of the body, but who lived! Surely -the life was not quite that of the old life, though surely built from -that; certainly Curtin might not fully understand until he, too, slipped -the body. Yet there was life and living. He had not experienced that -hour again, and he had tried doubting if he had ever experienced it. But -doubt did not prove to be a going proposition. Memory smiled it down. -Yet the experience had not been repeated, or rather what had come had -diffused itself in the wide awakening of these Sweet Rocket weeks. Nor -did its distinctive _klang_ return to-night. There was not the same -white keenness. That which beamed about him now was more like that which -Marget had spoken of on the summerhouse steps. Not one now, but many of -his dead; not the human only, but the flower and the tree, the bird and -the beast, the scene, the water, land and sky. "The old and sweet is -here, but chosen, redeemed, gathered up, understood, become immortal! -And we have had it all the time. It has been here all the time! Just as -we had electricity and did not know it." - -He fell asleep, rocked by the waves of a sunny sea of love and home and -kindred. - - - - -XIX - - -Major Linden spent two days at Sweet Rocket, chiefly sitting upon the -porch in the sunshine or walking about the place, sometimes in company, -sometimes alone, but never, Curtin noticed, with an old man's look of -loneliness, though he thought that at times before this Major Hereward -would have shown that loneliness. But now there was vigor in him, vigor -and interest and life. "If they are here, living for me as I for them, -talking to me and I talking to them--it is the strangest thing what life -does when it comes!" His laughter had a clear and happy ring. "I had -thought of all kinds of solutions! And here it is, the needle threaded, -while I was still looking for it in the haystack!" He stood beneath the -oak he had planted almost sixty years ago. "Phil is here. Trying, wasn't -it, Phil, when I said, 'Oh, fancy!' or, 'It's just Wilmot Hereward -talking to himself!'" - -When he met Linden on the porch he said: "Richard, if it's so with those -folk whom we so promptly insisted hadn't any reality in them, isn't it -so all over? When I'm pondering Bob who's in England, or when I'm -thinking of nothing in particular and in he walks into mind and -affection--" - -"Yes. It is part of the same truth. It all rests on the oneness of -Being. That is why you must in some wise grasp that Oneness first. A -time will come where there will be no saying 'My brother Dick,' or 'Bob -in England,' because they and Wilmot Hereward and all others will have -advanced beyond all such divisions. But on the road there you will meet -many a fair power!" - -The old man went the next morning back to Oakwood in his battered car. -He went alone and not alone, with a peaceful face. - -In the afternoon Anna and Curtin, Drew and the two Danes, walked down -the river, in among the partly forested, partly grassy hills that here -closed the valley. Indian summer had now stolen over the land. The air -hung smoky amethyst, and still as still! No motion was in the fallen -leaves, the birds sailed stilly by, the stubble fields dreamed, the -river sang low. Wood smoke clung in the nostril. Turning, coming -homeward, the brick house and yellowed pillars stood pictured. They -passed through the orchard and by a small cider mill. Zinia, on the back -porch, poured for each out of an amber pitcher an amber glassful. -"_Was-hael!_" said Drew, and lifted the glass. Curtin caught from memory -the answering phrase, "_Drink-hael!_" A shaft of wonder, like a gleam -of light, touched them all with strange fingers. Something trembled in -the air. If it said aught it said, "So Earth begins to _live_ Poetry!" -Drew set down the cup with a sharp, clear sound. "Life, everlasting -life!" he said. "I see it now! We have always lived!" - -Again evening in the old parlor, the fire and music, Tam lying beside -Linden, Marget seated by Anna Darcy. Robert Dane spoke. "This finding -ourselves in all and all in us, this lifting the all into a mighty I, -this is it behind the slowly accelerating movements of the ages, behind -all efforts for freedom, for knowledge, for interchange and intercourse, -swifter and swifter, subtler and subtler intercourse--this is it?" - -"Yes. Behind a hundred shapes of dawn." - -"Effort does not cease?" - -"No. But effort, too, is finer and far more powerful. You act now from -within upon the within." - -"To touch through and through that we are one! Hercules's labor isn't in -it!" - -"Yet it is done and to be done. Find me if you can an individual to-day -who has not some dim perception of it, or who is not in some wise acting -toward it! Even the most unpromising--look and you will see! It is so -tremendous, that finding, it runs through every fiber. We can cut out no -pattern, but we move from light to light, from love to love!" - -In her room that night, when she had put out the lamp, Anna Darcy, -lying in bed, watched the firelight on wall and ceiling. A cricket -chirped, she could hear the river. Her visit to Sweet Rocket was ending. -"Only it will never end; it is immortal within me!" - -She saw how all life interlocked, how shock to one was taken up by the -whole, how joy to one thrilled through all. "What we call space is -Being; what we call time is our own Story, our colored, toned -lastingness! Give and take, forever and forever, forever and forever! -Find lovely things to give, and from the other side of us take lovely -things, lovelier and lovelier! Know thyself--know thyself--know Thyself. -'If ye do it unto one, the least of these, ye do it unto Me.' 