"You must excuse me if I cannot see you home," I said.
When she had gone, I sat down again to think it all over. I wrote a
letter, and asked to have my uniform sent.
XX
The first day in the woods.
I was happy and weary; all the creatures came up close and looked at me;
there were insects on the trees and oil-beetles crawling on the road.
Well met! I said to myself. The feeling of the woods went through and
through my senses; I cried for love of it all, and was utterly happy; I
was dissolved in thanksgiving. Dear woods, my home, God's peace with
you from my heart... I stopped and turned all ways, named the things
with tears. Birds and trees and stones and grass and ants, I called them
all by name, looked round and called them all in their order. I looked
up to the hills and thought: Now, now I am coming, as if in answer to
their calling. Far above, the dwarf falcon was hacking away--I knew
where its nests were. But the sound of those falcons up in the hills
sent my thoughts far away.
About noon I rowed out and landed on a little island, an islet outside
the harbour. There were mauve-coloured flowers with long stalks reaching
to my knees; I waded in strange growths, raspberry and coarse grass;
there were no animals, and perhaps there had never been any human being
there.
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