A Phantom of Delight 
     
    
   
   
    
     panels of fence, and so, unknowing, went 
     
     forward to meet all that life held for him. 
     
    

    
     He walked the length of the orchard’s 
     
     middle avenue between long, sinuous 
     
     boughs picked out with delicate, rose- 
     
     hearted bloom. When he reached its 
     
     southern boundary he flung himself down 
     
     in a grassy corner of the fence where an- 
     
     other lilac bush grew, with ferns and wild 
     
     blue violets at its roots. From where he 
     
     now was he got a glimpse of a house about 
     
     a quarter of a mile away, its gray gable 
     
     peering out from a dark spruce wood. It 
     
     seemed a dull, gloomy, remote place, and 
     
     he did not know who lived there. 
     
    

    
     He had a wide outlook to the west, over 
     
     far hazy fields and misty blue intervales. 
     
     The sun had just set, and the whole world 
     
     of green meadows beyond swam in golden 
     
     light. Across along valley brimmed with 
     
     shadow were uplands of sunset, and great 
     
     sky lakes of saffron and rose where a soul 
     
     might lose itself in colour. The air was 
     
     ,very fragrant with the baptism of the 
     
    
   
   
    
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