human
When you came up I was just contrasting this valley with one I remember visiting in the Old Country, she said.
gpt
It was in the West. Major Hume, who is with us now, once took me there, and we spent an afternoon at a house which, I think, is older than any we have in Canada.
human
In a river valley in the West Country?
gpt
Yes, she said.
human
Ivy, with stems thicker than your wrist, climbs about the front of it, and a lawn mown until it looks like velvet slopes to the sliding water. A wall of clipped yews shuts it in, and the river slides past it silently without froth or haste, as though afraid that any sound it made would jar upon the drowsy quietness of the place. There is a big beech wood behind it, and one little meadow, green as an emerald, between that and the river----
gpt
Where the stepping-stones stretch across. A path comes twisting down through the dimness of the wood, and there are black firs upon the ridge above.
human
Of course! said the girl.
gpt
That is, beyond the ash poles--but how could you know?
human
I was once there--ever so long ago.
gpt
Then I wonder if you felt as I did, that those shadowy woods and dark yew hedges shut out all that is real and strenuous in life. One could fancy that nobody did anything but sit still and dream there.
human
Well, he said, reflectively,
gpt
Oh, she said,
human
I know. The distinction between those who work and those who idle is marked in your country. It even seems to be considered a desirable thing for a man to fritter his time away, so long as he does it gracefully. Still, there is room for all one's activities, and the big thoughts that lead to big schemes here. How far does your ranch go?
gpt
To the lake, said Brooke, who understood the purport of the question.
human
There are four hundred acres of it, and I have, I don't mind telling you, been here rather more than two years.
gpt
And that is all you have cleared?
human
Yes, said Brooke, with a little smile.
gpt
One can lounge very successfully here. Still, even if there was not a tree upon it the soil wouldn't be worth anything, and it's only in places one can find a foot or two of it. When I first came in, an enterprising gentleman in the land agency business sold me this wilderness of rock and gravel to feed cattle and grow fruit trees on, though I fancy I am not the only confiding stranger who has been treated in the same fashion in this country.