MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING
Mountain-climbing is rare sport. And it is sport if only one has the
courage to do it. We had gone to the top of Vesuvius on the
funicular railway; but one man decided to make the climb. We forgot
the volcano in our admiration of the climber. Foot by foot he made
his way zigzagging this way and that, slipping, falling, and
struggling till at last he reached the summit. Then, fifty throats
poured forth a lusty cheer to do him honor. He was not good to look
at, for his clothing was crumpled and soiled, the veins stood out on
his neck, his hair was tousled, his face was red and streaming with
sweat; yet, for all that, we cheered him and meant it, too. He
acknowledged our applause in an honest, simple way, and then
disappeared in the crowd. He was not posing as a heroic figure, but
was just an honest mountain-climber who accepted the challenge of the
mountain and won. In our cheering we did just what the world does:
we gave the laurel wreath to the man who wins in a test of courage.
I think "Excelsior" is pretty good stuff in the way of depicting
mountain-climbing, and I always want to cheer that young chap as he
fights his way toward the top. He could have stopped down there in
the valley, where everything was snug and comfortable, but he chose
to climb so as to have a look around. I thought of him one day at
Scheidegg. There we were, nearly a mile and a half above sea-level,
shivering in the midst of ice and snow in mid-July, but we had a look
around that made us glad in spite of the cold. As Virgil says: "It
will be pleasing to remember these things hereafter." I have often
noticed that the old soldiers seem to recall the hardest marches, the
most severe battles, and the greatest privations more vividly than
their every-day experiences.
So the mountain-climbing that I have been doing with my boys and
girls stands out like a cameo in my retrospective view. Sometimes we
looked back toward the valley, and it seemed so peaceful and
beautiful that it caused the mountain before us to seem ominous. At
such times, when courage seemed to be oozing, we needed to reinforce
one another with words of cheer. The steep places seemed perilously
rough at times, and I could hear a stifled sob somewhere in my little
company. At such times I would urge myself along at a more rapid
pace, that I might reach a higher level and call out to them in
heartening tones to hurry on up to our resting-place. We would often
sing a bit in the midst of our resting, and when the sob had been
changed to a laugh I felt that life was well worth while.
As we toiled upward I was ever on the lookout for a patch of sunlight
in the midst of the shadows that it might lure them on. And it never
failed. Like magic that sun-spot always quickened their pace, and
they often hailed it with a shout. They would even race toward that
sunny place, their weariness all gone. When a bird sang we always
stopped to listen; and the song acted upon them as the music of a
band acts upon drooping soldiers. On the next stage of the journey
their eyes sparkled, and their step was more elastic. When one
stumbled and fell, we helped him to his feet and praised his effort,
wholly ignoring the fall. Sometimes one would become discouraged and
would want to drop out of the company and return home. When this
happened, we would gather about him and tell him how good it was to
have him with us, how he helped us on, and how sorry we should be to
have him absent when we reached the top. When he decided to keep on
with us, we gave a mighty cheer and then went whistling on our upward
way.
We constantly vied with one another in discovering chaste bits of
scenery along the way, and we were ever too generous to withhold
praise or to appropriate to ourselves the credit that belonged to
another. If one found the nest of a bird hidden away in the foliage,
we all stopped in admiration. When another discovered a spring
gushing out from beneath the rocks, we all refreshed ourselves with
the limpid water and poured out our thanks to the discoverer. When a
rare flower was found, we took time to examine it minutely till we
all felt joy in the flower and in the finder. To us nothing was ever
small or negligible that any one of our company discovered. If one
started a song we all joined in heartily as if we had been waiting
for that one to lead us in the singing. Thus each one, according to
his gifts and inclinations, became a leader on one or another of the
enterprises connected with our journey.
So, in time, it seemed to us that the big tree came to meet us in
order to give its kindly shade for our comfort; that the bird poured
forth its song as a special gift to us to give us new courage; that
the flower met us at the right time and place to smile its beauty
into our lives; that each stream laughed its way to our feet to
quench our thirst, and to share with us its coolness; that the mossy
bank gave us a special invitation to enjoy its hospitality; that the
cloud had heard our wishes and came to shield us from the sun, and
that the path came forth from among the thickets to guide us on our
way. Because we were winning, all nature seemed to be cheering us on
as the people cheered the man at Vesuvius.
Having reached the summit, we sat together in eloquent silence. We
had toiled, and struggled, and suffered together, and so had learned
to think and feel in unison. Our spirits had become fused in a
common purpose, and we could sit in silence and not be abashed. We
had become honest with our surroundings, honest with one another, and
honest with ourselves, and so could smile at mere conventions and
find joy in one another without words. We had encountered honest
difficulties--rocks, trees, streams, sloughs, tangles, sand, and sun,
and had overcome them by honest effort and so had achieved honesty.
We had met and overcome big things, too, and in doing so had grown
big. No longer did our hearts flutter in the presence of little
things, for we had won poise and serenity.
The fogs had been banished from our minds; our sight had become
clear; our spirits had been enlarged; our courage had been made
strong, and our faith was lifted up. A new horizon opened up before
us that stretched on and on and made us know that life is a big
thing. The sky became our companion with all its myriad stars; the
sea became our neighbor with all the life it holds, and the landscape
became our dooryard, with all its varied beauty and grandeur. The
ships upon the sea and the trains upon the land became our messengers
of service. The wires and the air sped our thoughts abroad and
linked us to the world. We looked straight into the faces of the big
elemental things of life and were not afraid.
When we came back among our own people, they seemed to know that some
change had taken place and loved us all the more. They came to us
for counsel and comfort, paying silent tribute to the wisdom that had
come to us from the mountain. They looked upon us not as superiors,
but as larger equals. We had learned another language, but had not
forgotten theirs. We nestled down in their affections and told them
of our mountain, and they were glad.
* * * * *
And now I sit before the fire and watch the pictures in the
flickering flames. In my reverie I see my boys and girls, companions
in the mountain-climbing, going upon their appointed ways. I see
them healing and comforting the sick, relieving distress, ministering
to the needy, and supplanting darkness with light. I see them in
their efforts to make the world better and more beautiful, and life
more blessed. I see them bringing hope and courage and cheer into
many lives. They are bringing the spirit of the mountain down into
the valley, and men rejoice. Seeing them thus engaged, and hearing
them singing as they go, I can but smile and smile.
End of Project Gutenberg's Reveries of a Schoolmaster, by Francis B. Pearson