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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared with the use of Calera WordScan Plus 2.0 + + + + + +THE BLUE FLOWER + +by HENRY VAN DYKE + + + + +The desire of the moth for the star, +Of the night for the morrow, +The devotion for something afar +From the sphere of our sorrow. +--SHELLEY. + + + + + To + THE DEAR MEMORY OF + BERNARD VAN DYKE + 1887-1897 + AND THE LOVE THAT LIVES + BEYOND THE YEARS + + + +PREFACE + +Sometimes short stories are brought together like parcels in +a basket. Sometimes they grow together like blossoms on a +bush. Then, of course, they really belong to one another, +because they have the same life in them. + +The stories in this book have been growing together for a +long time. It is at least ten years since the first of them, +the story of The Other Wise Man, came to me; and all the +others I knew quite well by heart a good while before I could +find the time, in a hard-worked life, to write them down and +try to make them clear and true to others. It has been a slow +task, because the right word has not always been easy to find, +and I wanted to keep free from conventionality in the thought +and close to nature in the picture. It is enough to cause a +man no little shame to see how small is the fruit of so long +labour. + +And yet, after all, when one wishes to write +about life, especially about that part of it which is inward, +the inwrought experience of living may be of value. And that +is a thing which one cannot get in haste, neither can it be +made to order. Patient waiting belongs to it; and rainy days +belong to it; and the best of it sometimes comes in the doing +of tasks that seem not to amount to much. So in the long run, +I suppose, while delay and failure and interruption may keep +a piece of work very small, yet in the end they enter into the +quality of it and bring it a little nearer to the real thing, +which is always more or less of a secret. + +But the strangest part of it all is the way in which a +single thought, an idea, will live with a man while he works, +and take new forms from year to year, and light up the things +that he sees and hears, and lead his imagination by the hand +into many wonderful and diverse regions. It seems to me that +there am two ways in which you may give unity to a book of +stories. You may stay in one place and write about different +themes, preserving always the colour of the same locality. Or +you may go into different places and use as many of the colours +and shapes of life as you can really see in the light of the same +thought. + +There is such a thought in this book. It is the idea of +the search for inward happiness, which all men who are really +alive are following, along what various paths, and with what +different fortunes! Glimpses of this idea, traces of this +search, I thought that I could see in certain tales that were +in my mind,--tales of times old and new, of lands near and far +away. So I tried to tell them, as best as I could, hoping +that other men, being also seekers, might find some meaning in +them. + +There are only little, broken chapters from the long story +of life. None of them is taken from other books. Only one of +them--the story of Winifried and the Thunder-Oak--has the +slightest wisp of a foundation in fact or legend. Yet I think +they are all true. + +But how to find a name for such a book,--a name that will tell +enough to show the thought and yet not too much to leave it free? +I have borrowed a symbol from the old +German poet and philosopher, Novalis, to stand instead of a +name. The Blue Flower which he used in his romance of +Heinrich von Ofterdingen to symbolise Poetry, the object of +his young hero's quest, I have used here to signify happiness, +the satisfaction of the heart. + +Reader, will you take the book and see if it belongs to +you? Whether it does or not, my wish is that the Blue Flower +may grow in the garden where you work. + +AVALON, +December 1, 1902. + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. The Blue Flower +II. The Source +III. The Mill +IV. Spy Rock +V. Wood-Magic +VI. The Other Wise Man +VII. I Handful of Clay +VIII. The Lost Word +IX. The First Christmas-Tree + + + + +THE BLUE FLOWER + +The parents were abed and sleeping. The clock on the wall +ticked loudly and lazily, as if it had time to spare. Outside +the rattling windows there was a restless, whispering wind. +The room grew light, and dark, and wondrous light again, as +the moon played hide-and-seek through the clouds. The boy, +wide-awake and quiet in his bed, was thinking of the Stranger +and his stories. + +"It was not what he told me about the treasures," he said +to himself, "that was not the thing which filled me with so +strange a longing. I am not greedy for riches. But the Blue +Flower is what I long for. I can think of nothing else. +Never have I felt so before. It seems as if I had been +dreaming until now--or as if I had just slept over into a new +world. + +"Who cared for flowers in the old world where I used to +live? I never heard of anyone whose whole heart was set upon +finding a flower. But now I cannot even tell all that I +feel--sometimes as happy as if I were enchanted. But when the +flower fades from me, when I cannot see it in my mind, then it is +like being very thirsty and all alone. That is what the other +people could not understand. + +"Once upon a time, they say, the animals and the trees and +the flowers used to talk to people. It seems to me, every +minute, as if they were just going to begin again. When I +look at them I can see what they want to say. There must be +a great many words that I do not know; if I knew more of them +perhaps I could understand things better. I used to love to +dance, but now I like better to think after the music." + +Gradually the boy lost himself in sweet fancies, and +suddenly he found himself again, in the charmed land of sleep. +He wandered in far countries, rich and strange; he traversed +wild waters with incredible swiftness; marvellous creatures +appeared and vanished; he lived with all sorts of men, in +battles, in whirling crowds, in lonely huts. He was cast into +prison. He fell into dire distress and want. All experiences +seemed to be sharpened to an edge. He felt them keenly, yet +they did not harm him. He died and came alive again; he loved to +the height of passion, and then was parted forever from his +beloved. At last, toward morning, as the dawn was stealing +near, his soul grew calm, and the pictures showed more clear +and firm. + +It seemed as if he were walking alone through the deep +woods. Seldom the daylight shimmered through the green veil. +Soon he came to a rocky gorge in the mountains. Under the +mossy stones in the bed of the stream, he heard the water +secretly tinkling downward, ever downward, as he climbed +upward. + +The forest grew thinner and lighter. He came to a fair +meadow on the slope of the mountain. Beyond the meadow was a +high cliff, and in the face of the cliff an opening like the +entrance to a path. Dark was the way, but smooth, and he +followed easily on till he came near to a vast cavern from +which a flood of radiance streamed to meet him. + +As he entered he beheld a mighty beam of light which +sprang from the ground, shattering itself against the roof in +countless sparks, falling and flowing all together into a +great pool in the rock. Brighter was the light-beam than molten +gold, but silent in its rise, and silent in its fall. The sacred +stillness of a shrine, a never-broken hush of joy and wonder, +filled the cavern. Cool was the dripping radiance that softly +trickled down the walls, and the light that rippled from them was +pale blue. + +But the pool, as the boy drew near and watched it, +quivered and glanced with the ever-changing colours of a +liquid opal. He dipped his hands in it and wet his lips. It +seemed as if a lively breeze passed through his heart. + +He felt an irresistible desire to bathe in the pool. +Slipping off his clothes he plunged in. It was as if he +bathed in a cloud of sunset. A celestial rapture flowed +through him. The waves of the stream were like a bevy of +nymphs taking shape around him, clinging to him with tender +breasts, as he floated onward, lost in delight, yet keenly +sensitive to every impression. Swiftly the current bore him +out of the pool, into a hollow in the cliff. Here a dimness +of slumber shadowed his eyes, while he felt the pressure of +the loveliest dreams. + +When he awoke again, he was aware of a new fulness of light, +purer and steadier than the first radiance. He found himself +lying on the green turf, in the open air, beside a little +fountain, which sparkled up and melted away in silver spray. +Dark-blue were the rocks that rose at a little distance, veined +with white as if strange words were written upon them. Dark-blue +was the sky, and cloudless. + +All passion had dissolved away from him; every sound was +music; every breath was peace; the rocks were like sentinels +protecting him; the sky was like a cup of blessing full of +tranquil light. + +But what charmed him most, and drew him with resistless +power, was a tall, clear-blue flower, growing beside the +spring, and almost touching him with its broad, glistening +leaves. Round about were many other flowers, of all hues. +Their odours mingled in a perfect chord of fragrance. He saw +nothing but the Blue Flower. + +Long and tenderly he gazed at it, with unspeakable love. +At last he felt that he must go a little nearer to it, when +suddenly it began to move and change. The leaves glistened +more brightly, and drew themselves up closely around the +swiftly growing stalk. The flower bent itself toward him, and +the petals showed a blue, spreading necklace of sapphires, out of +which the lovely face of a girl smiled softly into his eyes. +His sweet astonishment grew with the wondrous transformation. + +All at once he heard his mother's voice calling him, and +awoke in his parents' room, already flooded with the gold of +the morning sun. + +From the German of Novalis. + + + + +THE SOURCE + +I + +In the middle of the land that is called by its inhabitants +Koorma, and by strangers the Land of the Half-forgotten, I was +toiling all day long through heavy sand and grass as hard as +wire. Suddenly, toward evening, I came upon a place where a +gate opened in the wall of mountains, and the plain ran in +through the gate, making a little bay of level country among +the hills. + +Now this bay was not brown and hard and dry, like the +mountains above me, neither was it covered with tawny billows +of sand like the desert along the edge of which I had wearily +coasted. But the surface