noon
We took the electric motor to a station one mile and a half from Mr. Jansen 's , and walked the rest of the way . The air was pure and sweet and light ; it seemed to be breathed right out of heaven . The breezes touched us and dallied with us and delighted us , like ministering angels . The whole panoply of nature was magnificent ; the soft-hued , grassy fields ; the embowered trees ; the feeding cattle ; the children playing around the houses ; -- > `` Clowns cracking jokes , and lasses with sly eyes , And the smile settling on their sun-flecked cheeks Like noon upon the mellow apricot . '' My soul rose upon wings and swam in the ether like a swallow ; and I thanked God that he had given us this majestic , this beautiful , this surpassing world , and had placed within us the delicate sensibility and capability to enjoy it . In the presence of such things death -- annihilation -- seemed to me impossible , and I exclaimed aloud : > `` Hast thou not heard That thine existence , here on earth , is but The dark and narrow section of a life Which was with God , long ere the sun was lit , And shall be yet , when all the bold , bright stars Are dark as death-dust ? '' And oh , what a contrast was all this to the clouded world we had left behind us , in yonder close-packed city , with its poverty , its misery , its sin , its injustice , its scramble for gold , its dark hates and terrible plots .