They were equipped for that struggle, not in a vain, frivolous way, but as good and brave young men should be. A gentle mother had counselled them, a prudent father had advised them, and they had gathered from the sweet things of Nature much of that wisdom before which all knowledge is as nothing. So they were fortified. They went beyond the hills and came into the West. How great and busy was the world,--how great and busy it was here in the West! What a rush and noise and turmoil and seething and surging, and how keenly did the brothers have to watch and struggle for vantage ground. Withal, they prospered; the counsel of the mother, the advice of the father, the wisdom of the grass and flowers and trees, were much to them, and they prospered. Honor and riches came to them, and they were happy. But amid it all, how seldom they thought of the little home among the circling hills where they had learned the first sweet lessons of life! And now they were old and gray. They lived in splendid mansions, and all people paid them honor. One August day a grim messenger stood in Seth's presence and beckoned to him. "Who are you?" cried Seth. "What strange power have you over me that the very sight of you chills my blood and stays the beating of my heart?" Then the messenger threw aside his mask, and Seth saw that he was Death. Seth made no outcry; he knew what the summons meant, and he was content. But he sent for Abner. And when Abner came, Seth was stretched upon his bed, and there was a strange look in his eyes and a flush upon his cheeks, as though a fatal fever had laid hold on him. "You shall not die!" cried Abner, and he threw himself about his brother's neck and wept. But Seth bade Abner cease his outcry. "Sit here by my bedside and talk with me," said he, "and let us speak of the Hampshire hills." A great wonder overcame Abner. With reverence he listened, and as he listened, a sweet peace seemed to steal into his soul. "I am prepared for Death," said Seth, "and I will go with Death this day. Let us talk of our childhood now, for, after all the battle with this great world, it is pleasant to think and speak of our boyhood among the Hampshire hills." "Say on, dear brother," said Abner. "I am thinking of an August day long ago," said Seth, solemnly and softly. "It was _so very_ long ago, and yet it seems only yesterday. We were in the orchard together, under the bellflower-tree, and our little dog--" "Fido," said Abner, remembering it all, as the years came back. "Fido and you and I, under the bellflower-tree," said Seth. "How we had played, and how weary we were, and how cool the grass was, and how sweet was the fragrance of the flowers! Can you remember it, brother?" "Oh, yes," replied Abner, "and I remember how we lay among the clover and looked off at the distant hills and wondered of the world beyond."