Transcribed from the 1911 Duckworth and Co. edition by DavidPrice,
The Roadmender
By
Michael Fairless
Authorof
“The Gathering of BrotherHilarius”
London
Duckworth & Co.
3 Henrietta Street, W.C.
1911
This series of papers appeared in The Pilot and is nowrepublished by permission of the Editor.
A. M. D. G.
TO
MY MOTHER:
AND TO EARTH, MY MOTHER,
WHOM I LOVE.
CONTENTS
| PAGE |
The Roadmender | |
Out of the Shadow | |
At the White Gate |
p. 1TheRoadmender
p. 3CHAPTERI
I have attained my ideal: I am aroadmender, some say stonebreaker. Both titles are correct,but the one is more pregnant than the other. All day I sitby the roadside on a stretch of grass under a high hedge ofsaplings and a tangle of traveller’s joy, woodbine,sweetbrier, and late roses. Opposite me is a white gate,seldom used, if one may judge from the trail of honeysucklegrowing tranquilly along it: I know now that whenever andwherever I die my soul will pass out through this white gate; andthen, thank God, I shall not have need to undo that trail.
In our youth we discussed our ideals freely: I wonder how manybeside myself have attained, or would understand myattaining. After all, what do we ask of life, here orindeed hereafter, but leave to serve, to live, to commune withour fellowmen and with ourselves; and from the lap of earth tolook up into the face of God? All these gifts are mine as Isit by the winding white road and serve the footsteps of myfellows. There is no room in my life for avarice oranxiety; I who serve at the altar live of the altar: I lacknothing but have nothing over; and when the winter of life comesI shall join the company of weary old men who sit on the sunnyside of the workhouse wall and wait for the tender mercies ofGod.
Just now it is the summer of things; there is life and musiceverywhere—in the stones themselves, and I live to-daybeating out the rhythmical hammer-song of The Ring. Thereis real physical joy in the rise and swing of the arm, in the jarof a fair stroke, the split and scatter of the quartz: I amlearning to be ambidextrous, for why should Esau sell hisbirthright when there is enou