The Victory of Ezry Gardner Author:Imogen Clark Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. The brare makes danger opportunity; The waverer, paltering with the chance sublime, Dwarfs it to peril. James Russell Lowell. It is a sad tho... more »ught that we never keep true to the pitch of our highest endeavors — somewhere the tension slackens — somewhere the note strikes false — and jarring discords creep in, drowning the sweeter sounds. We can only linger for a little time upon the heights; the fine air is too difficult to breathe long, and slowly, — reluctantly we descend to the plains and the mists and take up our round of duties again. Wecome back with faces shining from our interview with the Presence revealed in the burning bush, but it is seldom that we retain that brightness to glorify the commoner moments and struggles of our lot. The splendor vanishes, but who shall say that we are not the better for having seen its radiance, even if it never touches us again? Our living, poor as it is, yet thrills often to the nobler strain, though we are unconscious of it as we settle down to "the C-major of this life" — the prosaic key-note to which most of our lives are set. Gardner's exaltation was but a passing phase. Each revolution of the steamer's wheels filled him with apprehension. His soul was sick with dread. He had never been away from the Island save on short fishing expeditions, and knew nothing of theworld at large. It seemed a fearful thing to him to go out into it now to join those fighting men. He was steeped in bitterness. But the strength which he had gained in those months of self-examination did not wholly desert him. He would not go back, he told himself grimly; he would fight for his country, die for her if need be. The words seemed like bravado to his tortured soul, but he said them again and again, as if the mere repetition could give h...« less