Alan had been born and bred beside a faraway sea and the love of it was strong in his heart -- so strong that he knew he must go back to it sometime . Meanwhile , the great lake , mimicking the sea in its vast expanse and the storms that often swept over it , was his comfort and solace . As often as he could he stole away to its wild and lonely shore , leaving the snug bounds of cultivated home lands behind him with something like a sense of relief . Down there by the lake was a primitive wilderness where man was as naught and man-made doctrines had no place . There one might walk hand in hand with nature and so come very close to God . Many of Alan 's best sermons were written after he had come home , rapt-eyed , from some long shore tramp where the wilderness had opened its heart to him and the pines had called to him in their soft , sibilant speech . With a half guilty glance at the futile sermon , he took his hat and went out . The sun of the cool spring evening was swinging low over the lake as he turned into the unfrequented , deep-rutted road leading to the shore . It was two miles to the lake , but half way there Alan came to where another road branched off and struck down through the pines in a northeasterly direction . He had sometimes wondered where it led but he had never explored it . Now he had a sudden whim to do so and turned into it . It was even rougher and lonelier than the other ; between the ruts the grasses grew long and thickly ; sometimes the pine boughs met overhead ; again , the trees broke away to reveal wonderful glimpses of gleaming water , purple islets , dark feathery coasts . Still , the road seemed to lead nowhere and Alan was half repenting the impulse which had led him to choose it when he suddenly came out from the shadow of the pines and found himself gazing on a sight which amazed him . Before him was a small peninsula running out into the lake and terminating in a long sandy point . Beyond it was a glorious sweep of sunset water . The peninsula itself seemed barren and sandy , covered for the most part with scrub firs and spruces , through which the narrow road wound on to what was the astonishing ; feature in the landscape -- a grey and weather-beaten house built almost at the extremity of the point and shadowed from the western light by a thick plantation of tall pines behind it . It was the house which puzzled Alan . He had never known there was any house near the lake shore -- had never heard mention made of any ; yet here was one , and one which was evidently occupied , for a slender spiral of smoke was curling upward from it on the chilly spring air . It could not be a fisherman 's dwelling , for it was large and built after a quaint tasteful design . The longer Alan looked at it the more his wonder grew .
The people living here were XXXXX the bounds of his congregation .
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