he army or to work on railroads when they neither expect
nor hope to be advanced? The men themselves can't tell you. They take
up the work unthinkingly but there is something in the very hardships
they suffer which lends a sting to the life and holds them. The only
thing I know of that will do this and turn the grind into an
inspiration is romance. It's what the new-comers have and it's what
our ancestors had and it's what a lot of us who have stayed over here
too long out of the current have lost.

On the lazy summer mornings we could hear the church bells and now and
then a set of chimes. Because we were above the street and next to the
sky they sounded as drowsily musical as in a country village. They
made me a bit conscience-stricken to think that for the boy's sake I
didn't make an effort and go to some church. But for a while it was
church enough to devote the seventh day to what the Bible says it was
made for. Ruth used to read out loud to us and we planned to make our
book suit the day after a fashion. Sometimes it was Emerson, sometimes
Tennyson--I was very fond of the Idylls--and sometimes a book of
sermons. Later on we had a call from a young minister who had a little
mission chapel not far from our flat and who looked in upon us at the
suggestion of the secretary of the settlement house. We went to a
service at his chapel one Sunday and before we ourselves realized it
we were attending regularly with a zest and interest which we had
never felt in our suburban church-going. Later still we each of us
found a share in the work ourselves and came to have a great
satisfaction and contentment in it. But I am running ahead of my
story.

We'd have dinner this first summer at about half past one and then
perhaps we'd go for a walk. There wasn't a street in the city that
didn't interest us but as a rule we'd plan to visit one of the parks.
I didn't know there were so many of them or that they were so
different. We had our choice of the ocean or a river or the woods. If
we had wished to spend say thirty cents in car fare we could have had
a further choice of the beach, the mountains, or a taste of the
country which in places had not changed in the last hundred years.
This would have given us a two hours' ride. Occasionally we did this
but at present there was too much to see within walking distance.

For one thing it suddenly occurred to me that though I had lived in
this city over thirty years I had not yet seen su