We constantly vied with one another in discovering chaste bits of scenery along the way, and we were ever too generous to withhold praise or to appropriate to ourselves the credit that belonged to another.  If one found the nest of a bird hidden away in the foliage, we all stopped in admiration.  When another discovered a spring gushing out from beneath the rocks, we all refreshed ourselves with the limpid water and poured out our thanks to the discoverer.  When a rare flower was found, we took time to examine it minutely till we all felt joy in the flower and in the finder.  To us nothing was ever small or negligible that any one of our company discovered.  If one started a song we all joined in heartily as if we had been waiting for that one to lead us in the singing.  Thus each one, according to his gifts and inclinations, became a leader on one or another of the enterprises connected with our journey.

So, in time, it seemed to us that the big tree came to meet us in order to give its kindly shade for our comfort; that the bird poured forth its song as a special gift to us to give us new courage; that the flower met us at the right time and place to smile its beauty into our lives; that each stream laughed its way to our feet to quench our thirst, and to share with us its coolness; that the mossy bank gave us a special invitation to enjoy its hospitality; that the cloud had heard our wishes and came to shield us from the sun, and that the path came forth from among the thickets to guide us on our way.  Because we were winning, all nature seemed to be cheering us on as the people cheered the man at Vesuvius.

Having reached the summit, we sat together in eloquent silence.  We had toiled, and struggled, and suffered together, and so had learned to think and feel in unison.  Our spirits had become fused in a common purpose, and we could sit in silence and not be abashed.  We had become honest with our surroundings, honest with one another, and honest with ourselves, and so could smile at mere conventions and find joy in one another without words.  We had encountered honest difficulties—­rocks, trees, streams, sloughs, tangles, sand, and sun, and had overcome them by honest effort and so had achieved honesty.  We had met and overcome big things, too, and in doing so had grown big.  No longer did our hearts flutter in the presence of little things, for we had won poise and serenity.

The fogs had been banished from our minds; our sight had become clear; our spirits had been enlarged; our courage had been made strong, and our faith was lifted up.  A new horizon opened up before us that stretched on and on and made us know that life is a big thing.  The sky became our companion with all its myriad stars; the sea became our neighbor with all the life it holds, and the landscape became our dooryard, with all its varied beauty and grandeur.  The ships upon the sea and the trains upon the land became our messengers of service.  The wires and the air sped our thoughts abroad and linked us to the world.  We looked straight into the faces of the big elemental things of life and were not afraid.