'And all -we made One.'" - -The walls of the room disappeared. Anna Darcy, a slight, worn, teaching -woman, sixty years old, vanished or altered. There was wide life, land -and sea, deep life that did not talk in births and deaths, lofty life -that said, "Better than this wave even, shall you know!" - -It was Strength, it was Peace, it was Wisdom and Balm. - -Across the hall Robert Dane lay thinking. In his youth he had the -passion of a Shelley for a regenerate world. Older, the vision dulled, -and yet he worked on doggedly, heroically, one with thousands of others -breaking and making a road for the feet of Coming Man. He worked -heroically, never sparing himself, a devoted life. Sometimes the gleam -shone fair before him, oftener mists made it faint, sometimes he lost -it. Then it shone again. He worked on. To-night, lying here at Sweet -Rocket, his youth came back, but higher, fuller, wiser! He saw what -might be done, what was doing. He saw the interrelated roads and the -travelers upon them, the hosts of travelers. A vision came to him in the -night. His body lay very still, but he himself saw clearly a great -thing. - -There was a City that was country also, and sea and land and sky, that -was a world, harmonious, great, not a dead thing, not unintellectual, -but living, living with a vast fervor and beauty and interest and -knowledge, throwing out even, it might be, silver lines toward a world -yet more light, more fervent, more living! But it was there, all that he -could now image of body and spirit, mind and soul's desire: - -He saw like a pale film another city that was pale and sorrowful to -this. And he saw that city, as it were, send out itself, by rivers and -seas and roads, thousands and thousands of paths, upon a journey to the -other. There was hardly a point--truly he thought there was not any -point--that did not travel. So many living beings, so many ships or -rafts, caravans or solitary travelers to that Desired Haven! All going, -some ahead, some behind, but all going. The pale and sorrowful city was -moving into that other, and brightening as it moved. That other was -drawing it, steadily, steadily! He felt it like a loadstone; he felt it -like a mother calling home. - -The vision passed, but there was left Assurance. He lay still in the -starry night. The mind kept up an underhumming with words like -"reintegration," "superconsciousness," but the spirit dealt only with -the bliss of a great coming to itself. He slept at last, and his sleep -was dreamless and profoundly renewing. - - - - -XX - - -"It is the flowering land, it is the music land. You go to it through -every moment and incident and encounter of the day. You read, and it is -behind the words. You think, and it smiles through. It is the Higher Us -that resolves the discords and reaps the fields. Experience it once, and -it is miracle and wonder; experience it twice, and you say, 'Columbus -was not the only discoverer!' Experience it thrice, and you work for it -day and night! You yourself, drawing yourself out of the old man and the -old house. Read 'The Chambered Nautilus.'" - -"It is religion--" - -"It always has been Religion." - -"And the gloom and storm of our day?" - -"It is _not_ gloom, it is _not_ storm. It is the pains of growth. Feel -the epic and voyage that it is!... Every proper and general noun in all -dictionaries now and to come is my name, as it is yours. Every verb is -my doing, as it is yours. The use of language, use and _dis_-use, is -mine as it is yours--" - -They were walking in the orchard beneath the apple trees, whose leaves -were slow to fall. There had been, this morning, a heavy frost. The -garden flowers were going, the creeper over Mimy's house had shed its -scarlet leaves, but held its dark-blue berries. The heavens hung a blue -crystal. The air had the cool of mountain water. - -It was the day when Anna Darcy must leave Sweet Rocket. After dinner -Daniel and the phaeton and Marget would take her to Alder to the -north-going train. Now, with Marget, she went the round of the place, -saying good-by. They had been to Mimy's, and had talked to Mancy at the -barn. "Come again!" said Mancy. "But you ain't really going, you know! -Sweet Rocket will hold you, and you'll hold Sweet Rocket." - -They came by the kitchen. Mimy was singing: - - - "Swing low, sweet chariot, - Coming for to carry me home--" - - -"You gwine back inter the troubled world?" said Mimy. "They say hit's -awful! But, Lord! there ain't any bars ter trouble! I've seen a lot." - -They walked up the river to the overseer's house, where they were made -welcome by Mary Carter and small Roger, and by old Mr. Morrowcombe, who -was staying over from Sunday, which was yesterday. He said, much as -Mancy had said: "I'm sorry you are going! But thar! You ain't going in -the old, harsh ways." - -Marget, sitting beside him on the step of the porch, rested her arm -upon his knee. Her brown, slender hand touched his great horny one. -"Grandfather Morrowcombe!" she said. He