of it was smooth and green; and as +the winds of twilight breathed across it they were followed by +soft waves of verdure, with silvery turnings of the under +sides of many leaves, like ripples on a quiet harbour. There +were fields of corn, filled with silken rustling, and +vineyards with long rows of trimmed maple-trees standing +each one like an emerald goblet wreathed with vines, and +flower-gardens as bright as if the earth had been embroidered +with threads of blue and scarlet and gold, and olive-orchards +frosted over with delicate and fragrant blossoms. Red-roofed +cottages were scattered everywhere through the sea of +greenery, and in the centre, like a white ship surrounded by +a flock of little boats, rested a small, fair, shining city. + +I wondered greatly how this beauty had come into being on +the border of the desert. Passing through the fields and +gardens and orchards, I found that they were all encircled and +lined with channels full of running water. I followed up one +of the smaller channels until it came to a larger stream, and +as I walked on beside it, still going upward, it guided me +into the midst of the city, where I saw a sweet, merry river +flowing through the main street, with abundance of water and +a very pleasant sound. + +There were houses and shops and lofty palaces and all that +makes a city, but the life and joy of all, and the one thing +that I remember best, was the river. For in the open square at +the edge of the city there were marble pools where the children +might bathe and play; at the corners of the streets and on the +sides of the houses there were fountains for the drawing of +water; at every crossing a stream was turned aside to run out to +the vineyards; and the river was the mother of them all. + +There were but few people in the streets, and none of the +older folk from whom I might ask counsel or a lodging; so I +stood and knocked at the door of a house. It was opened by an +old man, who greeted me with kindness and bade me enter as his +guest. After much courteous entertainment, and when supper +was ended, his friendly manner and something of singular +attractiveness in his countenance led me to tell him of my +strange journeyings in the land of Koorma and in other lands +where I had been seeking the Blue Flower, and to inquire of +him the name and the story of his city and the cause of the +river which made it glad. + +"My son," he answered, "this is the city which was called +Ablis, that is to say, Forsaken. For long ago men lived here, +and the river made their fields fertile, and their dwellings were +full of plenty and peace. But because of many evil things which +have been half-forgotten, the river was turned aside, or else it +was dried up at its source in the high place among the mountains, +so that the water flowed down no more. The channels and the +trenches and the marble pools and the basins beside the houses +remained, but they were empty. So the gardens withered; the +fields were barren; the city was desolate; and in the broken +cisterns there was scanty water. + +"Then there came one from a distant country who was very +sorrowful to see the desolation. He told the people that it +was vain to dig new cisterns and to keep the channels and +trenches clean; for the water had come only from above. The +Source must be found again and reopened. The river would not +flow unless they traced it back to the spring, and visited it +continually, and offered prayers and praises beside it without +ceasing. Then the spring would rise to an outpouring, and the +water would run down plentifully to make the gardens blossom +and the city rejoice. + +"So he went forth to open the fountain; but there were few +that went with him, for he was a poor man of lowly aspect, and +the path upward was steep and rough. But his companions saw +that as he climbed among the rocks, little streams of water +gushed from the places where he trod, and pools began to +gather in the dry river-bed. He went more swiftly than they +could follow him, and at length he passed out of their sight. +A little farther on they came to the rising of the river and +there, beside the overflowing Source, they found their leader +lying dead." + +"That was a strange thing," I cried, "and very pitiful. +Tell me how it came to pass, and what was the meaning of it." + +"I cannot tell the whole of the meaning," replied the old +man, after a little pause, "for it was many years ago. But +this poor man had many enemies in the city, chiefly among the +makers of cisterns, who hated him for his words. I believe +that they went out after him secretly and slew him. But his +followers came back to the city; and as they came the river +began to run down very gently after them. They returned to the +Source day by day, bringing others with them; for they said that +their leader was really alive, though the form of his life had +changed, and that he met them in that high place while they +remembered him and prayed and sang songs of praise. More and +more the people learned to go with them, and the path grew +plainer and easier to find. The more the Source was revisited, +the more abundant it became, and the more it filled the river. +All the channels and the basins were supplied with water, and men +made new channels which were also filled. Some of those who were +diggers of trenches and hewers of cisterns said that it was +their work which had wrought the change. But the wisest and +best among the people knew that it all came from the Source, +and they taught that if it should ever again be forgotten and +left unvisited the river would fail again and desolation +return. So every day, from the gardens and orchards and the +streets of the city, men and women and children have gone up +the mountain-path with singing, to rejoice beside the spring +from which the river flows and to remember the one who opened it. +We call it the River Carita. And the name of the city is no more +Ablis, but Saloma, which is Peace. And the name of him who died +to find the Source for us is so dear that we speak it only when +we pray. + +"But there are many things yet to learn about our city, +and some that seem dark and cast a shadow on my thoughts. +Therefore, my son, I bid you to be my guest, for there is a +room in my house for the stranger; and to-morrow and on the +following days you shall see how life goes with us, and read, +if you can, the secret of the city." + +That night I slept well, as one who has heard a pleasant +tale, with the murmur of running water woven through my +dreams; and the next day I went out early into the streets, +for I was curious to see the manner of the visitation of the +Source. + +Already the people were coming forth and turning their +steps upward in the mountain-path beside the river. Some of +them went alone, swiftly and in silence; others were in groups +of two or three, talking as they went; others were in larger +companies, and they sang together very gladly and sweetly. +But there were many people who remained working +in their fields or in their houses, or stayed talking on the +corners of the streets. Therefore I joined myself to one of +the men who walked alone and asked him why all the people did +not go to the spring, since the life of the city depended upon +it, and whether, perhaps, the way was so long and so hard that +none but the strongest could undertake it. + +"Sir," said he, "I perceive that you are a stranger, for +the way is both short and easy, so that the children are those +who most delight in it; and if a man were in great haste he +could go there and return in a little while. But of those who +remain behind, some are the busy ones who must visit the +fountain at another hour; and some are the careless ones who +take life as it comes and never think where it comes from; and +some are those who do not believe in the Source and will hear +nothing about it." + +"How can that be?" I said; "do they not drink of the +water, and does it not make their fields green?" + +"It is true," he said; "but these men have made wells +close by the river, and they say that these wells fill +themselves; and they have digged channels through their +gardens, and they say that these channels would always have +water in them even though the spring should cease to flow. +Some of them say also that it is an unworthy thing to drink +from a source that another has opened, and that every man +ought to find a new spring for himself; so they spend the hour +of the visitation, and many more, in searching among the +mountains where there is no path." + +While I wondered over this, we kept on in the way. There +was already quite a throng of people all going in the same +direction. And when we came to the Source, which flowed from +an opening in a cliff, almost like a chamber hewn in the rock, +and made a little garden of wild-flowers around it as it fell, +I heard the music of many voices and the beautiful name of him +who had given his life to find the forgotten spring. + +Then we came down again, singly and in groups, following +the river. It seemed already more bright +and full and joyous. As we passed through the gardens I saw +men turning aside to make new channels through fields which +were not yet cultivated. And as we entered the city I saw the +wheels of the mills that ground the corn whirling more +swiftly, and the maidens coming with their pitchers to draw +from the brimming basins at the street corners, and the +children laughing because the marble pools were so full that +they could swim in them. There was plenty of water +everywhere. + +For many weeks I stayed in the city of Saloma, going up +the mountain-path in the morning, and returning to the day of +work and the evening of play. I found friends among the +people of the city, not only among those who walked together +in the visitation of the Source, but also among those who +remained behind, for many of them were kind and generous, +faithful in their work, and very pleasant in their +conversation. + +Yet there was something lacking between me and them. I +came not onto firm ground with them, for all their warmth of +welcome and their pleasant ways. They were by nature of the +race of those who dwell ever in one place; even in their thoughts +they went not far abroad. But I have been ever a seeker, and the +world seems to me made to wander in, rather than to abide in one +corner of it and never see what the rest has in store. Now +this was what the people of Saloma could not understand, and +for this reason I seemed to them always a stranger, an alien, +a guest. The fixed circle of their life was like an invisible +wall, and with the best will in the world they knew not how to +draw me within it. And