Daisy In The Field

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.