answered her: "I see you as a -nine-year-old, Marget, and I see you as a woman in Sweet Rocket Valley, -and I see you as something that stands above child and woman. It isn't -any more big than it is subtle-fine. It's puzzling to find words. But -when I look at you and think of you I seem to hear the air stirring over -the whole world. All kinds of things that I had forgotten, and all kinds -of things that I have read...." - -She and Anna sat for five minutes under the sycamore by the water. -Returning then to Sweet Rocket, they walked in the garden that was -making ready for winter. As it happened, Mrs. Cliff came this day down -mountain to borrow some sugar. She sat on the steps of the back porch, -in the violet light of November. "Howdy!" she said to Miss Darcy. "I'm -glad you stayed on. When I come here I want to stay on, too. But thar! I -take the memory of it up to my home. You wouldn't think how often thar -I'm here, too!" - -To-day she had a braided rug to sell, and Marget bought it. Mrs. Cliff's -long, wrinkled hand put the money in her pocket. "Times isn't betterin' -any, Miss Marget." - -Marget laughed. "Oh, the poor old times!" - -It startled Anna Darcy, too, so joyous and care-free and lilting was -the voice. Mrs. Cliff stared at her. The mountain woman's face was not -what one would call a cheerful one. Whoever was behind it was caught in -a network of fine, anxious lines. Now these held for a perceptible -moment, then faded as though the twine were mist. That one immortally -youthful and insouciant looked forth as it had looked from Marget. Sun -came out over meadow, plain, and hill, and Mrs. Cliff laughed. "I reckon -you're right, Miss Marget! You generally are. I reckon we've seen so -much that we can afford to take it tranquil--which ain't to say that -we're either do-less or keerless!" - -She spoke to Anna. "You remember my tellin' you about that feeling I -had? I 'ain't had it full again. But I've caught glimpses of it, maybe -in the day, maybe in the night. I know the minute when anything like it -comes my way. When you've had a feeling like that all your life's set to -feeling it again." - -But Marget had taken it joyously. - -When Mrs. Cliff had said good-by and gone mountainward the two, crossing -the pleasant porch, entered the house. They walked from room to room, -Anna's consciousness gathering each. "Any time you may feel me here!" - -"We shall feel you here all the time." - -They stood in the study, against the broad mantelshelf. "At first, when -I thought of this room, I thought, 'Richard Linden's study.' But it is -of and for and to both of you." - -"Ah yes! To both." - -She seemed to give forth light. Anna thought, "Is it only the sun -shining on her?" - -Later, in her own room, all packing done, dressed for her journey, Anna -went and sat beside the window as she had sat the first evening at Sweet -Rocket. She still heard Mimy singing, she still saw the garden, though -it was dreaming now of spring. "I have been here only a month, but in it -I have had years and years." - -The quiet room filled with a sunny stillness, an eternal assurance. -Again, as on that first evening, the mountains were here and the wind of -the sea was here. Love and wisdom and power were here. - -The boy Jim brought Daniel and the phaeton to the door below. Marget -came for her, and they went down, and through the hall to the porch, to -find there Linden and Curtin and Robert and Frances and Drew, and Zinia -and Mimy, and Mancy and Tam. - -Across the river, at the edge of the wood, Marget checked Daniel so that -Anna might look back and see the house again, the house and the trees -and the hills, and the holding arms of the mountains. "But you are to -come again," said Marget. "Never part, and come again!" - -"Yes, oh yes!" - -The wheels turned and went on upon the Alder road. They entered the -forest, old forest, great trees that sloughed their leaves again and -again and again, through centuries past number, sloughed their leaves, -sloughed their old bodies, made soil, and stood upon it and builded -higher. Behind and in and through every stem and leaf rose the -subjective forest, and behind and in and through the whole the ideal, -the spiritual forest, the divine forest. Around and onward went the -wheels on the leafy road. Anna sat beside Marget. The two spoke little, -having now no great need of words. The light came down between bare -branches. Far and near branch and blue air made a marvel of lacework. -Against this pines and hemlocks stood like pyramids and pillars. Song -and twitter of a month ago was not now. "The birds go south--the birds -go south!" said Marget. "But there are enough left for winter company. -There is a bluebird on yonder bough!" - -Round went the wheels, making hardly a sound. The forest hung still, so -still. For one moment, to Anna Darcy, it all went away. It was _maya_, -illusion, the forest, Indian summer, this day of our Lord, the phaeton -and Daniel, Sweet Rocket and Alder and New York, Marget Land and Anna -Darcy. What was left was fullness of Being. Did it choose to analyze -itself it might be into Power, Wisdom, and Bliss. The revealing flash -went as it came, ere one could say, It lightens! _Maya_ again, Marget -Land and Anna Darcy, Daniel and the phaeton, the forest, Sweet Rocket -and Alder and the train to be met. But each