strong and confident prose.

HENRY GODDARD LEACH.
Villa Nova, Pennsylvania.
June 28, 1915.




BOOK ONE



THE INGMARSSONS

I

A young farmer was plowing his field one summer morning. The sun
shone, the grass sparkled with dew, and the air was so light and
bracing that no words can describe it. The horses were frisky from
the morning air, and pulled the plow along as if in play. They were
going at a pace quite different from their usual gait; the man had
fairly to run to keep up with them.

The earth, as it was turned by the plow, lay black, and shone with
moisture and fatness, and the man at the plow was happy in the
thought of soon being able to sow his rye. "Why is it that I feel
so discouraged at times and think life so hard?" he wondered. "What
more does one want than sunshine and fair weather to be as happy as
a child of Heaven?"