babies--a group of those naked darlings playing on short
velvet grass, clean-swept; or rugs as soft; or in shallow pools of
bright water; tumbling over with bubbling joyous baby laughter--it was a
view of infant happiness such as I had never dreamed.

The babies were reared in the warmer part of the country, and gradually
acclimated to the cooler heights as they grew older.

Sturdy children of ten and twelve played in the snow as joyfully as ours
do; there were continuous excursions of them, from one part of the land
to another, so that to each child the whole country might be home.

It was all theirs, waiting for them to learn, to love, to use, to serve;
as our own little boys plan to be "a big soldier," or "a cowboy," or
whatever pleases their fancy; and our little girls plan for the kind of
home they mean to have, or how many children; these planned, freely and
gaily with much happy chattering, of what they would do for the country
when they were grown.

It was the eager happiness of the children and young people which first
made me see the folly of that common notion of ours--that if life was
smooth and happy, people would not enjoy it.

As I studied these youngsters, vigorous, joyous, eager little creatures,
and their voracious appetite for life, it shook my previous ideas so
thoroughly that they have never been re-established. The steady level of
good health gave them all that natural stimulus we used to call "animal
spirits"--an odd contradiction in terms. They found themselves in an
immediate environment which was agreeable and interesting, and before
them stretched the years of learning and discovery, the fascinating,
endless process of education.

As I looked into these methods and compared them with our own, my
strange uncomfortable sense of race-humility grew apace.

Ellador could not understand my astonishment. She explained things
kindly and sweetly, but with some amazement that they needed explaining,
and with sudden questions as to how we did it that left me meeker than
ever.

I betook myself to Somel one day, carefully not taking Ellador. I did
not mind seeming foolish to Somel--she was used to it.

"I want a chapter of explanation," I told her. "You know my stupidities
by heart, and I do not want to show them to Ellador--she thinks me so
wise!"

She smiled delightedly. "It is beautiful to see," she told me, "this
new wonderful love between you. The whole country is interested, you
know--how