appeal to maturity. The man who has left his year of wandering behind him
forgets its joys and perils, and regards it as a deflection from a course
which is now perfectly plain, although it may once have been confused and
uncertain. He is critical and condemnatory where he ought to be
sympathetic and helpful. If he reflects and comprehends, he will hold out
the hand of fellowship; for he will understand that the year of wandering
is not a manifestation of aimlessness, but of aspiration, and that in its
ferment and uncertainty youth is often guided to and finally prepared for
its task.




Chapter VI

The Ultimate Test


"I have cut more than one field of oats and wheat," writes M. Charles
Wagner, "cradled for long hours under the August sky to the slow cadence
of the blade as it swung to and fro, laying low at every stroke the heavy
yellow heads. I have heard the quail whistle in the distant fields beyond
the golden waves of wheat and the woods that looked blue above the vines.
I have thought of the clamours of mankind, of the oven-like cities, of the
problems which perplex the age, and my insight has grown clearer. Yes, I
am Positive that one of the great curatives of our evils, our maladies,
social, moral, and intellectual, would be a return to the soil, a
rehabilitation of the work of the fields." In these characteristically
ardent words one of the noblest Frenchmen of the day has brought out a
truth of general application. To come once more into personal relations