I, for my part, while I understood +well their wish to rest and be at peace, could not quite +understand the way in which it found fulfilment, nor share the +repose which seemed to them all-sufficient and lasting. In +their gardens I saw ever the same flowers, and none perfect. +At their feasts I tasted ever the same food, and none that +made an end of hunger. In their talk I heard ever the same +words, and none that went to the depth of thought. The very +quietude and fixity of their being perplexed and estranged me. +What to them was permanent, to me was transient. They were +inhabitants: I was a visitor. + +The one in all the city of Saloma with whom was most at home +was Ruamie, the little granddaughter of the old man with whom +I lodged. To her, a girl of thirteen, fair-eyed and full of +joy, the wonted round of life had not yet grown to be a matter of +course. She was quick to feel and answer the newness of every +day that dawned. When a strange bird flew down from the +mountains into the gardens, it was she that saw it and wondered +at it. It was she that walked with me most often in the path to +the Source. She went out with me to the fields in the morning +and almost every day found wild-flowers that were new to me. +At sunset she drew me to happy games of youths and children, +where her fancy was never tired of weaving new turns to the +familiar pastimes. In the dusk she would sit beside me in an +arbour of honeysuckle and question me about the flower that I +was seeking,--for to her I had often spoken of my quest. + +"Is it blue," she asked, "as blue as the speedwell that +grows beside the brook?" + +"Yes, it is as much bluer than the speedwell, as the river +is deeper than the brook." + +"And is it she asked, "as bright as the drops of dew in +the moonlight?" + +"Yes, it is brighter than the drops of dew as the sun is +clearer than the moon." + +"And is it sweet," she asked, "as sweet as the honeysuckle +when the day is warm and still?" + +"Yes, it is as much sweeter than the honeysuckle as the +night is stiller and more sweet than the day." + +"Tell me again," she asked, "when you saw it, and why do +you seek it?" + +"Once I saw it when I was a boy, no older than you. Our +house looked out toward the hills, far away and at sunset +softly blue against the eastern sky. It was the day that we +laid my father to rest in the little burying-ground among the +cedar-trees. There was his father's grave, and his father's +father's grave, and there were the places for my mother and +for my two brothers and for my sister and for me. I counted +them all, when the others had gone back to the house. I paced +up and down alone, measuring the ground; there was +room enough for us all; and in the western corner where a +young elm-tree was growing,--that would be my place, for I was +the youngest. How tall would the elm-tree be then? I had +never thought of it before. It seemed to make me sad and +restless,--wishing for something, I knew not what,--longing to +see the world and to taste happiness before I must sleep +beneath the elm-tree. Then I looked off to the blue hills, +shadowy and dream-like, the boundary of the little world that +I knew. And there, in a cleft between the highest peaks I saw +a wondrous thing: for the place at which I was looking seemed +to come nearer and nearer to me; I saw the trees, the rocks, +the ferns, the white road winding before me; the enfolding +hills unclosed like leaves, and in the heart of them I saw a +Blue Flower, so bright, so beautiful that my eyes filled with +tears as I looked. It was like a face that smiled at me and +promised something. Then I heard a call, like the note of a +trumpet very far away, calling me to come. And as I listened +the flower faded into the dimness of the hills." + +"Did you follow it," asked Ruamie, "and did you go away from +your home? How could you do that?" + +"Yes, Ruamie, when the time came, as soon as I was free, +I set out on my journey, and my home is at the end of the +journey, wherever that may be." + +"And the flower," she asked, "you have seen it again?" + +"Once again, when I was a youth, I saw it. After a long +voyage upon stormy seas, we came into a quiet haven, and there +the friend who was dearest to me, said good-by, for he was +going back to his own country and his father's house, but I +was still journeying onward. So as I stood at the bow of the +ship, sailing out into the wide blue water, far away among the +sparkling waves I saw a little island, with shores of silver +sand and slopes of fairest green, and in the middle of the +island the Blue Flower was growing, wondrous tall and +dazzling, brighter than the sapphire of the sea. Then the +call of the distant trumpet came floating across the water, +and while it was sounding a shimmer of fog swept over the +island and I could see it no more." + +"Was it a real island," asked Ruamie. "Did you ever find +it?" + +"Never; for the ship sailed another way. But once again +I saw the flower; three days before I came to Saloma. It was +on the edge of the desert, close under the shadow of the great +mountains. A vast loneliness was round about me; it seemed as +if I was the only soul living upon earth; and I longed for the +dwellings of men. Then as I woke in the morning I looked up +at the dark ridge of the mountains, and there against the +brightening blue of the sky I saw the Blue Flower standing up +clear and brave. It shone so deep and pure that the sky grew +pale around it. Then the echo of the far-off trumpet drifted +down the hillsides, and the sun rose, and the flower was +melted away in light. So I rose and travelled on till I came +to Saloma." + +"And now," said the child, "you are at home with us. Will +you not stay for a long, long while? You may find the Blue +Flower here. There are many kinds in the fields. I find new +ones every day." + +"I will stay while I can, Ruamie," I answered, +taking her hand in mine as we walked back to the house at +nightfall, "but how long that may be I cannot tell. For with +you I am at home, yet the place where I must abide is the +place where the flower grows, and when the call comes I must +follow it." + +"Yes," said she, looking at me half in doubt, "I think I +understand. But wherever you go I hope you will find the +flower at last." + +In truth there were many things in the city that troubled +me and made me restless, in spite of the sweet comfort of +Ruamie's friendship and the tranquillity of the life in +Saloma. I came to see the meaning of what the old man had +said about the shadow that rested upon his thoughts. For +there were some in the city who said that the hours of +visitation were wasted, and that it would be better to employ +the time in gathering water from the pools that formed among +the mountains in the rainy season, or in sinking wells along +the edge of the desert. Others had newly come to the city and +were teaching that there was no Source, and that the story of +the poor man who reopened it was a fable, and that the hours of +visitation were only hours of dreaming. There were many who +believed them, and many more who said that it did not matter +whether their words were true or false, and that it was of small +moment whether men went to visit the fountain or not, provided +only that they worked in the gardens and kept the marble pools +and basins in repair and opened new canals through the fields, +since there always had been and always would be plenty of water. + +As I listened to these sayings it seemed to me doubtful +what the end of the city would be. And while this doubt was +yet heavy upon me, I heard at midnight the faint calling of +the trumpet, sounding along the crest of the mountains: and as +I went out to look where it came from, I saw, through the +glimmering veil of the milky way, the shape of a blossom of +celestial blue, whose petals seemed to fall and fade as I +looked. So I bade farewell to the old man in whose house I +had learned to love the hour of visitation and the Source and +the name of him who opened it; and I kissed the hands and the +brow of the little Ruamie who had entered my heart, and went +forth sadly from the land of Koorma into other lands, to look for +the Blue Flower. + + + +II + +In the Book of the Voyage without a Harbour is written the +record of the ten years which passed before I came back again +to the city of Saloma. + +It was not easy to find, for I came down through the +mountains, and as I looked from a distant shoulder of the +hills for the little bay full of greenery, it was not to be +seen. There was only a white town shining far off against the +brown cliffs, like a flake of mica in a cleft of the rocks. +Then I slept that night, full of care, on the hillside, and +rising before dawn, came down in the early morning toward the +city. + +The fields were lying parched and yellow under the +sunrise, and great cracks gaped in the earth as if it were +thirsty. The trenches and channels were still there, but +there was little water in them; and through the ragged fringes of +the rusty vineyards I heard, instead of the cheerful songs of the +vintagers, the creaking of dry windlasses and the hoarse throb of +the pumps in sunken wells. The girdle of gardens had shrunk like +a wreath of withered flowers, and all the bright embroidery, of +earth was faded to a sullen gray. + +At the foot of an ancient, leafless olive-tree I saw a +group of people kneeling around a newly opened well. I asked +a man who was digging beside the dusty path what this might +mean. He straightened himself for a moment, wiping the sweat +from his brow, and answered, sullenly, "They are worshipping +the windlass: how else should they bring water into their +fields?" Then he fell furiously to digging again, and I +passed on into the city. + +There was no sound of murmuring streams in the streets, +and down the main bed of the river I saw only a few shallow +puddles, joined together by a slowly trickling thread. Even +these were fenced and guarded so that no one might come near +to them, and there were men going among to the houses with +water-skins on their shoulders, crying "Water! Water to sell!" + +The marble pools in the open square were empty; and at one +of them there was a crowd looking at a man who was being +beaten with rods. A bystander told me that the officers of +the city had ordered him to be punished because he had said +that the pools and the basins and the channels were not all of +pure marble, without a flaw. "For this," said he, "is the +evil doctrine that has come in to take away the glory of our +city, and because of this the water has failed." + +"It is a sad change," I answered, "and doubtless they who +have caused it should