One's soul could want no more in any
life. But 'Out on the Hillside' I KNEW I was part of it, and it was
ecstasy. That was the freeness."
"Yes--it was the freeness," he answered.
We brushed through the heather and the bracken, and flower-bells shook
showers of radiant drops upon us. The mist wavered and sometimes lifted
before us, and opened up mystic vistas to veil them again a few minutes
later. The sun tried to break through, and sometimes we walked in a
golden haze.
We fell into silence. Now and then I glanced sidewise at my companion as
we made our soundless way over the thick moss. He looked so strong
and beautiful. His tall body was so fine, his shoulders so broad and
splendid! How could it be! How could it be! As he tramped beside me he
was thinking deeply, and he knew he need not talk to me. That made me
glad--that he should know me so well and feel me so near. That was what
he felt when he was with his mother, that she understood and that at
times neither of them needed words.
Until we had reached the patch of gorse where we intended to end our
walk we did not speak at all. He was thinking of things which led him
far. I knew that, though I did not know what they were. When we reached
the golden blaze we had seen the evening before it was a flame of gold
again, because--it was only for a few moments--the mist had blown apart
and the sun was shining on it.
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