time the sheath thinned and -there was left stronger light. - -The train came, the friends embraced. Anna Darcy looked from window at -Marget and then at Alder, the fields and hills and rivers and mountains. -The train roared through a tunnel, and when it emerged the scenery was -changed. There were fields and mountains, but not these fields and -mountains. "And yet they run into those. There is no impassable wall nor -aching gulf. There are the finest gradations--" - -Marget and Daniel and the phaeton went homeward along the Alder road. - - - - -XXI - - -November rains wrapped Sweet Rocket. November winds rocked and bent the -trees. The world was gray, or iron-gray, with rust-hued streakings. -Indoors they built larger fires. - -It was five days after Anna's departure. Unless the storm held him -Curtin was going on the morrow. In January his profession would take him -abroad, to the nearer East. He could not tell when he would be -returning. - -"But Sweet Rocket goes with me!" - -"Just. As all the East and you flow here." - -"What kind of a general world are we coming into, Linden? What kind of a -political, social, economic world? I believe that, as to much of it, -Robert and Frances are far seeing. In the large, those changes are upon -us, and in the large they are for the better. They are built into the -road we are going. I agree, I welcome! But I would see more completely -if I could." - -Linden, in the cane chair by the study window, seemed to pay attention -to the storm. At last he spoke. "I cannot see in detail. I think there -will be a great simplification. Power out of a thousand tortuous -channels mingling, running broad and deep! There are signs on every -side. The old banks crumble. The great sea lifts other continents." - -"I see everywhere how we are seeking." - -"Yes. The seeker finds, the finder seeks on, seeks farther. The great -ages are ever the seekers." - -"You would say it is a great age?" - -"Yes. A very great one. Who is not in some way aware of it? This -friction of opinion on the top is but the wildness of the outermost -leaves as the strong wind blows." - -"And wherever I go I shall find the seeking and the greatness?" - -"The world is One," said Linden. - -The storm continued. Sweet Rocket had early supper. Zinia and Mimy, with -raincoats and a huge umbrella, went by the swaying, chanting orchard to -their own fireside, to Sarah and Julia and Jim and Just So. The Danes -and Curtin and Drew, Linden and Marget, sat or moved about in the old -Sweet Rocket parlor. They might watch the storm from the windows, or -they might sit by the fire. The great wind blew through Sweet Rocket -Valley. They heard the stream rushing, and the trees had a voice, as -though they had taken foot out of ground and were now a herd. The rain -was driven against the panes, and the wind hurled dead leaves with the -rain. Wall and roof and glass shut out the physical rain, but the -psychical man cognized it far and near, rain since the world began. And -the fire also, and the warm room, and they in company listening to the -storm. The momentary outlines shifted. There fell a sense of having done -this times and times and times, a sense of hut and cave, so often, so -long, in so many lands, that there was a feel of eternity about it. Rain -and the cave and the fire, and the inner man still busied with his -destiny! There was something that awed in the perception that ran from -one to another, that held them in a swift, shimmering band. "How -old--how old! How long have we done this?" - -The rhythm of the storm, the rhythm of the room, the rhythm of the fire, -passed into a vast, still sense of ordered movement. "Of old, and now, -and to-morrow--everywhere and all time--until we return above time and -place, and division is healed." - -They felt a lightness, a detachment. The spirit soared with the mind and -made it look. - -"There is the natural man and there is the spiritual man. That last -finds himself in all selves, and all selves in him. There is the -spiritual man, and there is the divine man who works with power. Both -are words of inclusion. It is to leave the old small I for the spiritual -I, and it is to transcend the last and enter that which is above. Then -is left the shrunken pond for the ocean! Only we say it upside down. It -is the ocean that overflows and drinks up the pond." - -"When God enters life there will still be said I?" - -"Otherwise, still pond and ocean, still separation! Who shall lose his -life here shall find it. But never sink to thinking that it is what in -the past we have meant when we said I! When God enters how shall he not -say I? But it is the ocean now that speaks! The pond is gone." - -They sat still, and the fire played and leaped. - -Through the night the rain beat and the wind blew, but at dawn it -cleared. There was wreckage about the world, but life laughed and took -her wreckage and built with it anew. Valley, hills, and mountains -gleamed like precious stones. Navies of clouds rode for a while, then -melted into the deep azure. The upper sea hung so calm and clear that -down through it to the earth bottom ran light that seemed intenser than -the light of every day. - -Curtin said good-by, and went. Marget and Linden drove him to Alder. - -The river ran swollen, the road lay deep in leaves, few leaves now on -the trees. The