Of one disconsolate cow. All the warm afternoon,
Lulled in a reverie by the myriad tune
Of insects, and the chirp of songless birds,
Forgetful of the spring-time's lyric words,
Drowsed round us while we tried to find the lane
That to our coming feet had been so plain,
And lost ourselves among the sweetfern's growth,
And thickets of young pine-trees, nothing loath,
Amidst the wilding loveliness to stray,
And spend, if need were, looking for the way,
Whole hours; but blundered into the right course
Suddenly, and came out upon our horse,
Where we had left him--to our great surprise,
Stamping and switching at the pestering flies,
But not apparently anxious to depart,
When nearly overturning at the start,
We followed down that evanescent trace
Which, followed up, had brought us to the place.

Then, all the wayside scenes reversing, we
Dropped to the glimpses of the distant sea,
Content as if we brought, returning thus,
The secret of the Black Cross back with us.

XIII

THE CRITICAL BOOKSTORE

It had long been the notion of Frederick Erlcort, who held it
playfully, held it seriously, according to the company he was in, that
there might be a censorship of taste and conscience in literary
matters strictly affiliated with the retail commerce in books. When he
first began to propose it, playfully, seriously, as his listener
chose, he said that he had noticed how in the great department stores
where nearly everything to supply human need was sold, the shopmen and
shopwomen seemed instructed by the ownership or the management to deal
in absolute good faith with the customers, and not to misrepresent the
quality, the make, or the material of any article in the slightest
degree. A thing was not to be called silk or wool when it was partly
cotton; it was not to be said that it would wash when it would not
wash, or that the color would not come off when it would come off, or
that the stuff was English or French when it was American.

When Erlcort once noted his interest in the fact to a floor-walker
whom he happened to find at leisure, the floor-walker said, Yes, that
was so; and the house did it because it was business, good business,
the only good business. He was instantly enthusiastic, and he said
that just in the same way, as an extension of its good faith with the
public, the house had established the rule of t