"Travel is a mistake," declared Abner.

"So it is," broke in Clytie. "Squat on your own door-step, as Emerson
says."

"Does he?--I think not," interposed Giles the elder. "What he does say
is----"

"We all know," interrupted Stephen, "and ignore the counsel."

Abner did not know, but he would not stoop to ask. "And there was a
quotation from one of those old authors,--Theocritus?"

"Theocritus, yes. Historical perspective."

"Leave the past alone. Live in the present. The past,--bury it, forget
it."

"So hard. Heir of the ages, you know. Good deal harder to forget than
never to have learned at all. _That's_ easy," jibed Bond, with a touch of
temper.

"Oh, now!" cried Medora, fearful that another temper might respond.

"If you must bring in those old Greeks," Abner proceeded, "take their
method and let the rest drop. All they knew, as I understand it, they
learned from men and things close round them and from the nature in whose
midst they lived. They didn't quote; they didn't range the world; they
didn't go for sanction outside of themselves and their own environment."