One night I was up visitin’ Horace, and after supper we got a little restless and started out for a walk. We sauntered down to our old look-out and stood gazin’ down at the lights of the Cross brand ranch. Ty had rigged up a water power to manufacture e-lectricity, simply because the children had needed it to run some o’ their idees, but the’ was plenty of it to light the whole place. In token of Ty’s brand, and also as a symbol of his own callin’, the Friar had built an immense cross on the cliff just above the mouth of the ravine, and on the upright, and at each end o’ the cross-piece were big electric lights. These could be seen for miles, and every one knew ’at whatever troubles they had, there was allus welcome, cheery hospitality, and sound advice waitin’ for ’em in the shadow of this cross.
It was a moonlight night, one of those crisp, bright nights, when it makes a feller feel solemn just to get up high and look down at the beauty of the old, hard Earth. We had been talkin’ o’ the old days as usual; but not talkin’ much, for we each saw the same set of pictures when we looked down from here, and they didn’t need many words.
“Life is like a game o’ chess,” sez Horace. “The openin’ is not so absolutely vital; but after a time the’ comes one little move which is the keynote of all the balance of the game—and the same is true o’ life. The way things has turned out down yonder seems to be the very best way they could have turned out; but it’s hard to look back and tell just what was the keynote of it all. Of course Promotheus—Promotheus was the prime mover; but then all the way along you can see the Friar’s influence. What would you say was the keynote o’ this tangled game, Happy?”
I looked down at Horace: he was wearin’ a battered old hat, rough clothes and leggins, and smokin’ a corncob pipe. “That’s an easy one,” sez I, tryin’ to shake off a feelin’ o’ sadness which was beginnin’ to creep over me, in spite of all I could do; “gettin’ your nerves cured up, Horace, was the keynote of it all.”
“That was a long time ago,” sez Horace, “a long, long time ago.”