I saw myself going
straight on to the goal I had set for myself as certainly as--well, as
your river ever there goes on to the sea. But now--" He shook his head
sadly.
Auntie Sue laughed. "You foolish boy. My river out there doesn't go
straight at all. It meets all sorts of obstacles, and is beset by all
sorts of conflicting influences, and so is forced to wind and twist and
work its way along; but, the big, splendid thing about the river is that
it keeps going on. It never stops to turn back. No matter what happens
to it, it never stops. It goes on and on and on unto the very end, until
it finally loses itself in the triumph of its own achievement,--the
sea."
"And you think that I can go on?" he asked, doubtingly.
"I know you can go on," she answered with conviction.
"But, why are you so sure?"
"Perhaps," she returned, smiling, "seventy years makes one sure of some
things."
Ho exclaimed passionately: "But you do not know--you cannot know--how
my life, my dreams, my plans, my hopes, my--everything--has been broken
into bits!"
She answered calmly, pointing to Elbow Rock: "Look there, Brian. See
how the river is broken into bits. See how its smoothly flowing, onward
sweep is suddenly changed to wild, chaotic turmoil; how it rages and
fumes and frets and smashes itself against the rocks. But it goes on
just the same.
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