The mare, half
startled, pricked up her ears and began to trot. She, too, felt the
spring.
"Here," I said aloud, "is where I belong. I am native to this place; of
all these things I am a part."
But presently--how one's mind courses back, like some keen-scented
hound, for lost trails--I began to think again of my friend's lodges.
And do you know, I had lost every trace of depression. The whole matter
lay as clear in my mind, as little complicated, as the countryside which
met my eye so openly.
"Why!" I exclaimed to myself, "I need not envy my friend's lodges. I
myself belong to the greatest of all fraternal orders. I am a member of
the Universal Brotherhood of Men."
It came to me so humorously as I sat there in my buggy that I could not
help laughing aloud. And I was so deeply absorbed with the idea that I
did not at first see the whiskery old man who was coming my way in a
farm wagon. He looked at me curiously. As he passed, giving me half the
road, I glanced up at him and called out cheerfully:
"How are you, Brother?"
You should have seen him look--and look--and look. After I had passed I
glanced back. He had stopped his team, turned half way around in his
high seat and was watching me--for he did not understand.
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