One would have thought from the discussions that the question of salvation was imperilled by this new form of dissipation. Still the day was carried for it, and some of the old people and most of the provision went out in great ox carts. But the children and young people did not mind walking and were full of spirit and eagerness.
I managed to get off for half a day. Fortunately, the sun went under a cloud now and then, for which I was thankful as I hurried along. And when I came in sight I stood still a moment with a strange awe, touched by the beauty of the scene. The trees had grown up tall and straight, with no troublesome underbrush. The branches made arches overhead and waved to and fro against the sky, that in most places had a background of faint gray, where darker clouds went drifting over it, or here and there parted to show a rift of blue. I did not know about dryads or wood nymphs in those days, but the figures flitting about gave me a curious unreal sense, as if they could scarcely be human beings. As I came nearer the hum of the voices and the swish of the two swings through a clear path, barely escaping the rugged tree boles or a drooping branch, mingled with the shout of some daring boy who twisted a little and escaped damage.
There had been a fire built, and the uprights with the crotch were standing but the crosspiece had caught the blaze at last and fallen except at one end. A heap of ashes, and charred sticks lying about the edge looked rather melancholy, yet I had seen the like many a time when a band of roving Indians, tired with a long journey, had stopped to cook a meal. There were groups of women together, some of them with babies, and others with their knitting, while they sang the hymns most in vogue at that day. One haunts me through all this lapse of time:
"Am I a soldier of the Cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I blush to own His cause
Or fear to speak His name?"
and it always suggests those old pioneer missionaries of the Roman Church, who braved all dangers and even death to carry the Gospel to the Indians of the far west.
The children were having a grand time, as I both heard and saw, as I came nearer. They were playing "tag," from point to point, running in and out in a fashion that might have designed a labyrinth, groups sitting on the dry leaves playing mumble peg, a few big boys outside tossing up pennies. Then a girl holding some of her compeers in awe with a ghost story. What an odd, pretty picture it was!
"Oh, Norman, I was afraid you wouldn't come," and a gentle step ran up behind me and caught my arm. I had been peering about for her.