herself to be what she was in his imagination, a part of the nature in
which she had grown up, as much as the oldest and tallest fir tree on
the hillside. People who spend all their lives in unfrequented regions,
feel a sense of property in the air, the earth and the water, which
city-bred folks cannot readily understand. They have such an intimate,
unconscious knowledge of the seasons, the weather, the growth of plants
and the habits of animals, that it seems to them as though their own
hearts beat in every corner of the world around them, and as though all
the changes they see from day to day were only manifestations of their
own vitality. They may not see, or know that they see, beauties which
amaze the wanderer who visits their wilderness, but they feel them as
he never can, and feed on them as he cannot feed. Their senses, not
dulled by daily close contact with thousands of indifferent and similar
objects, nor by the ceaseless chatter of their fellow-beings, see
sights and hear sounds altogether beyond the perceptions of gregarious
man. The infinite variety of nature, as compared with the pitiful
monotony of the works of humanity, produces in their minds an activity
of an especial kind. They do not know what mental weariness means, nor
the desire for nervous excitement. The succession of morning and
evening does not bore them, for it is a part of themselves, like hunger
and the satisfaction of appetite, thirst and the refreshing draught
from the spring. They are good, though their virtues be negative, and
they are happy, for they have never heard of unhappiness. Their
existence is the very opposite of ours, full where ours is empty, empty
where ours is crowded to overflowing. They are never alone, for the
world is their companion, they are never hurried, for they move with
time itself, whereas our existence is but one long effort to outrun the
revolution of the hours. They do not dream of fame, for they feel the
eternity of perpetually renewed life in all that surrounds them; they
have never heard of competition, for their only rival is God Himself.