As Talked in the Sanctum [pp. 357-360]

AS TALKED IN THE SANCTUM.
I was De Soto or again Jack was Hawk Eye. "Hist! "- Hawk Eye would pause in
his tracks with head lowered and finger raised. A partridge was drumming on a log,
-"It is a vile Huron! Look to your priming."
Among the resinous needles under a blasted pine we ate our noon-day lunch.
The shadow lay close to the foot of the pine, so we knew it was time. As we
munched the thick slices of salt-rising bread heavily crusted with shaven maple sugar, we built castles in Spain,-castles of which we were never to possess the
title-deeds, but castles that were filled with hopes and aspirations that had their own
silent influence in shaping our young lives. A gray squirrel ran down the limb of a
white birch and marked with bright, greedy eyes the spot where each crumb fell.
"When I get to be a man," said Jack, as he softly answered the call of a catbird.
Such was our dreaming. The world has been the loser because of the impossibility of his not being able to fulfill that day-dream. Somehow I always picture him
as he would be and not as he is. It is the holiday - free from care or thought
that brings out the beauty and best in man.
So the short autumn day passed. The hot sun overhead only made itself known
by a few mesh-like streamers that reached the leaves at our feet. Then as it lost
itself below the Pinnacle far down the valley of the Cryder, we followed the lengthening shadows along the mountain side, driving the cows with us as we went. Our
shrill, happy "Whey Boss," and "Coe Boss," woke the echoes across the pastures
in the darkening "drafts " beyond.
The Parson. "I feel that I am equal to as many holidays as the law permits,
but as a public man I am not allowed to spend them as I choose. I amlwilling to
have the Fourth of July set apart as a distinct political holiday,- with harangues,
powder, and brass bands; with Union League and Iroquois Club banquets at night;
with noise and fireworks,- but I do object to having every other legal holiday
devoted to the same object. Why not hold Washington's Birthday sacred to his
memory? Make it the school children's holiday, and for once put aside all political
antagonisms and class wars. Washington was neither a Republican, Democrat, or
Populist; he did not belong to the A. P. A.'s or the Y. M. I.'s He stands.as the
greatest moral memory in the republic, the conscience of the American people. If
we are to have parades, let them be devoid of " Little Red School Houses" and rotten egg throwing. Let them be sweet, quiet reminders of the noble Father of the
wvhole country."
The Office boy had been listening. He took off his spectacles and dusted them
carefully.
The Office Boy. "Please, sir, my cousin is visiting me from San Luis. May
I have a holiday tomorrow? We want to go to a picnic in the redwoods at Mill
Valley."
The Office Boy's petition was timely and it was granted without a dissenting
voice.
The Office Boy. "Proof."
360