The Light in the Clearing
CONTENTS BOOK ONE WHICH IS THE STORY OF THE CANDLE AND COMPASS CHAPTER I The Melon Harvest II I Meet the Silent Woman and Silas Wright, Jr. III We Go to Meeting and See Mr. Wright Again IV Our Little Strange Companion V In the Light of the Candles VI The Great Stranger VII My Second Peril VIII My Third Peril BOOK TWO WHICH IS THE STORY OF THE PRINCIPAL WITNESS
lessons taught by the experience of others. The Present!--the
Present!--its amusements, its gayeties, its fashions, absorbs nearly
all their thoughts. They have little relish to look towards the
future, except to anticipate the continuance of the novelty and
joyousness of the spring-time of life. The poet utters a most
salutary admonition in his beautiful lines:
"The beam of the morning, the bud of the Spring,
The promise of beauty and brightness may bring;
But clouds gather darkness, and touched by the frost,
The pride of the plant, and the morning are lost.
Thus the bright and the beautiful ever decay--
Life's morn and life's flowers, oh, they quick pass away!"
I would not cast one unnecessary shadow on the pathway of the young;
but they should be often reminded, that the season of youth, with
its romance and light-heartedness, soon, too soon, departs! Spring,
with its budding beauties, and fragrant blossoms, does not continue
all the year. It is speedily followed by the fervid summer, the
mature and sober autumn, and the dreary snows of winter. In order to
have thriving and promising fields in summer, rich and abundant
harvests in autumn, and bountiful supplies for comfort and repose in
winter, "good seed" must be sowed in the spring. So, also, if you
would have the summer of life fruitful of prosperity--its autumn
yield a rich and bountiful harvest, and the winter of old age made
comfortable and peaceful--the good seed of pure habits, and sound
CONTENTS BOOK ONE WHICH IS THE STORY OF THE CANDLE AND COMPASS CHAPTER I The Melon Harvest II I Meet the Silent Woman and Silas Wright, Jr. III We Go to Meeting and See Mr. Wright Again IV Our Little Strange Companion V In the Light of the Candles VI The Great Stranger VII My Second Peril VIII My Third Peril BOOK TWO WHICH IS THE STORY OF THE PRINCIPAL WITNESS