San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-03-18
AN IDEAL IDLENESS.
A SUMMER DAY N MOSS GROWN
WOODS BY A eABBLlNG BROOK.

Thoughts Suggested by an Afternoon i'm
Midsummer Spent in the Shade of Grow
ing Trees on a Couch of Natures Down.
TircIcsS Nature Never Rests.
1t is a warm day in midsummer, and a
fisherman is following along a trout
brook. The stream runs through the for
est-thrOugh hardwood groves, which,
owing to their scant underbrush, look al
most like English parks; through NOISY
evergreen glades, where every sound and
color is subdued; through rocky ravines,
down which the water hurries with fret
full plants against the powders in its
path, till at last it finds an outlet in a
mountain lake.
Today it is evident that all the wood
life is prepared to be lazy-even the
trout that are wont to rush so eagerly
at worm or fly. Now the fisherman be-
gins to feel the influence of this all per-
vading inertia. and finally he lays down
his pole and stretches himself out on the
brooks bank. Close to his side is a
sound Of ripping water, cool and sooth-
ing. while the spreading top of a manle
keeps off the sun.
The bank here is covered with thick
moss-a pleasant couch waiting for some
one TO come and use it. In the economy
of the woods nothing is permitted to
exist for itself only: the saplings have
their own life. but must also furnish
leaves and twigs 70 the deer. and barl,
to the nibbling harcs. No plant or ami
NAL is entirely selfish, and SO this hum
bic moss. since it can do little else, is
ready to serve rs n resting place for tho
weary.
There is an old saving that goes "Best
ease is free casc"-or the ease bO1ght
with too much labor of Dreparation is
hardly worth having. And this thought,
though it NAV not be very profound
suggests one great delight of the woods.
everything is free-is natural. No one
but tireless nature has labored Noeyes
have ached. no back has become bent in
the making of this couch of moss: no
shade of the maple. The refreshing
splash and ripple of the brook is freely,
uncOnsciOuslv given.
The voluptuaries of the east were close
students of the art of idlcness. Lounp
ing on their cushions. they listened 10
soft music and watched the movements
of dancing slaves. Other slaves waved
cooling fans. and. if their masters were
EXPOSED to the sun. held silkcn canopies
above them. The eastern prince Thought
that the pleasures of idlcnpss cOuId he
no further perfected
But the dancers must often have grown
weary: the slaves holding the canonies
tainted in the SIM: the fan bearers and
the musicians doubtless wondered at the
unjust fate which condemned them 70
labor in order that others might enjoy.
No Indian raiah or Persian lord ever
reclined upon an easier couch than This
one ON which the fisherman stretches
himself. The brook makes the most de
lightful of music Sunbeams dancing
on leaf and moss and ripnles are as
pleasant to watch rs the movement of
weary slaves
Nor do the sights and sounds of the
woods lack variety. The music of the
wafer is mingled with the twitter Of
forest birds-tbrushes and wood snar.
rows. the songful enthusiasm of their
annual youth is mast, but the midspm-
mer notes are fuli of barniness and tell
of nests we'll stocked with little ones