“I thought that, until I stood up and started down the slope to go my lone-handed way. The sun struck me in the face then, and it was yellow over the valley, and the wind was glad. I knew then, when I looked out over it, that it held something for me, that it 330 was my country, and my home. The lines of gray old Joaquin Miller came to me, and lifted my heart in a new vision. I said them over to myself:
Lo! these are the isles of the watery miles
That God let down from the firmament.
Lo! Duty and Love, and a true man’s trust;
Your forehead to God and your feet in the dust—
only, there were two lines which I did not repeat, I dared not repeat, even in my heart. My vision halted short of their fulfillment.”
“What are the words—do you remember them?” she asked.
“Yes; I can repeat them now, for my vision is broader, it is a better dream:
Lo! Duty and Love, and a sweet babe’s smiles,
And there, O friend, are the Fortunate Isles.”