hrough the moonlight, some with the
happy hearts they had brought, others saddened by some of the whimsies
of Fortune that seem lurking to spoil our joy when most we exult.
Gladdest of all the blissful ones rode Friedrich von Rittenheim. At the
cross-roads he waved a gay "good-by" to the Oakwood surrey as it bore
away from him the lady of his love. He stopped his mule and looked long
after it, and threw a kiss at its bulky form as it plunged into the
wood.

He did not put on his cap again, but stuffed it into his pocket, and
trotted on towards home with the moonlight shining on his fair hair.
The good creature between his knees felt his exhilaration and broke
into a short canter as an expression of sympathy with his master's
humor. The negroes whose cabins he passed pulled the clothes over their
heads, whispering "Hants!" as he galloped by, singing "Dixie" at the
top of his lungs.

Sydney had taught it to him, the stirring song, and he brought it out
roundly,--

"Oh, I wees' I was in the land of cotton,
The good old times are not for-rgotten,
Look away, look away, look away,
Deexie Land."

XVII

Out of a Clear Sky

There came to von Rittenheim as he stabled his mule, with many a tender
pat upon his coarse coat, one of those times of spiritual insight when
we see ourselves as after a long absence we look with scrutiny upon
once familiar objects. A perception of new growth filled him with
surprise, as we look at the seedling under the window, and notice of a
sudden that it has grown to be a sapling. With the scrutiny and the
perception came a comprehension of new power, such as we feel
objectively when our child asserts himself, and we understand in a
flash that the man is born within him, and that the days of childhood
are past.

The remembrance of the months of regret and sorrow that had followed
upon his coming to America struck him with nausea. The thought of his
long ineptitude for the life which he had adopted voluntarily gave him
a feeling of self-contempt. The inertness of his will disgusted him.

And then all this disgust and contempt was swept away by a great wave
of courage and determination and strength. He tingled with the
consciousness that once more there had come to him the intrepidity with
which his youth had faced the future, the will-power to take up life
again, and the force to work and to win.

Reverently he thanked God for each increment of might that pulse