“It is, indeed,” said Harriet.

As we stood on the porch we could see at the top of the hill, where the town road crosses it, the slow moving buggy, and through the open curtain at the back the heavy form of our Congressman with his slouch hat set firmly on his big head.

“We may be fooled, Harriet,” I observed, “on dogmas and doctrines and platforms—­but if we cannot trust human nature in the long run, what hope is there?  It’s men we must work with, Harriet.”

“And women.” said Harriet.

“And women, of course,” said I.

XIII

ON FRIENDSHIP

I come now to the last of these Adventures in Friendship.  As I go out—­I hope not for long—­I wish you might follow me to the door, and then as we continue to talk quietly, I may beguile you, all unconsciously, to the top of the steps, or even find you at my side when we reach the gate at the end of the lane.  I wish you might hate to let me go, as I myself hate to go!—­And when I reach the top of the hill (if you wait long enough) you will see me turn and wave my hand; and you will know that I am still relishing the joy of our meeting, and that I part unwillingly.

Not long ago, a friend of mine wrote a letter asking me an absurdly difficult question—­difficult because so direct and simple.

“What is friendship, anyway?” queried this philosophical correspondent.

The truth is, the question came to me with a shock, as something quite new.  For I have spent so much time thinking of my friends that I have scarcely ever stopped to reflect upon the abstract quality of friendship.  My attention being thus called to the subject, I fell to thinking of it the other night as I sat by the fire, Harriet not far away rocking and sewing, and my dog sleeping on the rug near me (his tail stirring whenever I made a motion to leave my place).  And whether I would or no my friends came trooping into my mind.  I thought of our neighbour Horace, the dryly practical and sufficient farmer, and of our much loved Scotch Preacher; I thought of the Shy Bee-man and of his boisterous double, the Bold Bee-man; I thought of the Old Maid, and how she talks, for all the world like a rabbit running in a furrow (all on the same line until you startle her out, when she slips quickly into the next furrow and goes on running as ardently as before).  And I thought of John Starkweather, our rich man; and of the life of the girl Anna.  And it was good to think of them all living around me, not far away, connected with me through darkness and space by a certain mysterious human cord. (Oh, there are mysteries still left upon this scientific earth!) As I sat there by the fire I told them over one by one, remembering with warmth or amusement or concern this or that characteristic thing about each of them.  It was the next best thing to hearing the tramp of feet on my porch, to seeing the door fly open (letting in a gust of the fresh cool air!), to crying a hearty greeting, to drawing up an easy chair to the open fire, to watching with eagerness while my friend unwraps (exclaiming all the while of the state of the weather:  “Cold, Grayson, mighty cold!”) and finally sits down beside me, not too far away.