suffer more than others. But can you +tell me at what hour and in what manner the people now observe +the visitation of the Source?" + +He looked curiously at me and replied: "I do not +understand you. There is no visitation save the inspection of +the cisterns and the wells which the syndics of the city , +whom we call the Princes of Water, carry on daily at every +hour. What source is this of which you speak?" + +So I went on through the street, where all the passers-by +seemed in haste and wore weary countenances, until I came to +the house where I had lodged. There was a little basin here +against the wall, with a slender stream of water still flowing +into it, and a group of children standing near with their +pitchers, waiting to fill them. + +The door of the house was closed; but when I knocked, it +opened and a maiden came forth. She was pale and sad in +aspect, but a light of joy dawned over the snow of her face, +and I knew by the youth in her eyes that it was Ruamie, who +had walked with me through the vineyards long ago. + +With both hands she welcomed me, saying: "You are +expected. Have you found the Blue Flower?" + +"Not yet," I answered, "but something drew me back to you. +I would know how it fares with you, and I would go again with +you to visit the Source." + +At this her face grew bright, but with a tender, half-sad +brightness. + +"The Source!" she said. "Ah, yes, I was sure that you would +remember it. And this is the hour of the visitation. Come, let +us go up together." + +Then we went alone through the busy and weary multitudes +of the city toward the mountain-path. So forsaken was it and +so covered with stones and overgrown with wire-grass that I +could not have found it but for her guidance. But as we +climbed upward the air grew clearer, and more sweet, and I +questioned her of the things that had come to pass in my +absence. I asked her of the kind old man who had taken me +into his house when I came as a stranger. She said, softly, +"He is dead." + +"And where are the men and women, his friends, who once +thronged this pathway? Are they also dead?" + +"They also are dead." + +"But where are the younger ones who sang here so gladly as +they marched upward? Surely they, are living?" + +"They have forgotten." + +"Where then are the young children whose fathers taught +them this way and bade them remember it. Have they forgotten?" + +"They have forgotten." + +"But why have you alone kept the hour of visitation? Why +have you not turned back with your companions? How have you +walked here solitary day after day?" + +She turned to me with a divine regard, and laying her hand +gently over mine, she said, "I remember always." + +Then I saw a few wild-flowers blossoming beside the path. + +We drew near to the Source, and entered into the chamber +hewn in the rock. She kneeled and bent over the sleeping +spring. She murmured again and again the beautiful name of +him who had died to find it. Her voice repeated the song that +had once been sung by many voices. Her tears fell softly on +the spring, and as they fell it seemed as if the water stirred +and rose to meet her bending face, and when she looked up it +was as if the dew had fallen on a flower. + +We came very slowly down the path along the river Carita, +and rested often beside it, for surely, I thought, the rising +of the spring had sent a`little more water down its dry bed, and +some of it must flow on to the city. So it was almost evening +when we came back to the streets. The people were hurrying to +and fro, for it was the day before the choosing of new Princes of +Water; and there was much dispute about them, and strife over the +building of new cisterns to hold the stores of rain which might +fall in the next year. But none cared for us, as we passed by +like strangers, and we came unnoticed to the door of the house. + +Then a great desire of love and sorrow moved within my +breast, and I said to Ruamie, "You are the life of the city, +for you alone remember. Its secret is in your heart, and your +faithful keeping of the hours of visitation is the only cause +why the river has not failed altogether and the curse of +desolation returned. Let me stay with you, sweet soul of all +the flowers that are dead, and I will cherish you forever. +Together we will visit the Source every day; and we shall turn +the people, by our lives and by our words, back to that which +they have forgotten." + +There was a smile in her eyes so deep that its meaning cannot +be spoken, as she lifted my hand to her lips, and answered, + +"Not so, dear friend, for who can tell whether life or +death will come to the city, whether its people will remember +at last, or whether they will forget forever. Its lot is +mine, for I was born here, and here my life is rooted. But +you are of the Children of the Unquiet Heart, whose feet can +never rest until their task of errors is completed and their +lesson of wandering is learned to the end. Until then go +forth, and do not forget that I shall remember always." + +Behind her quiet voice I heard the silent call that +compels us, and passed down the street as one walking in a +dream. At the place where the path turned aside to the ruined +vineyards I looked back. The low sunset made a circle of +golden rays about her head and a strange twin blossom of +celestial blue seemed to shine in her tranquil eyes. + +Since then I know not what has befallen the city, nor +whether it is still called Saloma, or once more Ablis, which +is Forsaken. But if it lives at all, I know that it is +because there is one there who remembers, and keeps the hour of +visitation, and treads the steep way, and breathes the beautiful +name over the spring, and sometimes I think that long before my +seeking and journeying brings me to the Blue Flower, it will +bloom for Ruamie beside the still waters of the Source. + + + +THE MILL + +I + +How the Young Martimor would Become a Knight +and Assay Great Adventure + +When Sir Lancelot was come out of the Red Launds where he did +many deeds of arms, he rested him long with play and game in +a land that is, called Beausejour. For in that land there are +neither castles nor enchantments, but many fair manors, with +orchards and fields lying about them; and the people that +dwell therein have good cheer continually. + +Of the wars and of the strange quests that are ever afoot +in Northgalis and Lionesse and the Out Isles, they hear +nothing; but are well content to till the earth in summer when +the world is green; and when the autumn changes green to gold +they pitch pavilions among the fruit-trees and the vineyards, +making merry with song and dance while they gather harvest of +corn and apples and grapes; and in the white days of winter for +pastime they have music of divers instruments and the playing of +pleasant games. + +But of the telling of tales in that land there is little +skill, neither do men rightly understand the singing of +ballads and romaunts. For one year there is like another, and +so their life runs away, and they leave the world to God. + +Then Sir Lancelot had great ease for a time in this quiet +land, and often he lay under the apple-trees sleeping, and +again he taught the people new games and feats of skill. For +into what place soever he came he was welcome, though the +inhabitants knew not his name and great renown, nor the famous +deeds that he had done in tournament and battle. Yet for his +own sake, because he was a very gentle knight, fair-spoken and +full of courtesy and a good man of his hands withal, they +doted upon him. + +So he began to tell them tales of many things that have +been done in the world by clean knights and faithful squires. +Of the wars against the Saracens and misbelieving men; of the +discomfiture of the Romans when they came to take truage of King +Arthur; of the strife with the eleven kings and the battle that +was ended but never finished; of the Questing Beast and how King +Pellinore and then Sir Palamides followed it; of Balin that +gave the dolourous stroke unto King Pellam; of Sir Tor that +sought the lady's brachet and by the way overcame two knights +and smote off the head of the outrageous caitiff Abelleus,--of +these and many like matters of pith and moment, full of blood +and honour, told Sir Lancelot, and the people had marvel of +his words. + +Now, among them that listened to him gladly, was a youth +of good blood and breeding, very fair in the face and of great +stature. His name was Martimor. Strong of arm was he, and +his neck was like a pillar. His legs were as tough as beams +of ash-wood, and in his heart was the hunger of noble tatches +and deeds. So when he heard of Sir Lancelot these redoubtable +histories he was taken with desire to assay his strength. And +he besought the knight that they might joust together. + +But in the land of Beausejour there were no arms of war save +such as Sir Lancelot had brought with him. Wherefore they made +shift to fashion a harness out of kitchen gear, with a brazen +platter for a breast-plate, and the cover of the greatest of all +kettles for a shield, and for a helmet a round pot of iron, +whereof the handle stuck down at Martimor's back like a tail. +And for spear he got him a stout young fir-tree, the point +hardened in the fire, and Sir Lancelot lent to him the sword that +he had taken from the false knight that distressed all ladies. + +Thus was Martimor accoutred for the jousting, and when he +had climbed upon his horse, there arose much laughter and +mockage. Sir Lancelot laughed a little, though he was +ever a grave man, and said, "Now must we call this knight, La +Queue de Fer, by reason of the tail at his back." + +But Martimor was half merry and half wroth, and crying +"'Ware!" he dressed his spear beneath his arm. Right so he +rushed upon Sir Lancelot, and so marvellously did his harness +jangle and smite together as he came, that the horse of Sir +Lancelot was frighted and turned aside. Thus the point of +the fir-tree caught him upon the shoulder and came near to +unhorse him. Then Martimor drew rein and shouted: "Ha! ha! +has Iron-Tail done well?" + +"Nobly hast thou done," said Lancelot, laughing, the while +he amended his horse, "but let not the first stroke turn thy +head, else will the tail of thy helmet hang down afore thee +and mar the second stroke!" + +So he kept his horse in hand and guided him warily, making +feint now on this side and now on that, until he was aware +that the youth grew hot with the joy of fighting and sought to +deal with him roughly and bigly. Then he cast aside his spear +and drew sword, and as Martimor walloped toward him, he +lightly swerved, and with one stroke cut in twain the young +fir-tree, so that