and the boulder-strewn fields. One I know is really possessed by a man
who long ago had a vision of sheep feeding on fields too infertile to
produce profitable crops, and many others have been taken by men who saw
forests growing where forests ought to grow. For real possession is not
a thing of inheritance or of documents, but of the spirit; and passes by
vision and imagination. Sometimes, indeed, the trespass signs stand
long--so long that we grow impatient--but nature is in no hurry. Nature
waits, and presently the trespass signs rot away, one arm falls off, and
lo! where the adventurer found only denial before he is now invited
to--"pass." The old walls are conquered by the wild cherries and purple
ivy and blackberry bushes, and the old Howiesons sleep in calm
forgetfulness of their rights upon the hills they thought they
possessed, and all that is left is a touch of beauty--lilac clump and
wild-rose tangle.



CHAPTER VII


LOOK AT THE WORLD!

"Give me to struggle with weather and wind;
Give me to stride through the snow;
Give me the feel of the chill on my cheeks,
And the glow and the glory within!"

_March 17th._

The joy of winter: the downright joy of winter! I tramped to-day through