Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/398

360 struggled on and tried to believe the best of every body and every thing. I vainly urged myself to the conviction that men and women were honest; that there were no false gods in their secret closets; that they would not cheat or defraud me; that they would not wound or vilify me; that they believed what they professed, and were governed by their obligations in church and to society; that traders would not cheat in weight, measure or adulteration; that doctors would not bleed a patient unnecessarily, and lawyers were the fair and upright men which they seemed to be; that journalists distributed compliments only where they were due, and editors were thoroughly in earnest in their advocacy of party policy; and, finally, that ministers always believed the doctrines which they preach, and were safe examples in good living and Christian charity. You observe that I was as innocent as the fish that sported in my mountain fountain, or the unwary bird that builded her nest in a tree with a hornet. And so for awhile I murmured and sang, the while journeying on in peace and contentment.

"But my mind was soon disabused of all these high notions. The farther I traveled the more I saw and learned of the selfishness, greediness, and meanness, not to say hollowness and depravity of a good many pretensions. I, too, came at last to the conclusion that honesty is the exception and dishonesty the rule. Note right here that I can murmur my complaint without the fear of what man may do to me or the ostracism of society. I have no fear of either. I say boldly, and without fear of contradiction, that in my journeying I have been trapped in pools, decoyed in marshes, penned up in dismal swamps, sent headlong upon mill-wheels, slashed into by artificial obstructions, brought to a stand-still in basins and reservoirs, and used to refresh the thirsty inhabitants. But this is not by any means the whole of my grievance. I have been a summer resort for natives and tourists; have been annoyed by boatmen and fishermen, and, when ice-bound, a field of high carnival for merry skaters. My pleasure or convenience in these matters has never been consulted. In fact the public has had its own way—has done as it pleased. I have no patience to mention the half of the indignities it has put upon me, and will only mention that at the first village I passed the boys stoned and clubbed me; the women used me to wash dirty garments in, and the men turned their filthy sewers upon my back. This treatment was repeated at every cross-road, mill-privilege, and settlement, till I was nervous, and withal desirous of speedy return to the crystal fountain from which I had journeyed, and where I had spent my youth; scenes of luxury and innocency in the sweet mountain glen, where the voice of man was never heard, and where their feet never trod. Do you longer wonder that there is irony even in the plaintive murmur of a brook? Do you wonder that there are black clouds as well as roseate shadows for me to contemplate!"

The brook paused in its narrative, and a painful suspense followed. "Was I dreaming?" I queried of myself. I tested myself in many ways, and concluded that I was in the full possession of all my mental faculties. But surely it was a strange experience! I was about to rise to my feet, when the brook resumed:—

"Pilgrim traveler! You discover that I, too, have had some rough experiences in a world where few escape hardships. I, too, know something of the trials and forbearances of life; that even I am not the innocent babbling traveler your fancy painted; that even I am not the uncomplaining, harmless ideal over which poets have wrecked their brains in musing, and painters expend their strength and skill to portray on canvas. You have discovered—and if you have not, I will enlighten you—that even a