"I wish I could help to make it so!" he cried impulsively.

"Why, you can," she returned quickly. "Of course you can. Perhaps that
is why the current landed your boat at my garden, instead of carrying
you on down the rapids to Elbow Rock. Who can say?"

A new light kindled in the man's eyes as his sensitive nature took fire
at Auntie Sue's words. "I could do anything for a woman like you, Auntie
Sue," he said quietly, but with a conviction that left no room for
doubt. "But you must tell me what I am to do."

She answered: "You are simply to go on with your life--just as if no
Elbow Rock had ever disturbed you; just as the river goes on--to the
end."

She left him, then, to think out his problem alone; for the teacher of
so many years' experience was too wise not to know when a lesson was
finished.

But when the end of the day was come, they again sat together on the
porch and watched the miracle of the sunset hour. And no word was spoken
by them, now, of life and its problems and its meanings. As one listens
to the song of a bird without thought of musical notes or terms; as one
senses the fragrance of a flower without thought of the chemistry of
perfume; as one feels the presence of spring in the air without thought
of the day of the week, so they were conscious of the beauty, the glory,
and the peace of the evening.

Only when the soft darkness of the night lay over the land, and river
and mountain and starry sky were veiled in dreamy mystery, did Auntie