"If I now held the money in my hands to
send you, and could give it to you in some way you would accept I
would not. I do not know why it is the fate of the world always to want
something different from what life gives them. If you only could realize
it, my girl, you are in college, and have been always. You are in the
school of experience, and it has taught you to think, and given you
a heart. God knows I envy the man who wins it! You have been in the
college of the Limberlost all your life, and I never met a graduate from
any other institution who could begin to compare with you in sanity,
clarity, and interesting knowledge. I wouldn't even advise you to read
too many books on your lines. You acquire your material first hand, and
you know that you are right. What you should do is to begin early to
practise self-expression. Don't wait too long to tell us about the woods
as you know them."
"Follow the course of the Bird Woman, you mean?" asked Elnora.
"In your own way; with your own light. She won't live forever. You are
younger, and you will be ready to begin where she ends. The swamp has
given you all you need so far; now you give it to the world in payment.
College be confounded! Go to work and show people what there is in you!"
Not until then did he remember Mrs. Comstock.
"Should we go out to the trail and see if your mother is coming?" he
asked.
"Here she is now," said Elnora. "Gracious, it's a mercy I got that
violin put away in time! I didn't expect her so soon," whispered
the girl as she turned and went toward her mother.
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