These good people were unconsciously toiling at the hard
and necessary work of life in order that we, of the chosen and
fortunate few, should be at liberty to enjoy the best things in the
world.
Why should we neglect our opportunities, which were also our real
duties? The nervous disease of civilization might prevail all
around us, but that ought not to destroy our grateful enjoyment of
the lucid intervals that were granted to us by a merciful
Providence.
Why should we not take this little untamed brook, running its humble
course through the borders of civilized life and midway between two
flourishing summer resorts,--a brook without a single house or a
cultivated field on its banks, as free and beautiful and secluded as
if it flowed through miles of trackless forest,--why not take this
brook as a sign that the ordering of the universe had a "good
intention" even for inveterate idlers, and that the great Arranger
of the world felt some kindness for such gipsy-hearts as ours? What
law, human or divine, was there to prevent us from making this
stream our symbol of deliverance from the conventional and
commonplace, our guide to liberty and a quiet mind?
So reasoned Graygown with her
"most silver flow
Of subtle-paced counsel in distress."
And, according to her word, so did we.
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