San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-06-01
these ne lovingly returned.

c1neS, are resumed In one phraSo-tO avoid
excess. Blessed nature, healthy, temperate
nature, abhors and exterminates excess. HUI
man law in this matter, initiates at a great
distance her provisions; and we must strive
to supplement the efforts Of the law. Yes,
boy, we must be a law to ourselves and for
our neighbors-lex armatazarmed, en-
phatic, tyrannous law. II you see crapu-
lous human ruin snufting, dash him from his
box! The judge, though in a way an admis-
sion of disease, is less offensive to me than
either the doctor or the priest Above all
the doctor-the doctor and the purulent trash
and garbage Of his pharmacop9ia Pure
air-from the neighborhood of a pinetum
for the sake of the turpentine-un-
adulterated wine, and the reflections of an un-
sophisticated spirit in the presence of the
works of nature-these, my boy, are the best
medical appliances and the best religious
comforts. Devote youself to these. Hank!
there are the bells of Bourrn the wind is in
the north, it will be fair. How clear and
airy is the sound The nerves are harmon
lied and quoted; the mind attuned to silence;
and observe how easily and regularly beats
the heart Your unenlightened doctor would
see nothing in these sensations; and yet you
yourself perceive they are a part of health.
Did you remember your cinchona this morn
ing? Good. Cinchona also is a work of ma
ture; it is, after all, only the bark of tree
which we might gather for ourselves if we
lived in the locality. What a world Is this (!
Though professed atheist, I delight to bear
my testimony to the world. Look at the
gratuitous remedies and pleasures that sur
round our path! The river runs by the gar
den end, our bath, our fish pond, our natural
system of drainage. There is a well in the
court which sends up sparkling water from
the earth's very heart, clean, cool and with
a little wine most wholesome. The dis
trict is notorious for its salubrity; rheuma-
tism is the only prevalent complaint, and 1
myself have never had a touch of it, tell
you-and my opinion is based upon the cold
est, clearest processes of reason-if l, if you,
desired to leave this home of pleasures it
would be the duty, it would be the privilege,
of our best friend to prevent us with pistol
bullet"
One beautiful June day they sat upon the
hill outside the village. The river, as blue as
heaven, shone here and there among the foil
age. The indefatigable birds turned and
flickered about Gretz church tower A
healthy wind blew from over the forest and
the sound of innumerable thousands of tree
tops and innumerable millions on millions of
green leaves was abroad in the air, and filled
the ear with something between whispered
speech and singing. 1t seemed as if every
blade of grass must hide a cigale; and the
fields rang merrily with their music, jingling
far and near, as with the sleigh bells of the
fairy queen. From their station on the slope
the eye embraced large space of poplared
plain upon the one hand, the waving hill
tops of the forest on the other, and Gretz it
self in the middle, a handful of roofs. Under
the bestriding arch Of the blue heavens, the
place seemed dwindled to toy 1t seemed
incredible that people dwelled, and could find
room to turn or air to breathe, in such a cor
ner of the world. The thought came home
to the boy, perhaps for the first time, and he
gave it words.
How small it looksl" he sighed
cay" replied the doctor, "smal enough
now. Yet it was once a walled city; thriv-
ing, full of furred burgesses and men in ar
NOR, humming with affairs - with tall
spires, for aught know, and portly towers
along the battlements. A thousand Chin
neys ceased smoking at the curfew bell.
There were gibbets at the gate as thick as
scarecrows. In time of war, the assault
swarmed against it with ladders, the arrows
fell like leaves, the defenders sailed holly
over the drawbridge, each side uttered its
cry as they piled their weapons Do you
know that the walls extended as far as the
COMMANDERS? Tradition SO reports. Alas,
what long way off is all this confusion
nothing left Of it but my quiet words spoken
in your ear-and the town itself shrunk to
the hamlet underneath usl By and by came
the English wars-you shall hear more Of the
English, stupid people, who sometimes
Numbered into good-and Gretz was taken,
sacked and burned. It is the history Of
many towns; but Gretz never arose again; it
was never rebuilt; its ruins were quarry to
serve the growth of rivals; and the stones of
Gretz are now erect along the streets of Ne
mours. 1t gratifies me that our old house
was the first to rise after the calamity; when
the town had come to an end, it inaugurated
the hamlet"
81, too, am glad of that said Jean-Marie.
st should be the temple of the humber
virtues" responded the doctor, with savory
gusto. perhaps one of the reasons why
love my little hamlet as do, is that we have
a similar history, she and l. Have I told
you that was once rich?'
II do not think So" answered Jean-Marie.
81 do not think should have forgotten. 1
am sorry you should have lost your fortune"
"Sorry?" cried the doctor. "Why, I find I
have scarce begun your education after all
Listen to me! Would you rather live in the old
Gretz or in the new, free from the alarms of
war, with the green country at the door,
without noise, passports, the exactions of the
soldiery, or the jangle of the curfew bell to
send us off to bed by sundownF
81 suppose should prefer the new re-
piled the boy.