I could sing for joy , Jacob . '' `` Oh , sure , '' assented Jacob cordially . He felt a little dazed . Miss Hannah 's nimble change of base was hard for him to follow , and he had an injured sense of having wasted a great deal of commiseration on her when she did n't need it at all . `` Only I kind of thought , we all thought , you had such plans . '' `` Well , they served their turn , '' interrupted Miss Hannah briskly . `` They amused me and kept me interested till something real would come in their place . If I 'd had to carry them out I dare say they 'd have bothered me a lot . Things are more comfortable as they are . I 'm happy as a bird , Jacob . '' `` Oh , sure , '' said Jacob . He pondered the business deeply all the way back home , but could make nothing of it . `` But I ai n't obliged to , '' he concluded sensibly . `` Miss Hannah 's satisfied and happy and it 's nobody else 's concern . However , I call it a curious thing . '' The Redemption of John Churchill John Churchill walked slowly , not as a man walks who is tired , or content to saunter for the pleasure of it , but as one in no haste to reach his destination through dread of it . The day was well on to late afternoon in mid-spring , and the world was abloom . Before him and behind him wound a road that ran like a red ribbon through fields of lush clovery green . The orchards scattered along it were white and fragrant , giving of their incense to a merry south-west wind ; fence-corner nooks were purple with patches of violets or golden-green with the curly heads of young ferns . The roadside was sprinkled over with the gold dust of dandelions and the pale stars of wild strawberry blossoms .
It seemed a day through which a man should walk lightly and blithely , looking the world and his fellows frankly XXXXX the face , and opening his heart to let the springtime in .
Before If along behind for in of out till to