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On the farm of my boyhood days, we had an old horse named Bert.  I observed that Bert never seemed enthusiastic when we started out in the morning, for he knew that a day’s hard work lay ahead.  But, believe it or not, in the late afternoon, when by all odds Bert should have been tired, he climbed the old hill back to the barn with amazing alacrity.  I have often reflected that if an old horse knows when he is headed home and joyfully treads his way at sundown, should not we pilgrims of earth, who seek a City, walk liveliest when we near the other side?

One sweetly solemn thought

Comes to me o’er and o’er,

I am nearer home today

Than I’ve ever been before. - Phoebe Cary

Pepper ‘n Salt, Vance Havner, page 109