Transcribed from the 1911 Duckworth and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org The Roadmender By Michael Fairless Author of “The Gathering of Brother Hilarius” [Picture: Decorative graphic] * * * * * London Duckworth & Co. 3 Henrietta Street, W.C. 1911 * * * * * This series of papers appeared in _The Pilot_ and is now republished by permission of the Editor. * * * * * A. M. D. G. * * * * * TO MY MOTHER: AND TO EARTH, MY MOTHER, WHOM I LOVE. CONTENTS PAGE THE ROADMENDER 1 OUT OF THE SHADOW 61 AT THE WHITE GATE 119 The Roadmender CHAPTER I I HAVE attained my ideal: I am a roadmender, some say stonebreaker. Both titles are correct, but the one is more pregnant than the other. All day I sit by the roadside on a stretch of grass under a high hedge of saplings and a tangle of traveller’s joy, woodbine, sweetbrier, and late roses. Opposite me is a white gate, seldom used, if one may judge from the trail of honeysuckle growing tranquilly along it: I know now that whenever and wherever I die my soul will pass out through this white gate; and then, thank God, I shall not have need to undo that trail. In our youth we discussed our ideals freely: I wonder how many beside myself have attained, or would understand my attaining. After all, what do we ask of life, here or indeed hereafter, but leave to serve, to live, to commune with our fellowmen and with ourselves; and from the lap of earth to look up into the face of God? All these gifts are mine as I sit by the winding white road and serve the footsteps of my fellows. There is no room in my life for avarice or anxiety; I who serve at the altar live of the altar: I lack nothing but have nothing over; and when the winter of life comes I shall join the company of weary old men who sit on the sunny side of the workhouse wall and wait for the tender mercies of God.