And a swamp-robin sings into light
The lone3 white star of the hills.
Alone in the dusk he sings,
And the joy of another day
Is folded in peace and borne
On the drift of years away.
—BLISS CARMAN.
Other years, by the time the mid-June days were come, the little brook4 that sang through John McIntyre's pasture-field had shrunk to a mere5 jeweled thread of golden pools and silver shallows, with here and there only the bleached6 pebbles7 to mark its course. But this summer was of a new and wonderful variety. Just two or three brilliant, hot days, and then, as regular as the sun, up from the ocean's rim8 would rise dazzling cloud-mountains, piling themselves up and up into glorious towers and domes10 and battlements; and when the earth had begun to droop11 beneath the sun's blaze, with a great thunder signal they would fling their banners to the zenith, and pour from their dark heights a rain of silver spears, till the thirsty hills were drenched12 with bounty13, and the valleys laughed and sang.
And so there had never before been such a June, not even in Acadia: such lavish14 wealth in orchard15 and garden, such abundant promise of harvest in fields choked with grain. And that was why John McIntyre's little brook ran brimful to the clumps16 of mint and sword-grass, high up on its banks, so content that it made no murmur18 as it slipped past the Acadian orchards19 to the sea.
John McIntyre leaned against the fence that bordered his hay-field, his feet deep in the soft grass at the water's edge. His straw hat was pushed back, showing the line where his white forehead met the tan of his face. His hands were in his pockets, a sprig of mint in his mouth; his eyes were half closed in lazy content.
Away down yonder, where the little stream met the ocean, the sun was sinking into the gleaming water, a great, fiery20 ball dropping from an empty sky. Far over in the east one lonely cloud reflected its glory, blossoming up from the darkening hills like a huge white rose, flushed with pink.
The fiery ball touched the ocean's rim, and the whole world kindled21 into a glory of color. The fading green fields brightened, quivered and glowed, as over them fell a veil of lilac mist. Through them wound the little river, a stream of molten gold. Just at John McIntyre's feet it passed lingeringly through a bed of rushes, where the dark green of the reeds turned the golden water to a glittering bronze. Their shadows wrought22 a marvelous pattern on the glossy23 surface, a magic piece of delicate bronze filagree such as nature alone could trace. Above it the swallows wheeled in the violet shadows, or soared up, flashing, into the amber24 light.
John McIntyre's eye followed their dizzy curves into the vast crystal dome9. Yes; to-morrow would surely be a fine day. For to-morrow he was to take Mary and the children away down to that dazzling line of jewels on the horizon, where the winds and the waves of the Bay of Fundy tumbled about and buffeted25 one another joyously26 in the coolness of the ocean spray. It was their one great day in the year—the anniversary of their wedding. They had never missed its celebration in their eight happy years of married life. And there would be six altogether in the party to-morrow, besides Martin. How a man's family did grow, to be sure! The smiling content in John McIntyre's eyes deepened. He turned toward the white house on the face of the rising slope, half hidden in a nest of orchard trees. A woman's figure swayed to and fro beneath the vines of the veranda27. The sunlight glanced on her fair hair and her light gown, as she swung from the green shadows into its golden pathway in time to the sweet notes of his baby's lullaby. The words came faintly across the hay-field:
"Abide28 with me, fast falls the eventide,
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!"
Down the dim lane that led to a farther pasture-field a boy was driving a slow-moving line of cows. Around them a frisky29 terrier darted30 here and there, barking encouragingly. The boy was whistling gaily31. He, too, knew that to-morrow promised to be fair.
A little breeze stirred the reeds in their bronze setting, and brought up a tang of the sea. The man slowly turned, and, skirting the edge of the hay-field, walked toward the house. His pathway ran parallel to the public highway, and from it there arose the clatter32 of a wagon33 approaching through a clump17 of woodland. John McIntyre waited, smiling.
Down the road it came, bumping noisily. The driver was a young man, with a dashing air and a merry, kindly34 eye. He was sitting on the extreme edge of the wagon-box, his feet swinging in the dust, and his hat stuck rakishly on the side of his head, and was giving forth35 to the echoing landscape a long, tragic36 "Come-all-ye" in an uproariously joyful37 voice:
"Come all yez true-born shanty38 byes,
Whoever yous may be,
I'd have yez pay atten-ti-on,
To hear what I've got for to say,
Concerning six Can-a-jen byes,
Who manfully and brave,
Did break the jam on the Gar-ry Rocks,
And met a wat-e-ry grave!"
"Whoa! Hold up!" shouted John McIntyre, as the horses' heads appeared beyond the line of timber. "What do you mean by making such a row on the road at night and disturbing peaceable citizens?"
The driver pulled up, and the two eyed each other with that air of severity which men affect when they are afraid of displaying the fact that their love for each other is deep and tender.
"And what do you mean by holdin' up a peaceable citizen on the Queen's highway like this?" demanded the younger man, threateningly.
"You seem to be mighty39 gay about something. Another letter from Annie Laurie?"
"Aw, go an' choke yourself! No, siree. It'd be more like it if I was weepin' instead o' singin'. I bet you'd have been, if you'd heard the news I did to-day. Who d'ye suppose is to be your next-door neighbor?"
"I don't know."
