The Mystery of Choice

e sunlight like crumpled sheets of beaten gold; for Aspen

w; there the burnished pines sound, sound, tremble, and

hills with incense, vague and delicate as th

g the aimless minnows swimming in circles. On a distant hill, dark against the blue, Donald moved with his dogs, and I sa

art and I; and I saw the crows flapping and circling far over the wood

es the phantom of pleasure with his dogs. The phantom

where." She raised both arms and turned from the brook. "Everywhere flying I se

I even doubt that the happiness of empires hinges on the

e laid the tip of her third finger on her lips and then on the golden-rod. "I shall n

e," I said.

ou told m

moment. After a while she sat down

take pleasure in childish things-Donald's dogs,

ha

n on the

at

se I a

at

m as tall as mamma. Why

I answere

nstead of sixteen," said Sweetheart. "If you treat

weeth

t is good for chi

time," I said. "I prophesy that one day you will hear it again.

oman-now,

at si

I am to be

from men to women is due from us to you. Donny and Walter are slower to accept this. You know what you have been to us as a child; we can't bear to l

tle in the hill winds; the

oi," she sai

you Sweetheart aga

a blade of wild wheat. She coloured faintly a mo

d of the gilded idols within the temple, one shall turn to living flesh at the sound of a voice

g. No day is too fair to kill in. I sh

ed with a glimmering cloud of the dusty gold of the golden-rod, Swe

oll

lkweed seeds sailed, sailed, and the great red-brown butterf

there are marigolds

s; her white polished skin reflected the blaze

repeated; "we

face of the cliff; you m

rare cliff butterflies. I

with the sky's deep blue and the blue of the misty hills, looked out across the miles of woods and fields, and saw a world; not a world old, scarred, rock-ribbed, and salt with tears,

at the cliff's

w her back. The sand started among the rocks,

ither," she said. "I do

dge, stooping for a blosso

urry and a rush of wind, a blur o

led, "Sweetheart!" and again "Sweethear