trees stood still in vast ranks. They seemed to be -holding something, to be turning it over in mind. There flashed across -Curtin, "Who lifts, all lifts." - -"Yes!" said Marget, beside him, as though he had spoken. - -It was what he carried with him from this valley. - -Linden and Marget drove home through the wood. "How still it is! Barring -foot and wheel on the wet leaves you would say there was no stir. We are -passing pine trees. How fragrant!" - -"A bluebird is watching us from a maple. Now here is the great beech. It -holds its leaves, though they are brown and curled upon themselves like -cocoons. The ground underneath is clean and brown. A grapevine goes over -and up with those young trees. There are yet bunches of grapes and they -hang so still! There are brown loops for swings for all the forest -children, whether they be Indians or dryads and fauns." - -"I see them," said Linden, "all the graceful, tawny forest children!" - -"Here is the oak glade with the grass yet green far down it, to where -hangs the purple curtain. The outstanding great roots glisten, and the -moss holds the water drops. You see a long way. Yonder is tree trunk and -stone, light and shadow, that looks like a hermit's cell. It is an alley -for the whole Middle Ages to come riding down--for a paladin to come -riding down, the Red Cross Knight, or Guyon, or Galahad, or Parsifal--or -it might be Robin Hood in Lincoln green!" - -"I see." - -"Here are green brier and red dogwood berries, and witch-hazel with -dull gold fingers. Can you hear the water?" - -"Yes. Three silver threads of it, like a lute!" - -"The day is a castle and a church, the day is a city and a star! Now we -pass the great rock and the two hemlocks, like cathedral spires. Here -are the little oaks, and there is a guess of crimson about them yet. The -birch and the hickory and the tall oaks, and the tops are far and fine -and melt into the sky--" - -They came down to the river, and crossed. "The light washes the pillars, -the cedars are little earth clouds. The arch of the sky has none, it -springs clear blue. Music of home!" - -"Yes. Music of home!" - -After supper, with Robert and Frances and Drew they watched the fire. -"Anna sends the city to us, and Curtin sends the rush of the train and -the flying scenery. As we send this place and this mood and this thought -to the city and the train!" - -The violin bow drew across the strings. Frances played, and love and -release filled the ancient room. The world entered into harmony. - -The next day rose gray pearl. Linden and Drew went with the woodcutters. -Marget sat at her typewriter in the study. Robert and Frances took a -long walk. Three days, and they, too, must go cityward. Now they walked -by the Alder road, and at the great pine took the Rock Mountain trail. - -The pearly light filled the forest like a water. All sound lay subdued. -When a stone rolled underfoot it was not loudly; when a branch broke it -was with a slow, deliberate, musing voice. When they saw a wild thing, -the wild thing had no motion of flight, but pottered stilly on upon its -business of the time. "We are far away! We have crossed to another land. -It is as though we died, and this is the quiet ground where we take our -reckoning before we find another busy world. Oh, a busy world in each of -us, and a quiet land!" - -They rested upon a bowlder half sunken in brown leaves. "There is a -touch of eternity about this day.... Yet in five days how busy a world -for you and me!" - -"Yet I love that as I love this. How happy that we are so rich!" - -They sat still on the gray bowlder in the gray wood in the pearl-gray -air. Minutes passed. A bird flew across the path, a gray squirrel ran up -an oak. "Something is coming down the trail." - -The something proved to be a man on horseback. The intervening boughs, -branches, twigs, made him to be seen like a horseman behind a great -window filled with small, leaded panes. He came close, and, seeing them, -drew rein. "Good day!" - -"Good day!" - -"From Sweet Rocket?" - -"Yes, from Sweet Rocket." - -"Do I speak to Mr. Linden? My name is Smith--Malcolm Smith from the -Reserve on Rock Mountain." - -Robert gave their names. Mr. Smith said: "Have you ever seen a stiller -day? It is one of the still days that set you on new action. I thought I -would ride over. I want to see Drew, and there is something else--" - -After a minute or two he addressed himself again to the path. "I'll go -on, as I have only this afternoon and to-night. I must get back to camp -to-morrow." He made no doubt, it might be noticed, of the hospitality of -Sweet Rocket. "I shall see you again?" - -"Yes. We shall turn presently." - -They watched him along the trail until, as the figure had entered, so it -vanished from the leaded window. They sat awhile longer in the -gray-pearl world, and then they rose and followed the horseman down to -Sweet Rocket. - - - - -XXII - - -Malcolm Smith and Drew had their talk, walking by the river in the -still, November dusk. Drew said: "I was glad to be on Rock Mountain, and -after a few months, if you will have me, I am going there again. But I -am glad that I came here. I am growing to see that it is not here nor -there, camp on mountain or Sweet Rocket, that a man goes to find -himself. But yet there are helpers.... There's a principle of induction, -don't