The Spinster Book

ie

in the Summer breeze or resisted the onslaughts of the Winter storms. The infrequent patient seldom met any

n the same floor, but the bottles ranged in orderly rows upon the shelves were lef

e, he had set up his household gods upon the hill, in company with his countrymen. He soon found, however, that his pract

m the goats. You'll find it so in every place. Sometimes it's water, sometimes it's a car track, and sometimes a deepo, but it's always there, though more 'n likely there ain't no real line exceptin' the one what's drawn in folks' fool heads. I reck

long enjoyed the deep respect of the community, had been gathered to his fathers, Doctor Brinkerhoff became the last resort. His skill was universally admitted, but no one went to his off

find friends. Within the narrow confines of his establishment, he cultivated a serene and comfortable philosophy. To suit himself to his environment when that environment was out of his

mornings, he never failed to attend church. Before the last notes of the bell died away, he was always in his p

y visit was the leaven of Fr?ulein Fredrika's humdrum life. There was a sort of romance about it which glorified the com

mount of explanation will make things clear. Across impassable deeps, like lofty peaks of widely parted ranges, soul greets soul. Separated forever by the limitations of our clay, we live and die absolutely alone. Even Love, the

ight was glaring, because there were no trees. The spirit of German progress had cut down every one of the lofty pine

four, but she would not look for the expected guest. She preferred to concentrate her mind upon some

petals bloomed on the Fr?ulein's withered face. "Herr Doctor

hearty laugh, as he strode into the

tanding smile, as he straightened him

in all the world. No one was so wise as her Franz, unless it might be the He

lp Him. I am first to welcome the soul that arrives from Him, and I am last to say farewell to those H

y. He merely asked that his friend should be near at hand, that he might communicate with him when he ch

men, to whom the thing is impossible, he vaguely feared feminisation. The var

with the rosy hues of anticipation transfiguring its rugged steeps and yawning chasms, we are young, though our years may number threescore and ten. On that first day when we

cription of the first school she attended. "I think I'll go out for a walk

, too, leaned over and looked into the sunny depths of the stream. Doctor Brinkerhoff's sign, waving in the

eneath his tread. He walked the length of the long hall a few times, because there se

onsolingly, "I wish I coul

sed. After all, it was good to be alive-to breathe the free air, fee

d Fr?ulein Fredrika. "I think

Master. "Mine pupil? It is

e is ill," sugg

dliness. His buoyant spirits immediately gave a freshness to th

u lose one friend, perhaps, and you think, 'Well, I can get along without him,' but it is not so. We have as many

white light and we are sun-glasses with many corners. Prisms, I think you say. If the light strikes a sharp edge, it breaks into many colours. To one of us everything will be purple, to another red, and to yet on

at should be, according to our ideas, it makes an edge. I think it is the finest art of living to see things as they are and make the bes

observed Lynn. "For my part, I

it! What was it the poet said of Herr Columbus? Yes, I have it now. '

id to me once: 'Doctor, how long must I lie here?' 'Have patience, my dear madam,' said I. 'You have only one day at a time to

et well?"

urse-w

Fr?ulein Fredrika, timidly. "Mine br

the simple Sunday night tea,

ted the Master,

ess," the Fr?ulein assu

njoy it," sa

nn, "but they will look for me at ho

"may I not hope that you wil

fmann's permission, and if I m

his own make. Without accompaniment, Lynn played, and the Doctor nodded his enthusiastic approva

the Doctor. "We

d his own pleasure in his achievement, he turned to the Master. "How a

r, dryly; "by next week y

mann and the Doctor sat in their respective easy-chairs, conversing with each other by means of silences, with here

he Doctor, at leng

ing wings, circled toward his nest in one of the maples on the other side of the valley.

er, "but no heart, no fee

e. "His mother," observed t

no women but

a love

S

, but the Doctor still brooded upon the vision. She was different

he Doctor, again,

ho

mothe

S

presently the kitchen clock struck ten. "I

said the Ma

d the Doctor suspected that he was about to receive the greatest possible kindness from

me of the wood destined for violins. A cricket in the corner sang cheerily and ceas

ent, Her

rm something that was wrapped in many pieces of ragged silk. One

ach of a random touch. The Doctor said the expected thing, but it fell upon deaf ears. The Mast

he breathed. "