And he thought of the lovely lines of George Herbert:-- "How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean Are Thy returns! Ev'n as the flowers in Spring, To which, besides their own demean, The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring; Grief melts away Like snow in May, As if there were no such cold thing.
"Who would have thought my shrivell'd heart Could have recover'd greenness?
It was gone Quite under ground; as flowers depart To see their mother-root, when they have blown, Where they together All the hard weather, Dead to the world, keep house unknown.
"These are Thy wonders, Lord of power, Killing and quick'ning, bringing down to Hell And up to Heaven in an hour; Making a chiming of a passing bell.
We say amiss This or that is; Thy Word is all, if we could spell!" "If we could spell!" he murmured, half aloud.

"Ay, if we could learn even a quarter of the alphabet which would help us to understand the meaning of that 'Word!'-- the Word which 'was in the beginning, and the word was with God, and the word _was_ God!' Then we should be wise indeed with a wisdom that would profit us,--we should have no fears and no forebodings,--we should know that all is, all _must_ be for the best!" And he raised his eyes to the slowly brightening sky.

"Yet, after all, the attitude of simple faith is the right one for us, if we would call ourselves children of God--the faith which affirms--'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!'" As he thus mused, a golden light began to spread around him,--the sun had risen above the horizon, and its cheerful radiance sparkled on every leaf and every blade of grass that bore a drop of dew.

The morning mists rose hoveringly, paused awhile, and then lightly rolled away, disclosing one picture after another of exquisite sylvan beauty,--every living thing took up anew its burden of work and pleasure for the day, and "Now" was again declared the acceptable time.

To enjoy the moment, and to make much of the moment while it lasts, is the very keynote of Nature's happiness, and David Helmsley found himself on this particular morning more or less in tune with the general sentiment.