you think, sir? Those who find start a wave of finding. The wave -caught them, too. There isn't any first or last." - -Turning, they saw fire gleaming through the window. "He says that we -(and when he says that he means the whole of us. When he says 'I' it is -the other word for 'we.' It is the Whole of the many) are growing fast -to-day. Sometimes he says Evolving Life, sometimes the Principle of -Integration, or the Great Synthesis. He may say Humanity Awake, or Going -Home, or Realizing Deity, or Liberation in God, or Becoming Real, or -Fulfilling Want, or Recollection, or Union, or the Eternal, Including -_SELF_, or Love at Last. He seems to think that almost any phrase will -answer if you know the thing." - -Zinia's bell rang from the porch behind them. They went in to the -pleasant supper table, set with wholesome, delicate bread, and fragrant -coffee, cottage cheese, and baked apples and cream. The table talk was -merry this evening, after the dreamy day. Supper over, all walked out to -see the night, and found it clearing, with river banks of clouds and -stars between like lit craft sailing, sailing. The air breathed -exquisitely mild, warm to-night as early October. "Let us sit by the -river and watch awhile." They took capes and coats and went down to -where, before the cedars, was placed a long bench. Sitting here, though -no entire constellation was visible, yet they pieced out the figures. - -They sat in silence, watching the ships of the universe. At last said -the visitor: "I have been thinking a good deal about you down here by -this river, and about Drew, and of two or three things Mr. Curtin said -when he was at camp. So I came down. I have been thinking a good deal. -Look! there is Pleiades, a magic island in a sea. I have had my inklings -of the way currents arise in this world. Let's grant that it is a -universe of thought and will and feeling, and that, from ignoring as -much as we could that fact, and then from wondering about it, and then -from in some wise earning it, we begin to be it--" - -"Just," said Linden. "Well?" - -The other continued, "Once, when I was recovering from an illness, I -found or was found by--and I don't suppose the expressions matter--" - -"No. They are distinctions without a difference." - -"Once, then, I walked into a state of consciousness that transcended the -level that I had thought was the true level. I was there for it might be -five seconds of our time. But though again in mass we parted, there -remained an influence--like one of those rivers up there. The world has -never since been just the old world. But the main experience did not -repeat itself, though there have been times when I have met the shadows -of it. Until the other night. But I will come to that presently. Though -it was not repeated I have known ever since that there is a -consciousness as much above our usual one as the latter is above the -ape's. A consciousness that it is profoundly desirable to reach. Before -that moment I was like almost any European of say 1491. During it--for -that one minute--I was in America. After it, though I returned to -Europe, I could say, there is America!" - -"Yes. Just." - -"But I had fallen out of America and I could never get quite back, -though I often tried. And then the other night--" - -He broke off, and seemed to ponder the sky. "I rode over from Rock -Mountain because the other night I had, not that first experience again, -but one that was again in America--New America. From what I have heard I -felt certain that this place knows these experiences. I wanted to -compare, and be confirmed. So I rode over." He was speaking to Linden. -"I had meant to ask to talk with you alone, but I see that there is -nothing here that jars or makes it difficult. It's a good place, this -bench, with the river sounding, and the clouds and the stars." - -"There is just ourself here." - -"I was coming down from the top of Rock. I had had a still twenty -minutes there, watching the sunset. I had thought of nothing in -particular, only gathered rest. I was halfway down when this torrent -rose and overtook me. I stood still. I remember a pine tree, and beyond -that a great wash of sky. But I--I was in the torrent that now seemed -Ocean, and now seemed Air, and now was Fire. The combination called -Malcolm Smith was gone into that, like rain into sea or a candle flame -into sun. And yet--and that was the miracle of it--there was an I, only -it was oceanic, only it was the sun! It held in a sheaf, it sucked out -pith and marrow of all the small 'me's' in creation, and soared and -rang, an All-Person. But what are words? If I could give you that -sense--" - -"Perhaps you do. As long ago we developed gesture in order faintly to -understand and be at one, and then developed speech, so now the Will -within is propelling and the Will within is receiving these mightier -waves. I feel what you would give. Go on." - -"If I could find the words! I passed into a subtle consciousness that -went everywhere, and all our old time became space to it. There was -motion, as of all the winds of the world brought into one current--only -nor air nor fire is swift enough, vast enough! And yet you would say -'Quietude.' ... All the movements of our world penetrated, understood, -furthered--all the honey fields, all the bees, all the hives--and -Valhalla