not above an ell was left in the youth's +hand. + +Then was the youth full of fire, and he also drew sword +and made at Sir Lancelot, lashing heavily as, he would hew +down a tree. But the knight guarded and warded without +distress, until the other breathed hard and was blind with +sweat. Then Lancelot smote him with a mighty stroke upon the +head, but with the flat of his sword, so that Martimor's breath +went clean out of him, and the blood gushed from his mouth, and +he fell over the croup of his horse as he were a man slain. + +Then Sir Lancelot laughed no more, but grieved, for he +weened that he had harmed the youth, and he liked him passing +well. So he ran to him and held him in his arms fast and +tended him. And when the breath came again into his body, +Lancelot was glad, and desired the youth that he would pardon +him of that unequal joust and of the stroke too heavy. + +At this Martimor sat up and took him by the hand. +"Pardon?" he cried. "No talk of pardon between thee and me, +my Lord Lancelot! Thou hast given me such joy of my life as +never I had before. It made me glad to feel thy might. And +now am I delibred and fully concluded that I also will become +a knight, and thou shalt instruct me how and in what land I +shall seek great adventure." + + + +II + +How Martimor was Instructed of Sir Lancelot to +Set Forth Upon His Quest + +So right gladly did Sir Lancelot advise the young Martimor of +all the customs and vows of the noble order of knighthood, and +shew how he might become a well-ruled and a hardy knight to +win good fame and renown. For between these two from the +first there was close brotherhood and affiance, though in +years and in breeding they were so far apart, and this +brotherhood endured until the last, as ye shall see, nor was +the affiance broken. + +Thus willingly learned the youth of his master; being +instructed first in the art and craft to manage and guide a +horse; then to handle the shield and the spear, and both to +cut and to foin with the sword; and last of all in the laws of +honour and courtesy, whereby a man may rule his own spirit and +so obtain grace of God, praise of princes, and favour of fair +ladies. + +"For this I tell thee," said Sir Lancelot, as they sat +together under an apple-tree, "there be many good fighters +that are false knights, breaking faith with man and woman, +envious, lustful and orgulous. In them courage is cruel, and +love is lecherous. And in the end they shall come to shame +and shall be overcome by a simpler knight than themselves; or +else they shall win sorrow and despite by the slaying of +better men than they be; and with their paramours they shall +have weary dole and distress of soul and body; for he that is +false, to him shall none be true, but all things shall be +unhappy about him." + +"But how and if a man be true in heart," said Martimor, +"yet by some enchantment, or evil fortune, he may do an ill +deed and one that is harmful to his lord or to his friend, +even as Balin and his brother Balan slew each the other +unknown?" + +"That is in God's hand," said Lancelot. "Doubtless he may +pardon and assoil all such in their unhappiness, forasmuch as +the secret of it is with him." + +"And how if a man be entangled in love," said Martimor, "Yet +his love be set upon one that is not lawful for him to have? For +either he must deny his love, which is great shame, or else he +must do dishonour to the law. What shall he then do?" + +At this Sir Lancelot was silent, and heaved a great sigh. +Then said he: "Rest assured that this man shall have sorrow +enough. For out of this net he may not escape, save by +falsehood on the one side, or by treachery on the other. +Therefore say I that he shall not assay to escape, but rather +right manfully to bear the bonds with which he is bound, and +to do honour to them."' + +"How may this be?" said Martimor. + +"By clean living," said Lancelot, "and by keeping himself +from wine which heats the blood, and by quests and labours and +combats wherein the fierceness of the heart is spent and +overcome, and by inward joy in the pure worship of his lady, +whereat none may take offence." + +"How then shall a man bear himself in the following of a +quest?" said Martimor. "Shall he set his face ever forward, +and turn not to right, or left, whatever meet him by the way? +Or shall he hold himself ready to answer them that call to him, +and to succour them that ask help of him, and to turn aside from +his path for rescue and good service?" + +"Enough of questions!" said Lancelot. "These are things +whereto each man must answer for himself, and not for other. +True knight taketh counsel of the time. Every day his own +deed. And the winning of a quest is not by haste, nor by hap, +but what needs to be done, that must ye do while ye are in the +way." + +Then because of the love that Sir Lancelot bore to +Martimor he gave him his own armour, and the good spear +wherewith he had unhorsed many knights, and the sword that he +took from Sir Peris de Forest Savage that distressed all +ladies, but his shield he gave not, for therein his own +remembrance was blazoned. So he let make a new shield, and in +the corner was painted a Blue Flower that was nameless, and this +he gave to Martimor, saying: "Thou shalt name it when thou +hast found it, and so shalt thou have both crest and motto." + +"Now am I well beseen," cried Martimor, "and my adventures are +before me. Which way shall I ride, and where shall I find them?" + +"Ride into the wind," said Lancelot, "and what chance +soever it blows thee, thereby do thy best, as it were the +first and the last. Take not thy hand from it until it be +fulfilled. So shalt thou most quickly and worthily achieve +knighthood." + +Then they embraced like brothers; and each bade other keep +him well; and Sir Lancelot in leather jerkin, with naked head, +but with his shield and sword, rode to the south toward +Camelot; and Martimor rode into the wind, westward, over the +hill. + + + +III + +How Martimor Came to the Mill a +Stayed in a Delay + +So by wildsome ways in strange countries and through many +waters and valleys rode Martimor forty days, but adventure met +him none, blow the wind never so fierce or fickle. Neither +dragons, nor giants, nor false knights, nor distressed ladies, +nor fays, nor kings imprisoned could he find. + +"These are ill times for adventure," said he, "the world +is full of meat and sleepy. Now must I ride farther afield +and undertake some ancient, famous quest wherein other knights +have failed and fallen. Either I shall follow the Questing +Beast with Sir Palamides, or I shall find Merlin at the great +stone whereunder the Lady of the Lake enchanted him and +deliver him from that enchantment, or I shall assay the +cleansing of the Forest Perilous, or I shall win the favour of +La Belle Dame Sans Merci, or mayhap I shall adventure the +quest of the Sangreal. One or other of these will I achieve, +or bleed the best blood of my body." Thus pondering and +dreaming he came by the road down a gentle hill with close +woods on either hand; and so into a valley with a swift river +flowing through it; and on the river a Mill. + +So white it stood among the trees, and so merrily whirred +the wheel as the water turned it, and so bright blossomed the +flowers in the garden, that Martimor had joy of the sight, for +it minded him of his own country. "But here is no adventure," +thought he, and made to ride by. + +Even then came a young maid suddenly through the garden +crying and wringing her hands. And when she saw him she cried +him help. At this Martimor alighted quickly and ran into the +garden, where the young maid soon led him to the millpond, +which was great and deep, and made him understand that her +little hound was swept away by the water and was near to +perishing. + +There saw he a red and white brachet, caught by the swift +stream that ran into the race, fast swimming as ever he could +swim, yet by no means able to escape. Then Martimor stripped +off his harness and leaped into the water and did marvellously +to rescue the little hound. But the fierce river dragged his +legs, and buffeted him, and hurtled at him, and drew him down, +as it were an enemy wrestling with him, so that he had much +ado to come where the brachet was, and more to win back again, +with the brachet in his arm, to the dry land. + +Which when he had done he was clean for-spent and fell +upon the ground as a dead man. At this the young maid wept +yet more bitterly than she had wept for her hound, and cried +aloud, "Alas, if so goodly a man should spend his life for my +little brachet!" So she took his head upon her knee and +cherished him and beat the palms of his hands, and the hound +licked his face. And when Martimor opened his eyes he saw the +face of the maid that it was fair as any flower. + +Then was she shamed, and put him gently from her knee, and +began to thank him and to ask with what she might reward him +for the saving of the brachet. + +"A night's lodging and a day's cheer," quoth Martimor. + +"As long as thee liketh," said she, "for my father, the +miller, will return ere sundown, and right gladly will he have +a guest so brave." + +"Longer might I like," said he, "but longer may I not +stay, for I ride in a quest and seek great adventures to +become a knight." + +So they bestowed the horse in the stable, and went into +the Mill; and when the miller was come home they had such good +cheer with eating of venison and pan-cakes, and drinking of +hydromel, and singing of pleasant ballads, that Martimor clean +forgot he was in a delay. And going to his bed in a fair +garret he dreamed of the Maid of the Mill, whose name was +Lirette. + + + +IV + +How the Mill was in Danger and the Delay Endured + + +In the morning Martimor lay late and thought large thoughts of +his quest, and whither it might lead him, and to what honour +it should bring him. As he dreamed thus, suddenly he heard in +the hall below a trampling of feet and a shouting, with the +voice of Lirette crying and shrieking. With that he sprang +out of his bed, and caught up his sword and dagger, leaping +lightly and fiercely down the stair. + +There he saw three foul churls, whereof two strove with +the miller, beating him with great clubs, while the third +would master the Maid and drag her away to do her shame, but +she fought shrewdly. Then Martimor rushed upon the churls, +shouting for joy, and there was a great medley of breaking +chairs and tables and cursing and smiting, and with his sword he +gave horrible strokes. + +One of the knaves that fought with the miller, he smote +upon the shoulder and clave him to the navel. And at the +other he foined fiercely so