"Satan Symonds—no less!"
John McIntyre's fine, gentle face expressed only surprised interest. "Well, let him come. He won't eat us."
"Won't he, though?" cried the young wagoner, vigorously. "He's got his eye on your farm, John McIntyre; yes, and one claw, don't forget that! I'd rather have the devil himself runnin' the next farm to me."
The man in the field leaned his bare, brown arms on the top of the fence-rails and surveyed his friend with an indulgent smile.
"I'm afraid he's closer than that to most of us already, Martin," he said, shaking his head. "Don't you worry about Joe Symonds. Why, we were boys at school together. There's no harm in him."
The younger man looked at his friend with mingled40 admiration41 and impatience42 in his eyes. "Lookee here, John, you're far too easy. You take a warning in time, and don't let that sneak43 get his claws any further into your wool than you can help. I'd shut off every bit of dealings with him. He's as sharp as a weasel. Don't you forget that he's got a hold on you already."
"Tuts! That's nothing. I'll pay that next fall, if the crops turn out only half as well as they look now."
The other shook his head. "John McIntyre," he said, with affectionate severity, "you're too honest for this world. Symonds belongs to a crooked44 stock. His father before him was crooked, and his grandfather was crookeder, and he's the crookedest o' the whole bunch. I—I"—he hesitated, boyishly—"I hate to go away thinkin' he's livin' next farm to you—that's all."
"Well, then, why don't you rent the River Farm yourself," said John McIntyre, banteringly, "instead of running off West like this? You and that little Ontario girl would run things just fine down there, and show Mary and me how to do it right."
A warm flush mingled with the tan on the younger man's cheek. "Maybe we will, some day," he said, with a wistful note in his voice, "but I'll have to wait till that kid is on his own feet. That won't be long, either. I bet he'll plank45 down all the money I've lent him before he's through college. And then I'll come scootin' home, an' there'll be a lot o' things happen all at once, 'round about that date."
"I hope so, Martin; I hope so. It's a big thing you're doing for that boy. I hope he'll never forget it."
"Not him! Bless me, it was a bigger thing he did for me. When he gets to be an M.D. I'll go back to Ontario and get little Annie Laurie, and we'll run Symonds into the river, and set up housekeeping on his tombstone. Well, so-long, John. We're goin' to have a bully46 day for your honeymoonin' to-morrow. Tell Mary to put up a clothes-basket o' them lemon pies, 'cause I'll be holler 'way down past my boot-soles. Good-night, John."
He started off noisily, but turned to shout back through a cloud of dust: "Mind you don't let that snake come any o' his monkey-shines over you, John! Good-night!"
The wagon rattled47 away down the lilac road, the driver's voice rising gaily, if jerkily, above its clatter:
"O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o! They broke the jam on the Gar-ry Rocks,
And met a wat-e-ry grave!"
The other man was still smiling as he turned and made his way along the edge of the wood. Good old Martin! Where was there another such a friend as he? When John McIntyre's spirit rose in thankfulness to his Maker48 for the many temporal blessings49 lavished50 upon him, he never forgot to say, "And I thank thee, Lord, most of all, for Martin Heaslip!"
The fiery ball had sunk beyond the rim of the sea; the earth was still darkly radiant, pulsating51 with the thought of his departed glory. The great rose on the eastern horizon was fading to a tender mauve. The wooded glen was dark and silent. From its warm depths arose the perfume of the young, green earth. John McIntyre stood for a moment on the pathway, where its shadows met the lights of the open fields. He threw back his head and looked up into the quivering deep of the heavens. Involuntarily his eyes closed against their glory. He was overcome, too, with the glory of a sudden devout52 thought. God, away up there, encompassed53 by ineffable54 light and beauty, was like His own abiding55 place—too blindingly radiant to be gazed at by mortal eye, and therefore inscrutable and mysterious, but all-bountiful, nevertheless, sending down each day His largess of blessings, just as the heavens sent down their life-giving rains. At the thought John McIntyre took off his hat.
And as he stood, out of the hush56 of the woods there stole the last wondrous57 miracle of the departing day. The spirit of the twilight took voice, a marvelous voice, indescribably sweet. Away in the depths of the forest there arose a strain of music, the hermit58 thrush, in his woodland sanctuary59, raising his hymn60 to the night. Calm and serene61, carrying an exquisite62 peace, it floated out over field and hill and river, until the very heavens seemed flooded with its harmony.
"O hear all! O hear all! O holy, holy!"
That was what the voice seemed to say to John McIntyre as he stood in the lush June grass, just on the borderland between the purple and the amber, and held his breath to listen. God had sent more than one prophet into the wilderness63 to prepare His way, he thought in reverent64 awe65. For this voice spoke66 to him of all his Maker's goodness. What more could a man desire than he possessed67, he asked, in a rush of gratitude68; to live out his life of healthful toil69 in God's free sunshine, with the happy home nest, holding Mary and their little ones safe under his eye; with a friend's strong arm to help when the day's burden grew heavy; with the world a garden of beauty and light, and at night the solemn voice of the hermit; calling him to prayer?
Once more the strain poured forth, pure, celestial70:
"O hear all! O hear all! O holy, holy!"
John McIntyre turned and went up the hill, smiling, his face to the light.
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