Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-03-27

Sin, the dog, lay outstretched on the rug, nose be-
tween paws, eyes fixed sleepily on the embers, dreaming
Finally Jim began without preface.
Il want to tell you, Teddy said he, IAN incident
of my vacation trip last summer that | have never
alluded to before.
"The Graydon home lies at the end of a long wagon
trail through the forests. | reached it two days after
| left YOU in New York, and l imagine | must have
looked pretty we'll used up to the woodsmen who met
me. Canadian roads are picturesque, but they are not
~macadam. and my nerves were certainly in bad case
before we reached the house. The last hour Of the
trail came at the end Of the long northern cleaning.
Mr.. Graydon and his wife welcomes. me from the
lanplit doorway of their home
Il have known a lot OF people in my life, Teddy
men and women; but there is a rare couple. 1t is
hard to speak of them separately, their lives were so
graciously intertwined. You always expected to see
them together. Interests and tastes the same, work
and pleasure always to be shared. The influence of
the wilderness had done that for them, I think.
"At a glance I saw in Mr.. Graydon a student and a
gentleman; somewhat OF a reoNuse, perhaps, but a
Your father was one of my best friends said ne,
and want to continue the friendship with his son.
Every one called your father Jim" You look like
him, and l imagine you are Jim" to your friends.
May | be among Il emF
Il was too tired to talk much that night, and went
almost Immediately to my room. l shall never forget
that room, Teddy; not that there was anything strik-
ing about its interior or its comfortable fittings, but
it had four low windows that were perpetual delights.
The breath of the pines was always drifting through
them-sunrise and moonlight flooded them. That
night, before | turned in, | caught from one of them
the reflection OF a big star in sleeping water (the
poetizing of Jim had evidently been thorough.
Because ! was an invalid, | suppose, my breakfast
was sent up to me the next morning new luxury
in my case, for | hate being ~coddled, as you know.
From my table by the south window | got my first
definite idea of my surroundings.
Before the house lay a broad sweep OF lawn and
Mrs. Graydon's beds of old-fashioned fowers-it was
good to see the marigolds and the tall hollyhockS
again-then a path leading down through the tall
trees to a lake-a lake that was part OF the wilder
ness. Rugged. pine-swept shores; deep, silent bays;
rock-ribbed islands; long. blue stretches Of water.
In the far distance OF the lake | saw a dot OF red
and the quick fash of a paddle.
Back of the house and on all sides rose the for
est-clad hills glorious in green.
The house bore every evidence of the fact that a
man OF adequate means had lived there and built as
he chose. 1t was a low-roofed structure, broadly
verandaed, stout, to resist winter and invite summer
Inside and out, the place was powerfully attractive
to me. 1t seemed to awaken something within me
that | had never suspected-l had always wanted this
thing, but had never realized ii before.
1T did not occur to me as strengthening such