that the point of the sword went +through his back and stuck fast in the wall. But the third +knave, that was the biggest and the blackest, and strove to +bear away the Maid, left bold of her, and leaped upon Martimor +and caught him by the middle and crushed him so that his ribs +cracked. + +Thus they weltered and wrung together, and now one of them +was above and now the other; and ever as they wallowed +Martimor smote him with his dagger, but there came forth no +blood, only water. + +Then the black churl broke away from him and ran out at +the door of the mill, and Martimor after. So they ran through +the garden to the river, and there the churl sprang into the +water, and swept away raging and foaming. And as he went he +shouted, "Yet will I put thee to the worse, and mar the Mill, +and have the Maid!"' + +Then Martimor cried, "Never while I live shalt +thou mar the Mill or have the Maid, thou foul, black, +misbegotten churl!" So he returned to the Mill, and there the +damsel Lirette made him to understand that these three churls +were long time enemies of the Mill, and sought ever to destroy +it and to do despite to her and her father. One of them was +Ignis, and another was Ventus, and these were the twain that +he had smitten. But the third, that fled down the river (and +he was ever the fiercest and the most outrageous), his name +was Flumen, for he dwelt in the caves of the stream, and was +the master of it before the Mill was built. + +"And now," wept the Maid, "he must have had his will with +me and with the Mill, but for God's mercy, thanked be our Lord +Jesus!" + +"Thank me too," said Mlartimor. + +"So I do," said Lirette, and she kissed him. "Yet am I +heavy at heart and fearful, for my father is sorely mishandled +and his arm is broken, so that he cannot tend the Mill nor +guard it. And Flumen is escaped; surely he will harm us +again. Now I know not, where I shall look for help." + +"Why not here?" said Martimor. + +Then Lirette looked him in the face, smiling a little +sorrily. "But thou ridest in a quest," quoth she, "thou mayst +not stay from thy adventures" + +"A month," said he. + +"Till my father be well?" said she. + +"A month," said he. + +"Till thou hast put Flumen to the worse?" said she. + +"Right willingly would I have to do with that base, +slippery knave again" said he, "but more than a month I may +not stay, for my quest calls me and I must win worship of men +or ever I become a knight." + +So they bound up the miller's wounds and set the Mill in +order. But Martimor had much to do to learn the working of +the Mill; and they were busied with the grinding of wheat and +rye and barley and divers kinds of grain; and the millers +hurts were mended every day; and at night there was merry rest +and good cheer; and Martimor talked with the Maid of the great +adventure that he must find; and thus the delay endured in +pleasant wise. + + + +THE MILL + +V + +Yet More of the Mill, and of the Same Delay, also of the Maid + +Now at the end of the third month, which was November, +Martimor made Lirette to understand that it was high time he +should ride farther to follow his quest. For the miller was +now recovered, and it was long that they had heard and seen +naught of Flumen, and doubtless that black knave was well +routed and dismayed that he would not come again. Lirette +prayed him and desired him that he would tarry yet one week. +But Martimor said, No! for his adventures were before him, and +that he could not be happy save in the doing of great deeds +and the winning of knightly fame. Then he showed her the Blue +Flower in his shield that was nameless, and told her how Sir +Lancelot had said that he must find it, then should he name it +and have both crest and motto. + +"Does it grow in my garden?" said Lirette. + +"I have not seen it," said he, "and now the flowers are +all faded." + +"Perhaps in the month of May?" said she. + +"In that month I will come again," said he, "for by that +time it may fortune that I shall achieve my quest, but now +forth must I fare." + +So there was sad cheer in the Mill that day, and at night +there came a fierce storm with howling wind and plumping rain, +and Martimor slept ill. About the break of day he was wakened +by a great roaring and pounding; then he looked out of window, +and saw the river in flood, with black waves spuming and +raving, like wood beasts, and driving before them great logs +and broken trees. Thus the river hurled and hammered at the +mill-dam so that it trembled, and the logs leaped as they +would spring over it, and the voice of Flumen shouted hoarsely +and hungrily, "Yet will I mar the Mill and have the Maid!" + +Then Martimor ran with the miller out upon the dam, and +they laboured at the gates that held the river back, and +thrust away the logs that were heaped over them, and cut with +axes, and fought with the river. So at last two of the gates +were lifted and one was broken, and the flood ran down +ramping and roaring in great raundon, and as it ran the black +face of Flumen sprang above it, crying, "Yet will I mar both +Mill and Maid." + +"That shalt thou never do," cried Martimor, "by foul or +fair, while the life beats in my body." + +So he came back with the miller into the Mill, and there +was meat ready for them and they ate strongly and with good +heart. "Now," said the miller, "must I mend the gate. But +how it may be done, I know not, for surely this will be great +travail for a man alone." + +"Why alone?" said Martimor. + +"Thou wilt stay, then?" said Lirette. + +"Yea," said he. + +"For another month?" said she. + +"Till the gate be mended," said he. + +But when the gate was mended there came another flood and +brake the second gate. And when that was mended there came +another flood and brake the third gate. So when all three +were mended firm and fast, being bound with iron, still the +grimly river hurled over the dam, and the voice of Flumen +muttered in the dark of winter nights, "Yet will I +mar--mar--mar--yet will I mar Mill and Maid." + +"Oho!" said Martimor, "this is a durable and dogged knave. +Art thou feared of him Lirette?" + +"Not so," said she, "for thou art stronger. But fear have +I of the day when thou ridest forth in thy quest." + +"Well, as to that," said he, "when I have overcome this +false devil Flumen, then will we consider and appoint that +day." + +So the delay continued, and Martimor was both busy and +happy at the Mill, for he liked and loved this damsel well, +and was fain of her company. Moreover the strife with Flumen +was great joy to him. + + + +VI + +How the Month of May came to the Mill, and the Delay was Made Longer + +Now when the month of May came to the Mill it brought a plenty +of sweet flowers, and Lirette wrought in the garden. With +her, when the day was spent and the sun rested upon the edge +of the hill, went Martimor, and she showed him all her flowers +that were blue. But none of them was like the flower on his +shield. + +"Is it this?" she cried, giving him a violet. "Too dark," +said he. + +"Then here it is," she said, plucking a posy of +forget-me-not. + +"Too light," said he. + +"Surely this is it," and she brought him a spray of +blue-bells. + +"Too slender," said he, "and well I ween that I may not +find that flower, till I ride farther in my quest and achieve +great adventure." + +Then was the Maid cast down, and Martimor was fain to +comfort her. + +So while they walked thus in the garden, the days were +fair and still, and the river ran lowly and slowly, as it were +full of gentleness, and Flumen had amended him of his evil +ways. But full of craft and guile was that false foe. For +now that the gates were firm and strong, he found a way down +through the corner of the dam, where a water-rat had burrowed, +and there the water went seeping and creeping, gnawing ever at +the hidden breach. Presently in the night came a mizzling rain, +and far among the hills a cloud brake open, and the mill-pond +flowed over and under, and the dam crumbled away, and the Mill +shook, and the whole river ran roaring through the garden. + +Then was Martimor wonderly wroth, because the river had +blotted out the Maid's flowers. "And one day," she cried, +holding fast to him and trembling, "one day Flumen will have +me, when thou art gone." + +"Not so," said he, "by the faith of my body that foul +fiend shall never have thee. I will bind him, I will compel +him, or die in the deed." + +So he went forth, upward along the river, till he came to +a strait Place among the hills. There was a great rock full +of caves and hollows, and there the water whirled and burbled +in furious wise. "Here," thought he, "is the hold of the +knave Flumen, and if I may cut through above this rock and +make a dyke with a gate in it, to let down the water another +way when the floods come, so shall I spoil him of his craft +and put him to the worse." + +Then he toiled day and night to make the dyke, and ever by +night Flumen came and strove with him, and did his power to +cast him down and strangle him. But Martimor stood fast and +drave him back. + +And at last, as they wrestled and whapped together, they +fell headlong in the stream. + +"Ho-o!" shouted Flumen, "now will I drown thee, and mar +the Mill and the Maid." + +But Martimor gripped him by the neck and thrust his head +betwixt the leaves of the gate and shut them fast, so that his +eyes stood out like gobbets of foam, and his black tongue hung +from his mouth like a water-weed. + +"Now shalt thou swear never to mar Mill nor Maid, but +meekly to serve them," cried Martimor. Then Flumen sware by +wind and wave, by storm and stream, by rain and river, by pond +and pool, by flood and fountain, by dyke and dam. + +"These be changeable things," said Martimor, swear by the +Name of God." + +So he sware, and even as the Name passed his teeth, the +gobbets of foam floated forth from the gate, and the water-weed +writhed away with the stream, and the river flowed fair and +softly, with a sound like singing. + +Then Martimor came back to the Mill, and told how Flumen +was overcome and made to swear a pact. Thus their hearts +waxed light and jolly, and they kept that day as it were a +love-day. + + + +VII + +How Martimor Bled for a Lady and Lived for a Maid, +and how His Great Adventure Ended and Began at the Mill + +Now leave we of the Mill and Martimor and the Maid, and let us +speak of a certain Lady, passing tall and fair and young. +This was the Lady Beauvivante, that was daughter to King +Pellinore. And three false knights took her by craft from her +father's court and led her away to work their will on her. +But she escaped from them as they slept by a well, and came +riding on a white palfrey, over hill