Name, and he on his part
gave me a hedge-rose which he had plucked and had been holding in his
fingers. And I continued the path alone.
Certainly these people have a benediction upon them, granted them for
their simple lives and their justice. Their eyes are fearless and
kindly. They are courteous, straight, and all have in them laughter
and sadness. They are full of songs, of memories, of the stories of
their native place; and their worship is conformable to the world that
God made. May they possess their own land, and may their influence
come again from Italy to save from jar, and boasting, and ineptitude
the foolish, valourless cities, and the garish crowds of shouting
men.... And let us especially pray that the revival of the faith may
do something for our poor old universities.
Already, when I heard all these directions, they seemed to argue a
longer road than I had expected. It proved interminable.
It was now fully dark; the night was very cold from the height of the
hills; a dense dew began to fall upon the ground, and the sky was full
of stars. For hours I went on slowly down the lane that ran round the
hollow of the wooded mountain, wondering why I did not reach the
stream he spoke of.
