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158
Adventures in Contentment
·
David Grayson
47
Horace
has
no
poetry
in
his
soul,
neither
does
he
understand
the
philosophy
of
imperfection
nor
the
art
of
irregularity.
It
is
a
tender
shoot,
easily
blasted
by
cold
winds,
the
creative
instinct:
but
persistent.
It
has
many
adventitious
buds.
A
late
frost
destroying
the
freshness
of
its
early
verdure,
may
be
the
means
of
a
richer
growth
in
later
and
more
favourable
days.
For
a
week
I
left
my
helve
standing
there
in
the
corner.
I
did
not
even
look
at
it.
I
was
slain.
I
even
thought
of
getting
up
in
the
night
and
putting
the
helve
on
the
coals--secretly.
Then,
suddenly,
one
morning,
I
took
it
up
not
at
all
tenderly,
indeed
with
a
humorous
appreciation
of
my
own
absurdities,
and
carried
it
out
into
the
yard.
An
axe-helve
is
not
a
mere
ornament
but
a
thing
of
sober
purpose.
The
test,
after
all,
of
axe-helves
is
not
sublime
perfection,
but
service.
We
may
easily
find
flaws
in
the
verse
of
the
master--how
far
the
rhythm
fails
of
the
final
perfect
music,
how
often
uncertain
the
rhyme--but
it
bears
within
it,
hidden
yet
evident,
that
certain
incalculable
fire
which
kindles
and
will
continue
to
kindle
the
souls
of
men.
The
final
test
is
not
the
perfection
of
precedent,
not
regularity,
but
life,
spirit.
It
was
one
of
those
perfect,
sunny,
calm
mornings
that
sometimes
come
in
early
April:
the
zest
of
winter
yet
in
the
air,
but
a
promise
of
summer.
I
built
a
fire
of
oak
chips
in
the
middle
of
the
yard,
between
two
flat
stones.
I
brought
out
my
old
axe,
and
when
the
fire
had
burned
down
somewhat,
leaving
a
foundation
of
hot
coals,
I
thrust
the
eye
of
the
axe
into
the
fire.
The
blade
rested
on
one
of
the
flat
stones,
and
I
kept
it
covered
with
wet
rags
in
order
that
it
might
not
heat
sufficiently
to
destroy
the
temper
of
the
steel.
Harriet's
old
gray
hen,
a
garrulous
fowl,
came
and
stood
on
one
leg
and
looked
at
me
first
with
one
eye
and
then
with
the
other.
She
asked
innumerable
impertinent
questions
and
was
generally
disagreeable.
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