There was an immense burden lifted off me. It is difficult to
express the change and the relief in my feelings. The next day
was given to an excursion in the neighbourhood; and I never
can forget how rare the air seemed to be, as if I were
breathing pure life; and how brilliant the sunlight was that
fell on the wonderful Palestine carpet of spring flowers. All
over they were; under foot and everywhere else; flashing from
hidden places, peeping round corners, smiling at us in every
meadow and hillside; a glory upon the land. Papa was in great
delight, as well as I; and as kind as possible to me; also
very good to Mr. Dinwiddie. Mr. Dinwiddie himself seemed to me
transformed. I had gone back now to the free feeling of a
child; and he looked to me again as my childish eyes had seen
him. There was a great amount of fire and vigour and
intellectual life in his countenance; the auburn hair and the
brown eyes glowed together with the hue of a warm temperament;
but that was tempered by a sweet and manly character. I
thought he had grown soberer than the Mr. Dinwiddie of my
remembrance.
That particular day lies in my memory like some far-off lake
that one has seen just under the horizon of a wide landscape,
- a still bit of silvery light. It is not the distance,
though, in this case, that gives it its shining. We were going
that morning to visit Gibeon and Neby Samwil; and the
landscape was full, for me, of the peace which had come into
the relations between me and papa. It was a delicious spring
day; the flowers bursting under our feet with their fresh
smiles; the air perfumed with herby scents and young sweetness
of nature; while associations of old time clustered all about,
like sighs of history. - We went first along the great stony
track which leads from Jerusalem to the north; then turned
aside into the great route from Jaffa to Jerusalem; not the
southern and rougher way which re had taken when we came from
the coast. This was he approach of almost all the armies which
have poured their fury on the devoted city. We went single
file, as one has to go in Palestine; and I liked it. There was
too much to think of to make one want to talk. And the
buoyancy of the air seemed to feed mind as well as body, and
give all the stimulus needed. Mr. Dinwiddie sometimes called
out to me to point my attention to something; and the rest of
the time I kept company with the past and my own musings.
We visited Gibeon first, and stood by the dry pool where Abner
and Joab watched the fight of their twelve picked men; and we
read Solomon's prayer.