and dale, as fast as ever +she could drive. + +Thus she came to the Mill, and her palfrey was spent, and +there she took refuge, beseeching Martimor that he would hide +her, and defend her from those caitiff knights that must soon +follow. + +"Of hiding," said he, "will I hear naught, but of +defending am I full fain. For this have I waited." + +Then he made ready his horse and his armour, and took both +spear and sword, and stood forth in the bridge. Now this +bridge was strait, so that none could pass there but singly, +and that not till Martimor yielded or was beaten down. + +Then came the three knights that followed the Lady, riding +fiercely down the hill. And when they came about ten +spear-lengths from the bridge, they halted, and stood still as +it had been a plump of wood. One rode in black, and one rode +in yellow, and the third rode in black and yellow. So they +cried Martimor that he should give them passage, for they +followed a quest. + +"Passage takes, who passage makes!" cried Martimor. +"Right well I know your quest, and it is a foul one." + +Then the knight in black rode at him lightly, +but Martimor encountered him with the spear and smote him +backward from his horse, that his head struck the coping of +the bridge and brake his neck. Then came the knight in +yellow, walloping heavily, and him the spear pierced through +the midst of the body and burst in three pieces: so he fell on +his back and the life went out of him, but the spear stuck +fast and stood up from his breast as a stake. + +Then the knight in black and yellow, that was as big as +both his brethren, gave a terrible shout, and rode at Martimor +like a wood lion. But he fended with his shield that the +spear went aside, and they clapped together like thunder, and +both horses were overthrown. And lightly they avoided their +horses and rushed together, tracing, rasing, and foining. +Such strokes they gave that great pieces were clipped away +from their hauberks, and their helms, and they staggered to +and fro like drunken men. Then they hurtled together like +rams and each battered other the wind out of his body. So +they sat either on one side of the bridge, to take their +breath, glaring the one at the other as two owls. Then they +stepped together and fought freshly, smiting and thrusting, +ramping and reeling, panting, snorting, and scattering blood, for +the space of two hours. So the knight in black and yellow, +because he was heavier, drave Martimor backward step by step till +he came to the crown of the bridge, and there fell grovelling. +At this the Lady Beauvivante shrieked and wailed, but the damsel +Lirette cried loudly, "Up! Martimor, strike again!" + +Then the courage came into his body, and with a great +might he abraid upon his feet, and smote the black and yellow +knight upon the helm by an overstroke so fierce that the sword +sheared away the third part of his head, as it had been a +rotten cheese. So he lay upon the bridge, and the blood ran +out of him. And Martimor smote off the rest of his head +quite, and cast it into the river. Likewise did he with the +other twain that lay dead beyond the bridge. And he cried to +Flumen, "Hide me these black eggs that hatched evil thoughts." +So the river bore them away. + +Then Martimor came into the Mill, all for-bled; +"Now are ye free, lady," he cried, and fell down in a swoon. +Then the Lady and the Maid wept full sore and made great dole +and unlaced his helm; and Lirette cherished him tenderly to +recover his life. + +So while they were thus busied and distressed, came Sir +Lancelot with a great company of knights and squires riding +for to rescue the princess. When he came to the bridge all +bedashed with blood, and the bodies of the knights headless, +"Now, by my lady's name," said he, "here has been good +fighting, and those three caitiffs are slain! By whose hand +I wonder?" + +So he came into the Mill, and there he found Martimor +recovered of his swoon, and had marvellous joy of him, when he +heard how he had wrought. + +"Now are thou proven worthy of the noble order of +knighthood," said Lancelot, and forthwith he dubbed him +knight. + +Then he said that Sir Martimor should ride with him to the +court of King Pellinore, to receive a castle and a fair lady +to wife, for doubtless the King would deny him nothing to reward +the rescue of his daughter. + +But Martimor stood in a muse; then said he, "May a knight +have his free will and choice of castles, where he will +abide?" + +"Within the law," said Lancelot, "and by the King's word +he may." + +"Then choose I the Mill," said Martimor, "for here will I +dwell." + +"Freely spoken," said Lancelot, laughing, "so art thou Sir +Martimor of the Mill; no doubt the King will confirm it. And +now what sayest thou of ladies?" + +"May a knight have his free will and choice here also?" +said he. + +"According to his fortune," said Lancelot, "and by the +lady's favour, he may." + +"Well, then," said Sir Martimor, taking Lirette by the +hand, "this Maid is to me liefer to have and to wield as my +wife than any dame or princess that is christened." + +"What, brother," said Sir Lancelot, "is the wind in that +quarter? And will the Maid have thee?" + +"I will well," said Lirette. + +"Now are you well provided," said Sir Lancelot, "with +knighthood, and a castle, and a lady. Lacks but a motto and +a name for the Blue Flower in thy shield." + +"He that names it shall never find it," said Sir Martimor, +"and he that finds it needs no name." + +So Lirette rejoiced Sir Martimor and loved together during +their life-days; and this is the end and the beginning of the +Story of the Mill. + + + + + +SPY ROCK + +I + +It must have been near Sutherland's Pond that I lost the way. +For there the deserted road which I had been following through +the Highlands ran out upon a meadow all abloom with purple +loose-strife and golden Saint-John's wort. The declining sun +cast a glory over the lonely field, and far in the corner, +nigh to the woods, there was a touch of the celestial colour: +blue of the sky seen between white clouds: blue of the sea +shimmering through faint drifts of silver mist. The hope of +finding that hue of distance and mystery embodied in a living +form, the old hope of discovering the Blue Flower rose again +in my heart. But it was only for a moment, for when I came +nearer I saw that the colour which had caught my eye came from +a multitude of closed gentians--the blossoms which never open +into perfection--growing so closely together that their +blended promise had seemed like a single flower. + +So I harked back again, slanting across the meadow, to +find the road. But it had vanished. Wandering among the +alders and clumps of gray birches, here and there I found a +track that looked like it; but as I tried each one, it grew +more faint and uncertain and at last came to nothing in a +thicket or a marsh. While I was thus beating about the bush +the sun dropped below the western rim of hills. It was +necessary to make the most of the lingering light, if I did +not wish to be benighted in the woods. The little village of +Canterbury, which was the goal of my day's march, must lie +about to the north just beyond the edge of the mountain, and +in that direction I turned, pushing forward as rapidly as +possible through the undergrowth. + +Presently I came into a region where the trees were larger +and the travelling was easier. It was not a primeval forest, +but a second growth of chestnuts and poplars and maples. +Through the woods there ran at intervals long lines of broken +rock, covered with moss--the ruins, evidently, of ancient +stone fences. The land must have been, in former days, a +farm, inhabited, cultivated, the home of human +hopes and desires and labours, but now relapsed into solitude +and wilderness. What could the life have been among these +rugged and inhospitable Highlands, on this niggard and +reluctant soil? Where was the house that once sheltered the +tillers of this rude corner of the earth? + +Here, perhaps, in the little clearing into which I now +emerged. A couple of decrepit apple-trees grew on the edge of +it, and dropped their scanty and gnarled fruit to feast the +squirrels. A little farther on, a straggling clump of ancient +lilacs, a bewildered old bush of sweetbrier, the dark-green +leaves of a cluster of tiger-lilies, long past blooming, +marked the grave of the garden. And here, above this square +hollow in the earth, with the remains of a crumbling chimney +standing sentinel beside it, here the house must have stood. +What joys, what sorrows once centred around this cold and +desolate hearth-stone? What children went forth like birds +from this dismantled nest into the wide world? What guests +found refuge---- + +"Take care! stand back! There is a rattlesnake in the old +cellar." + +The voice, even more than the words, startled me. I drew +away suddenly, and saw, behind the ruins of the chimney, a man +of an aspect so striking that to this day his face and figure +are as vivid in my memory as if it were but yesterday that I +had met him. + +He was dressed in black, the coat of a somewhat formal +cut, a long cravat loosely knotted in his rolling collar. His +head was bare, and the coal-black hair, thick and waving, was +in some disorder. His face, smooth and pale, with high +forehead, straight nose, and thin, sensitive lips--was it old +or young? Handsome it certainly was, the face of a man of +mark, a man of power. Yet there was something strange and +wild about it. His dark eyes, with the fine wrinkles about +them, had a look of unspeakable remoteness, and at the same +time an intensity that seemed to pierce me through and +through. It was as if he saw me in a dream, yet measured me, +weighed me with a scrutiny as exact as it was at bottom +indifferent. + +But his lips were smiling, and there was no fault to be +found, at least, with his manner. He had risen from the broad +stone where he had evidently been sitting with his back against +the chimney, and came forward to greet me. + +"You will pardon the abruptness of my greeting? I thought +you might not care to make acquaintance with the present +tenant of this old house--at least not without an +introduction." + +"Certainly not," I answered, "you have done me a real +kindness, which is better than the outward form of courtesy. +But how is it that you stay at such close quarters with this +unpleasant tenant? Have you no fear of him?" + +"Not the least in the world," he answered, laughing. "I +know the snakes too well, better than they know themselves. +It is not likely that even an old serpent with thirteen +rattles, like this one, could harm me. I know his ways. +Before he could strike I