The Mettle of the Pasture

from lands and ages, grew simultaneously hushed. He crossed the library to a front window opening upon the narrow rocky street and sat with his elbow on the w

was well shaded; and one forest tree, the roots of which bulged up through the mossy bricks of the pavement, hung its boughs before his windows. Throughout life he had found so many companions in the world outside of mere people, and this tree was one. From the month of leaves to the month of no leaves-the period of long hot vacations-when his eyes were tired and his brain and heart a little tired also, many a time it re

other; part disappeared each year in the buying of books-at once his need and his pas

y little boys and girls have nothing

y, "but some day you will

ll be a thrifty old mendicant. And I'll beg for yo

adonna of the Dishes; but at these times, and in truth for all deeper ways, he thought of her as the Madonna of

hall go out; and then-decrepitude, uselessness, penury, unless something has been hoarded. So, Anna, out of the frail uncertain little baske

ooms of a university, he would have been thought at home and his general status had been assumed: there being that about him which bespoke the scholar, one of those quiet self-effacing minds that have long since passed with entir

any. The appreciative observer said at once: "Here is a man who may not himself be gre

hip, while it may bring out what is best in a man, so often wastes up his strength and burns his ambition to ashes in the fierce fight against odd

wn; and now, when past fifty, he had never won anything more. For him ambition was like the deserted martin box in the corner of his yard: returning summers brought no more birds. Had his abilities been even more extraordinary, th

elf become little; feel interested in trivial minds at street corners, yet remain companion and critic of some of the greatest intellects of human kind; contend with occasional malice and jealousy in the college faculty, yet hold himself above these carrion passions; reta

iates the village and becomes a cosmopolitan recluse-lonely toiler among his books. Few possess the breadth and equipoise which will enable them to pass from day to day along mental paths, whi

had lost his wife and two sons-that furrowed the tendency. During the years immediately following he had tried to fill an immense void of the heart with immense labors of the int

niverse in the only world that she had ever known: she walking ever broad-minded through the narrowness of her little town; remaining white though often threading its soiling ways; and from every life wh

ich left him normal in the middle years; the fresh pursuing scholar still but a man pract

mong our kind, without their coming to choose sooner

s. They had discovered each other by drifting as lonely men do in the world; each being without family ties, each loving literature, eac

are states which we gladly choose to leave unlanguaged. Vast and deep-sounding as is the orchestra of words, there are scores which we never fling upon such instru

of the upward slope of life, and the man is already passing down on the sunset side, with lengthening

after years of absence in an eastern college-it was a tradition of her family that its women should be brilliantly educated

aid to himself, "it should not

corruptible wealth. No doubt also the life-long study of the ideals of classic time came to his g

nd there was that which drew her unfathomably to him-all the more securely since in her mind there

ollege course. Afterward he read much more Greek to her. Then they laid Greek aside, and he too

the perfection that went into marble-made her a portion of legend and story, linking her with Nausicaa and Andromache and the lost others. Then quitting antiquity with her altogether, he passed downward with h

ined, faultlessly proportioned in mental and physical health, full of kindness, full of happiness, made for love, made for mothe

see that she was loved and that her nature was turning away from

er a multitude of the ordinary to reach the rare, stand off for a few years! Let them be happy together in their love, their m

and was driven to the door. Isabel got

d them and looked at her without a word. He could scarcely believe that

iver of the lips she turned her face aside

close to hers when s

andmother were going later

is very u

se she is go

am goin

the s

mmer. I suppose

inst the back of the chair, her eyes directed o

re any

ere is t

tell me w

what it is. I cannot te

anything

you can do. There is n

or some time. He s

you what the

. I believe I wish you did

not R

ge of posture and answered at

it is

e and prolonged; the rustling of the le

going to marr

o marry him. I am nev

But of what use is it to have kept faith with high ideals through trying years if they do not reward us at last with stren

iled, to him. Otherwise it will sadden yo

"a summer? It will sadden a life. If the

so se

serious as anyt

earily and turned her face

"I do not believe I can bear this

ne oftenest-little wonder that they are me

can

u were the only person in the world that I could go to. I did n

lace counsel would be bet

are you suffering bec

e you think he

with her hands, "I have not wronged him! I

er wrong y

before. But this covers e

d any great troub

ble before. At times in my life I ma

ooner or later all of us have trou

s not do any good to think of that!

re is any one to whom we

ot tell

you te

but I could not tell you. No,

ou seen

d, "not Kate!" Then she looked up at him with eyes suddenly kindl

ll heard,

whom she never had a secret. How could I go to her about Rowa

, change of scene will

l help me t

s prayer

rayer does not do any good. It

into the pleasures of the

do not wish f

said at last,

ot forg

you

ld only be a change in me: it would not cha

e necessity of

hout lowering myself? Is it a virtue in a woman

u no longer see what he has done as you see it now. That is the beauty of forgiveness: it enables us be

a shudder: "You do not know what yo

alone solves so much. Wait! Do not act! Think and feel as little

ew off her glove which she was putting

ge nothing. I

e steps to the carriage,

y good-by. It is better for you not to come to th

carriage driven

er father. She had furnished it with a young wife's pride and delight and she had lined it throughout with thoughts of incommunicable tenderness abou

eeing Isabel she sprang up and met her at the door, greet

she exclaimed chidingly. "I had not realized how soon

I have never thought o

here

She has begun to feel sorry for me and has be

o the other's eyes, their arms around

t they had taken. "I will send the carriage home. George cannot be here to lunch

in, "I cannot stay. I had only a few moments and drove by

o much nowadays?" she asked, feeling as though the friendship of a

sabel. "I wish we cou

usic. "It seems so long since I heard any music. What has become of it?

at one piece of music af

ouched the pi

a few chords. Isabel stepped quickly to her side and la

rted face: "No; no

to their seat, on whi

a few moments Isabel

d you se

untry," replied Isabel, with

e never com

hould

Ah," she thought to herself, "she will not confide in me any long

it you ar

upon her work. With laughter they struggled over it; Kate released it and I

grown cold and hard. She stooped wi

"I did not know what I was doing!" and she buried her face on the yo

of motherhood: it could not be healed at once. The friends could not look at each

not tell you what was in my heart. Some day you will

"Isabel, why are you

toward you! I shall ne

ppy to care for

happy for anything. Some

rave loyal woman'" she cried, "the men we loved have ruined both our lives; and we who never had a secret from each other meet and

her work. She folded the soft white fabric over the cushions and then laid he