and Olympus and Paradise, where the honey is eaten! And it is -all a figure, but what will you have! I can but stammer. I have seen -home." - -He rose, and walked up and down beneath the cedars. "I talk about it so -calmly, and yet all that I ever believed or hoped, all that I ever -thought or felt or did, is babyhood to that! I am patient, and that -astonishes me; I who am back at Malcolm Smith!" - -"You are not wholly back. The rising pendulum swings, but now a great -part of you is above the old, lower range. And at the last not -anticipation, but reality, not light of home, but home!" - -The river sounded, the stars shone in the upper rivers with the cloud -banks. The clouds made rivers, but, the clouds dissolved, there were no -more rivers, but Ocean, but Space, but the Eternal Fire! - -"It is all I have to tell," said Smith. "It sank with long -reverberations, and there was the pine tree, and the camp below, and -Malcolm Smith." - -They sat in silence. At last, said Linden: "America is a term of -vastness. They who adventured there and arrived found all manner of -experience, but all in America. They sailed in many crafts--and yet in -the end all were as one ship, all being for America. They landed north -or south, in varying climes; they stayed by the sea or went toward the -mountains, but all in America. They met with great variety in adventure, -the land being so vast and so rich in might, but all was American -adventure.... So it is, I hold, with the New America, the New World now -lighting the horizon. It resounds and flames thus to this one, and thus -to the other one. But it resounds and flames. The Great Symphony takes -in all the music. Feel it as you can, know it as you can! In proportion -as you draw the breath of the All, comparisons become odious. You have -access as I have access. Enter by the door of your inner nature!" - -"A new man is born?" - -"Yes. Everywhere. Including and transcending men. Men fading into Man, -men left behind. Man moving toward his full Consciousness. What in -prophecy we have called Christ." - -They watched the clouds and the stars, and they saw, each of them, a -new Country that was fair and strong and keen and glowing.... - -At last they rose and went back to the house, and by the fire listened -to the violin. - - - - -XXIII - - -Day rose in sapphire, tranquil, pure, still and sunny, white smoke going -straight up from morning fires. Malcolm Smith, mounting his horse, -turned again to his mountain. Sweet Rocket bade him good-by, but Linden -and Marget said, "All who come together in this consciousness part no -more!" - -"I believe that." - -He rode away, and in the afternoon was back with his work. But the inner -eye might view, between mountain and Sweet Rocket, a shimmering, -ethereal highway, a nerve, as it were, thrown from space to space, -joining and making one. - -Robert and Frances and Marget, on this last day of the Danes' visit, -walked to the hill with the solitary tree atop. The sapphire day -continued, quiet and sunny, the air being of an extreme fineness charged -with light. Far and near the mountains made a cup of amethyst. Fields -and hillsides at hand were a lighted umber. They saw long rows of -stacked corn, and in the meadows hayricks. Beyond the orchard they made -out the steep roof of the great barn. There were corn and wheat for the -mill, there were stored apples. In the wood below them they heard the -woodman's ax. - -"I can see," said Robert Dane, "I can see that Humanity is mastering its -own organism. I see that it is lifting toward Unitary Consciousness. -Here, now, in this present year as in past years, each year now with -greater momentum. Reaction and recoil, of course--but back again, and -farther! Everywhere shows the swift inter-approach. All over, all -through, America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the islands of -the sea. The revolutions of our day are woven of it. We are leaving -separation and partialness, fortress and dungeon." - -"Yes. All our 'movements' rush into the one. All our vortices approach -with a fearful joy the Great Vortex. The Correlation will be -established, the Summation made. We go to join and strengthen the -Ancient Heavens. The Ancient of Days draws and redeems and fuses and -Ones another layer of his being. Faster and faster our age begins to see -what is happening. The language men use to describe it does not so much -matter. The poet names it Life, Beauty, and Joy; the scientific man says -Knowledge and Use; the philosopher says Energy and Substance in -conscious union; the Hindu says the _SELF_; our peoples say God.... All -one." - -They came to the hilltop and stood to look about them. "There is such -joy!" went on Marget. "Pain and pleasure outgrown, now blooms the joy! -'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.' The -being found and the finding. One after another lays hand upon that -world, clings, braces himself, draws himself up and over and finds the -manna lying around him. Joy, wisdom and power! and the taste of them but -begun. Possession still to be possessed--forever and forever!" - -They sat beneath the tree and all around sprang the valley and the -mountains and Virginia and the world. "Alive--deathlessly alive! The -valley and the mountains, Virginia and the world!" - -Frances spoke. "I know a woman who speaks