The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment

who would sit for hours on the shady side of a certain ancient hotel-barn, and with his little whistle to his lips, and gentl

ubt long forgotten, called "Wait for the Wagon." I can see him yet, with his jolly eyes half closed, his lips puckered around the whistle, and his fin

oon appeared to be the set purpose of every member of the family to break up my efforts. Whenever my father saw me with the whistle to my lips, he would instantly set me at some useful work (oh, he was an adept in discovering usefu

play it in Old Tom Madison's best style-even to the last nod and final foot-tap. I turned a certain church hymn called "Yield Not to Temptation" into something quite inspiriting, and I played "Marching Through Georgia" until all the "happy hills of hay" were to the fervid eye of a boy's imagination full of t

udden thrill of pleasure that nothing in the wide world now prevented me from getting a whistle and seeing whether I had forgotten my early cunning. At the very first good-sized town I c

" I said to myself, "to b

ures?-and some of us never learn at all. "Boo!" says the neighbourhood, and we are instantly frightened in

sure of the whistle lying there in my bag, but it was not until af

convinced me that some of the great things I had expected of my pilgrimage were realizable possibi

ing with the chores, and eating a prodigious breakfast, we went again to the potato-field, and part of the time I helped plan

and I holding the blades and telling him stories into the bargain. Mr. Stanley and his stout older son overhauled the work-harness and tinkered the corn-planter. The doors at both ends of the barn stood wide open, and through one

oking out from time to time, "we got in

old them of my plan to leave

Mrs. Stanley heartil

to have a man like you all summer. There ain't any one around

tanley," I said, "but

erer get by without taking toll of him! There are not so many people here in the country that we can afford to neglect them. And as I had noth

"Why?"-as I knew it would be-concerned my strange presence on the road at this season of the year and the reason why I should turn in by chance, as I had done, to help at their planting. If a

tanley was darning socks over a mending-gourd, and the two young Stanleys were whispering and giggling about some matter of supreme consequence to youth.

it or it owned me. And I made up my mind I'd get away for a while from my own horses and cattle and see what the world

and more interested and enthusiastic. Mr. Stanley took his pipe slowly from his mouth, held it poised until it finally went

ve felt tha

laimed Mrs. Stanle

ts for a match; but I knew I had struck down deep into a common experience. Here was this

y and quite simply he rested his arm against mine and looked at me with all his eyes. I keep learning that there is nothing which reaches men's hearts like talking straight out the convictions and emotions of your innermost soul. Those who hear you may not agree with you, or they may not understand you fully, but something incal

try to be fully what I am and no

," exclaimed Mr. Stanley, n

hought of the volume I carried in my pocket, and straightway I pul

Roman philosopher said"-and I held t

or highly esteemed for any reason, not to suppose him happy and be not carried away by the appearance. For if the nature of the good is in our power, neither envy nor jealousy will have a pl

was in any book. I always said I didn't want to be a senator or a legislator, or

lanced down into B

tor or-something-when I

into a laugh, and the boy, who for a moment had been drawn o

his knee, "don't you let anything stop y

xt morning Mr. Stanley

for your help yesterd

ue received. You've taken me in like

a near relative, I set off up the country road. I was a little distressed in parting to see nothing of the boy Ben, for I had formed a genuin

," he said in the gruff

'd have hated to go off without see

alking quietly and when at l

of acting up to the very best t

ent, and then: "Gee! I'm

ponded, "I'm

looked back, I saw him still standing there bare-footed in the road loo

ked to think of these brave, temperate, industrious, God-friendly American people. I have no fear of

to drink and rest, for I was warm and tired. And it was then that I bethought me of the little tin pipe in my knapsack, and straightway I got it out, and, sitting down at the foot of a tree near the brook, I put it to my lips and fe

re was no one to hear me save a bluejay which for an hour or more kept me company. He sat on a twig just across the brook, cocking his head at me, and saucily wagging his tail. Occasionally he would dart off among

horse and the top of his buggy. I said not a word, but continued with my practising. Why shouldn't I? But it gave me quite a thrill for the moment; and at once I began to think of the possibilities of the situation. What a thing it was have so m

you doing,

ith my playing, but co

virtuoso. When I had finished my tune I remov

eplied with greatest good h

f. I heard you playing as I passed in the r

nd thus, tossing the ball of good-humoured repartee back and forth, we walked down to the road together. He h

id, "is Canfield

said, "is Gray

e size and shape that ever I saw in all my life. He had out one of his especial pets-he called it his "leader"-and feeling it familiarly in his hand he instinctively began the jargon of well-handled and voice-worn phrases which went with that particular brush.

y blue eyes!-a man evidently not readily turned aside by rebuffs. He had already shown that his wit as a talker had been sharpen

t noon. Why not sit down here wit

with alacrity. "As the

Stanley's luncheon. I cannot describe the absolutely carefree feeling I had. Always at home, when I would have liked to stop at the roadside with a stranger, I felt

had sold everything from fly-paper to threshing-machines, he had picked up a large working knowledge of the weaknesses of human nature, and had arrived at the age of sixty-six with just enough available cash to pay the manufacturer for a new supply of brushes. In strict confidence, I drew certain conclusions from the colour of

here talking all the afternoon if I had not suddenly bethought myself with a not u

ing. I haven't so much as a penny in my poc

r. Canfield was magical. He thre

for the first time he really underst

dn't tell nothin' about it.

carried me along with him in his buggy; but when he suggested it I felt very much, I think, as some old monk must have who had taken a vow to do some particular thing in some particular way. With great

with a mysterious and smiling look at me, and took out a small broom-brush with which he instantly began brushing off my coat

," he said, "from

as for driving off instantly, but paused and beckoned me toward him. When I approached the bug

make you a respectable citizen. Take my word for it, friend, never go into any strange house without stoppin' and brushin' off. It's money in your purse! You can get alon

up the hill. I stood watching him and when he turned around I w

ut my wanderings; and as I sit here writing in my study, at this