Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/397

Rh make a proper estimate of the worth of my secrets to the world were they found out and written so as to become moral factors to people of intelligence and culture.

"I do not purpose, however, to weary you with melancholly musings and mutterings, or insinuative and invidious remarks. If you choose to give me your attention for a while, I will discourse on matters and things of recent occurrence, and endeavor to demonstrate that I am not a dull student of events that are transpiring about me, and, moreover, that I have an intuitive knowledge of men, women, and the affairs of the world at large." Several moments of oppressive silence followed, when, finally, the stillness was broken by a command:

"Listen, pilgrim traveler! The shady dell where my life began is many miles from this place, in a sequestered spot among yonder mountains. To me, as I look back over my journey and recount my experiences, it is one of the brightest places in all the earth. But I was impatient of restraint, and, like many another unfortunate waif, anxious only to join the great caravan that moves to the unseen and unknown. I have traveled largely by field and glen—and you may have inferred as much—lingering limpid and content in the depths of the forest. I have paused among fields of lilies, toyed with wild-flowers and nursed the country through which I passed. In my buoyant moments I have dashed over crags and peaks, and in my serene hours have sought friendship and companionship with every living thing that approached me. More! I have paused at pretty farm houses and made haste past thriving villages. I have made the acquaintance of man and his methods; have become cognizant of many of his meannesses and learned many of his secrets. In short, I may say without egotism that were I compelled to make a general confession, and were you compelled to listen, the day of your departure from this fair Acadian retreat would be indefinitely postponed. But I fear my discourse is rambling."

The murmuring ceased and the scene became weird and intense in dreaminess. Surely a strange spell was upon us and we had not the strength of will or purpose to free ourselves. The heavy laden zephyr rustled the leaves of the tree under which we reclined, and the silvery waves of the lake lashed the shore not far away; the noise of dipping paddles ceased, as a strange boat rounded an island point and passed from view, and presently the brook resumed its story.

"Pilgrim traveler! You evidently have an idea that because of my romantic and pastoral life I am an unsophisticated ignoramus in all matters that are part and parcel of civilization. On that point there shall be no controversy, for I will freely admit that mine is the experience of a traveler and observer rather than that of a wise and brooding philosopher, who sees men and things as they should be, and wholly misapprehends them as they are. Before I proceed farther, however, let me advise you that like many another thing of creation I was innocent and guileless when I left the place of my nativity. Whatever there is about me that is caloused and indifferent comes from the rough experience which I have had with the people whom I have met. Hear me through and you will admit that there are things right before your eyes which you have never comprehended or understood.

"I said I was innocent when I started out in life. True! Before I had traveled far on my journey, however, I began to discover that things were not what they purported to be—that there was a good deal of sham and deception abroad. I resolved to avoid every semblance of evil, but soon found myself powerless to defend myself from the buffetings to which all are heirs who are compelled to action and to bear burdens. Still I