One afternoon many years ago two little brothers named Seth and Abner were playing in the orchard¹. They were not troubled with the heat of the August day, for a soft, cool wind came up from the river in the valley over yonder and fanned their red cheeks and played all kinds of pranks² with their tangled³ curls. All about them was the hum of bees, the song of birds, the smell of clover, and the merry music of the crickets. Their little dog Fido chased them through the high, waving grass, and rolled with them under the trees, and barked himself hoarse⁴ in his attempt to keep pace with their laughter. Wearied at length, they lay beneath the bellflower-tree and looked off at the Hampshire hills, and wondered if the time ever would come when they should go out into the [Pg 156]world beyond those hills and be great, noisy men. Fido did not understand it at all. He lolled in the grass, cooling his tongue on the clover bloom, and puzzling his brain to know why his little masters were so quiet all at once.  
"I wish I were a man," said Abner, ruefully. "I want to be somebody and do something. It is very hard to be a little boy so long and to have no companions but little boys and girls, to see nothing but these same old trees and this same high grass, and to hear nothing but the same bird-songs from one day to another."
 
"That is true," said Seth. "I, too, am very tired of being a little boy, and I long to go out into the world and be a man like my gran'pa or my father or my uncles. With nothing to look at but those distant hills and the river in the valley, my eyes are wearied; and I shall be very happy when I am big enough to leave this stupid place."
 
Had Fido understood their words he would have chided them, for the little dog loved his home and had no thought of any other pleasure than romping⁵ through the orchard and playing with his little masters all the [Pg 157]day. But Fido did not understand them.
 
The clover bloom heard them with sadness. Had they but listened in turn they would have heard the clover saying softly: "Stay with me while you may, little boys; trample⁶ me with your merry feet; let me feel the imprint⁷ of your curly heads and kiss the sunburn on your little cheeks. Love me while you may, for when you go away you never will come back."
 
The bellflower-tree heard them, too, and she waved her great, strong branches as if she would caress⁸ the impatient little lads, and she whispered: "Do not think of leaving me: you are children, and you know nothing of the world beyond those distant hills. It is full of trouble and care and sorrow; abide⁹ here in this quiet spot till you are prepared to meet the vexations of that outer world. We are for you,—we trees and grass and birds and bees and flowers. Abide with us, and learn the wisdom we teach."
 
The cricket in the raspberry-hedge heard them, and she chirped¹⁰, oh! so sadly: "You will go out into the world and leave us and never think of us again till it is too late to return. Open your ears, little boys, and [Pg 158]hear my song of contentment."
 
So spake the clover bloom and the bellflower-tree and the cricket; and in like manner the robin¹¹ that nested in the linden over yonder, and the big bumblebee that lived in the hole under the pasture gate, and the butterfly and the wild rose pleaded with them, each in his own way; but the little boys did not heed¹² them, so eager were their desires to go into and mingle¹³ with the great world beyond those distant hills.
 
Many years went by; and at last Seth and Abner grew to manhood, and the time was come when they were to go into the world and be brave, strong men. Fido had been dead a long time. They had made him a grave under the bellflower-tree,—yes, just where he had romped¹⁴ with the two little boys that August afternoon Fido lay sleeping amid the humming of the bees and the perfume of the clover. But Seth and Abner did not think of Fido now, nor did they give even a passing thought to any of their old friends,—the bellflower-tree, the clover, the cricket, and the robin. Their hearts beat with exultation¹⁵. They were men, and they were going beyond the hills to know and try the world.
 
[Pg 159]
 
They were equipped for that struggle, not in a vain, frivolous¹⁶ way, but as ............