in the terms of the East. Is -it the Principle of Sensibility--the Buddhic plane?" - -"Yes. Atma is yet to arrive. What we see is the light before his face. -When he fully comes that is the Day of the Lord. What all work has been -toward, all toil, all hoping. As Atma rises in us--as Christ rises in -us--comes newer and richer life, fuller and fuller, inner powers and -principalities, thrones and dominions, and their objective garments. But -when WE ARE THE LORD--I know not! There is Light there that is as -darkness to us yet." - -The exquisite valley heightened its values throughout, became richer. -The mountains around hung in the eye like the Delectable Mountains. - -"If one grows, all things and all places grow with that one?" - -"Inevitably so! The wealth is for all." - -"The new consciousness that we feel is a pale film to what will be?" - -"Yes. A borderland, the islands fringing the New World. But such as it -is it wipes out the old, blind, scattered, little consciousnesses. To -what shall be felt and shall be known it is the one leaf of green, it is -the olive leaf that the dove brings. But before us are enormous growth, -strange and fair adventure, work, joy, love--" - -Through the air they felt the ether, through the sunlight they felt the -Great Sun. Light and warmth came to them from the Sun behind the sun. It -touched, it passed, but each time it came they strengthened. - -That night by the fire they sat in silence that was full and rich and -understanding. "To-morrow night, here at Sweet Rocket, just Richard and -Marget and Drew--and all the rest of us!" - -The next day dawned, and still it was Indian summer. Robert and Frances -went from place to place, as had gone Curtin and Anna Darcy, saying -farewell. "We wish and hope to bring our bodies here again next year. -But if that is not done, still, still, still we shall have Sweet -Rocket!" - -"You have access now to all places and times and peoples. You are -through the gate, you two! All your good dreams now will come true. If -not in this way then in that. Every dream that does no injury to the -Whole." - -Richard and Marget, Daniel and the phaeton, took them to Alder. The -still forest was clothed to-day in purple. For much of the way silence -held within the phaeton as without. But it was the silence that Anna -Darcy had early noted. It was rhythmic, it was thronged, it was fused -and made into the richest solitude. - - - "But such a tide as moving seems asleep, - Too full for sound or foam, - When that which drew from out the boundless deep - Turns again home." - - -Now and then they spoke. Once Robert said, abruptly, "And all the effort -of the world is to stand and grow in grace?" - -"Just. All the effort. Everywhere! Whether it be stone or plant or -animal or man or over-man. And where the Emerging Character is so mighty -none is to despise his brother's path or rate of speed. Once it was his -own. Everything has been and is our own. Work! but who hates or despises -halts and weakens the effort." - -"But work!" - -"Yes, steadily. In all realms. 'What thy hand findeth to do, do with thy -might.' What thy judgment findeth to do. The other name of Lubber Land -was Good Enough." - -They came to Alder with its churches and sere gardens lying in violet -light. Here was the little station--in a few moments they heard the -train. - -"Good-by!" - -"Good-by!" - -Frances and Robert looked through the car window. The platform had men, -women, and children upon it. Two or three arriving travelers found -friends to meet them; there were the workers about the station and the -loafers, with country folk and village folk brought by some business, -and in the throng Richard Linden and Marget Land. Just the usual village -station. Then all of it sprang into light, into music, into -significance, into importance. The train moved. There was a cry of -"Good-by! Come again!" All seemed to enter into it, to cry it out. - -The houses went by, the village street, the hills, the river, and all, -all, and this train upon which they found themselves had color and music -and significance and importance. - -"The I that says of every living thing, 'It is I,' says it and means it -and understands it and proceeds to live from it, says it of the total -objective, and so takes the objective up into the Subject--that I is -over the verge of the old into the New--" - -The hills went by, the river gleamed. - -Marget and Richard traveled homeward through the purple forest. To-day -they hardly used the outer voice. The blind man sat with a smile upon -his lips as though he saw, with such a face as could only have come from -much seeing. The woman, too, sat still, the body relaxed, the spirit -gleaming in the soul. Daniel drew them through the forest; nor did -Daniel, either, lack some sense of growth, dim belief in a higher world, -dim will to reach it. Below Daniel the forest felt that, and below the -forest the rock. The utter stream of pilgrims-- - - -THE END - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sweet Rocket, by Mary Johnston - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET ROCKET *** - -***** This file should be named 56101.txt or 56101.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/1/0/56101/ - -Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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