Scribner's magazine . nhad made for himself took him straightto the one little hillock where he couldlook over this tall screen and get hisbearings afresh hj the glint of the Pas-saics water in the woody valley below,for at no other spot along that ridgewas the Passaic visible. Now in this one act of Reuben LeviDodd you can see the human naturethat lies at the bottom of all path-mak-ing. He turned aside from his straightcourse to walk in the easy way made byanother man, and then fetched a com-pass, as they used to say in the ApostlePauls time, to get back to his straightbearings. Old Pelatiah
Scribner's magazine . nhad made for himself took him straightto the one little hillock where he couldlook over this tall screen and get hisbearings afresh hj the glint of the Pas-saics water in the woody valley below,for at no other spot along that ridgewas the Passaic visible. Now in this one act of Reuben LeviDodd you can see the human naturethat lies at the bottom of all path-mak-ing. He turned aside from his straightcourse to walk in the easy way made byanother man, and then fetched a com-pass, as they used to say in the ApostlePauls time, to get back to his straightbearings. Old Pelatiah had a goodreason for deviating from his straightline to the town ; young Dodd had none,except that it was easier to go two yardsaround than to go one yard straightthrough the l)ull-brier. Young Doddhad a powder-horn slung from hisshoulder that morning, and the powder-horn had some carding on it, but it wasnot like the car^^ng on old Pelatiahshorn. There was a letter R, cut withmany flourishes, a letter L cut but want-. THE STORY OF A PATH 759 ing most of its flourishes, and a letterD half finished, and crooked at that, andwithout the first trace of a Avas the way his powder - hornlooked that day, for that was the way itlooked when he died, and his son soldit to a dealer in antiquities. Young- Dodd and his wife found itlonely living up there on the were the first who had pushed sofar back from the river and the Dodd, who had an active and am-bitious spirit in her, often reproachedher husband for his neglect to maketheir home more accessible to her oldfriends in the distant town. If youd take a bill-hook, she wouldsay, and clean up that snake-fence path ise, and once he did take his hook andchop out a hundred yards or so. Butthings did not mend until Big Bill Turn-bull, known all over the county as theHard Job Man, married a widow withfive children, bought a little patch offive or six acres next to Dodds big farm,built a log-cabin for himself
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1887
