with the great world beyond those distant hills.

Many years went by; and at last Seth and Abner grew to manhood, and the
time was come when they were to go into the world and be brave, strong
men. Fido had been dead a long time. They had made him a grave under the
bellflower-tree,--yes, just where he had romped with the two little boys
that August afternoon Fido lay sleeping amid the humming of the bees and
the perfume of the clover. But Seth and Abner did not think of Fido now,
nor did they give even a passing thought to any of their old friends,--the
bellflower-tree, the clover, the cricket, and the robin. Their hearts beat
with exultation. They were men, and they were going beyond the hills to
know and try the world.

They were equipped for that struggle, not in a vain, frivolous way, but as
good and brave young men should be. A gentle mother had counselled them, a
prudent father had advised them, and they had gathered from the sweet
things of Nature much of that wisdom before which all knowledge is as
nothing. So they were fortified. They went beyond the hills and came into
the West. How great and busy was the world,--how great and busy it was
here in the West! What a rush and noise and turmoil and seething and
surging, and how keenly did the brothers have to watch and struggle for
vantage ground. Withal, they prospered; the counsel of the mother, the
advice of the father, the wisdom of the grass and flowers and trees, were
much to them, and they prospered. Honor and riches came to them, and they
were happy. But amid it all, how seldom they thought of the little home
among the circling hills where they had learned the first sweet lessons of
life!

And now they were old and gray. They lived in splendid mansions, and all
people paid them honor.