should be out of reach." + +"Well," said I, "it is a grim thought, at all events, that +this house, once a cheerful home, no doubt, should have fallen +at last to be the dwelling of such a vile creature." + +"Fallen!" he exclaimed. Then he repeated the word with a +questioning accent--"fallen? Are you sure of that? The snake, +in his way, may be quite as honest as the people who lived here +before him, and not much more harmful. The farmer was a miser +who robbed his mother, quarrelled with his brother, and starved +his wife. What she lacked in food, she made up in drink, when +she could. One of the children, a girl, was a cripple, lamed by +her mother in a fit of rage. The two boys were ne'er-do-weels +who ran away from home as soon as they were old enough. One of +them is serving a life-sentence in the State prison for +manslaughter. When the house burned down some thirty years ago, +the woman escaped. The man's body was found with the head +crushed in--perhaps by a falling timber. The family of our +friend the rattlesnake could hardly surpass that record, I think. + +But why should we blame them--any of them? They were only acting +out their natures. To one who can see and understand, it is all +perfectly simple, and interesting--immensely interesting." + +It is impossible to describe the quiet eagerness, the cool +glow of fervour with which he narrated this little history. It +was the manner of the triumphant pathologist who lays bare some +hidden seat of disease. It surprised and repelled me a little; +yet it attracted me, too, for I could see how evidently he +counted on my comprehension and sympathy. + +"Well," said I, "it is a pitiful history. Rural life is +not all peace and innocence. But how came you to know the +story?" + +"I? Oh, I make it my business to know a little of +everything, and as much as possible of human life, not +excepting the petty chronicles of the rustics around me. It +is my chief pleasure. I earn my living by teaching boys. I +find my satisfaction in studying men. But you are on a +journey, sir, and night is falling. I must not detain you. +Or perhaps you will allow me to forward you a little by +serving as a guide. Which way were you going when you turned +aside to look at this dismantled shrine?" + +"To Canterbury," I answered, "to find a night's, or a +month's, lodging at the inn. My journey is a ramble, it has +neither terminus nor time-table." + +"Then let me commend to you something vastly better than +the tender mercies of the Canterbury Inn. Come with me to the +school on Hilltop, where I am a teacher. It is a thousand +feet above the village--purer air, finer view, and pleasanter +company. There is plenty of room in the house, for it is +vacation-time. Master Isaac Ward is always glad to entertain +guests." + +There was something so sudden and unconventional about the +invitation that I was reluctant to accept it; but he gave it +naturally and pressed it with earnest courtesy, assuring me +that it was in accordance with Master Ward's custom, that he +would be much disappointed to lose the chance of talking with +an interesting traveller, that he would far rather let me pay +him for my lodging than have me go by, and so on--so that at +last I consented. + +Three minutes' walking from the deserted clearing brought +us into a travelled road. It circled the breast of the +mountain, and as we stepped along it in the dusk I learned +something of my companion. His name was Edward Keene; he +taught Latin and Greek in the Hilltop School; he had studied for +the ministry, but had given it up, I gathered, on account of a +certain loss of interest, or rather a diversion of interest in +another direction. He spoke of himself with an impersonal +candour. + +"Preachers must be always trying to persuade men," he +said. "But what I care about is to know men. I don't care +what they do. Certainly I have no wish to interfere with them +in their doings, for I doubt whether anyone can really change +them. Each tree bears its own fruit, you see, and by their +fruits you know them." + +"What do you say to grafting? That changes the fruit, +surely?" + +"Yes, but a grafted tree is not really one tree. It is +two trees growing together. There is a double life in it, and +the second life, the added life, dominates the other. The +stock becomes a kind of animate soil for the graft to grow +in." + +Presently the road dipped into a little valley and rose +again, breasting the slope of a wooded hill which thrust +itself out from the steeper flank of the mountain-range. Down +the hill-side a song floated to meet us--that most noble lyric of +old Robert Herrick: + + Bid me to live, and I will live + Thy Protestant to be; + Or bid me love, and I will give + A loving heart to thee. + + +It was a girl's voice, fresh and clear, with a note of +tenderness in it that thrilled me. Keene's pace quickened. +And soon the singer came in sight, stepping lightly down the +road, a shape of slender whiteness on the background of +gathering night. She was beautiful even in that dim light, +with brown eyes and hair, and a face that seemed to breathe +purity and trust. Yet there was a trace of anxiety in it, or +so I fancied, that gave it an appealing charm. + +"You have come at last, Edward," she cried, running +forward and putting her hand in his. "It is late. You have +been out all day; I began to be afraid." + +"Not too late," he answered; "there was no need for fear, +Dorothy. I am not alone, you see." And keeping her hand, he +introduced me to the daughter of Master Ward. + +It was easy to guess the relation between these two young +people who walked beside me in the dusk. It needed no words +to say that they were lovers. Yet it would have needed many +words to define the sense, that came to me gradually, of +something singular in the tie that bound them together. On +his part there was a certain tone of half-playful +condescension toward her such as one might use to a lovely +child, which seemed to match but ill with her unconscious +attitude of watchful care, of tender solicitude for +him--almost like the manner of an elder sister. Lovers they +surely were, and acknowledged lovers, for their frankness of +demeanour sought no concealment; but I felt that there must be + + A little rift within the lute, + +though neither of them might know it. Each one's thought of +the other was different from the other's thought of self. +There could not be a complete understanding, a perfect accord. +What was the secret, of which each knew half, but not the other +half? + +Thus, with steps that kept time, but with thoughts how +wide apart, we came to the door of the school. A warm flood +of light poured out to greet us. The Master, an elderly, +placid, comfortable man, gave me just the welcome that had +been promised in his name. The supper was waiting, and the +evening passed in such happy cheer that the bewilderments and +misgivings of the twilight melted away, and at bedtime I +dropped into the nest of sleep as one who has found a shelter +among friends. + + + +II + + +The Hilltop School stood on a blessed site. Lifted high above +the village, it held the crest of the last gentle wave of the +mountains that filled the south with crowding billows, ragged +and tumultuous. Northward, the great plain lay at our feet, +smiling in the sun; meadows and groves, yellow fields of +harvest and green orchards, white roads and clustering towns, +with here and there a little city on the bank of the mighty +river which curved in a vast line of beauty toward the blue +Catskill Range, fifty miles away. Lines of filmy smoke, like +vanishing footprints in the air, marked the passage of railway +trains across the landscape--their swift flight reduced by +distance to a leisurely transition. The bright surface of the +stream was furrowed by a hundred vessels; tiny rowboats creeping +from shore to shore; knots of black barges following the lead of +puffing tugs; sloops with languid motion tacking against the +tide; white steamboats, like huge toy-houses, crowded with +pygmy inhabitants, moving smoothly on their way to the great +city, and disappearing suddenly as they turned into the +narrows between Storm-King and the Fishkill Mountains. Down +there was life, incessant, varied, restless, intricate, +many-coloured--down there was history, the highway of ancient +voyagers since the days of Hendrik Hudson, the hunting-ground +of Indian tribes, the scenes of massacre and battle, the last +camp of the Army of the Revolution, the Head-quarters of +Washington--down there were the homes of legend and +poetry, the dreamlike hills of Rip van Winkle's sleep, the +cliffs and caves haunted by the Culprit Fay, the solitudes +traversed by the Spy--all outspread before us, and visible as +in a Claude Lorraine glass, in the tranquil lucidity of +distance. And here, on the hilltop, was our own life; secluded, +yet never separated from the other life; looking down +upon it, yet woven of the same stuff; peaceful in +circumstance, yet ever busy with its own tasks, and holding in +its quiet heart all the elements of joy and sorrow and tragic +consequence. + +The Master was a man of most unworldly wisdom. In his +youth a great traveller, he had brought home many +observations, a few views, and at least one theory. To him +the school was the most important of human institutions--more +vital even than the home, because it held the first real +experience of social contact, of free intercourse with other +minds and lives coming from different households and embodying +different strains of blood. "My school," said he, "is the +world in miniature. If I can teach these boys to study and +play together freely and with fairness to one another, I shall +make men fit to live and work together in society. What they +learn matters less than how they learn it. The great thing is +the bringing out of individual character so that it will find its +place in social harmony." + +Yet never man knew less of character in the concrete than +Master Ward. To him each person represented a type--the +scientific, the practical, the poetic. From each one he +expected, and in each one he found, to a certain degree, the +fruit of the marked quality, the obvious, the characteristic. +But of the deeper character, made up of a hundred traits, +coloured and conditioned most vitally by something secret and +in itself apparently of slight importance, he was placidly +unconscious. Classes he knew. Individuals escaped him. Yet +he was a most companionable man, a social solitary, a friendly +hermit. + +His daughter Dorothy seemed to me even more fair and +appealing by daylight than when I first saw her in the dusk. +There was a pure brightness in her brown eyes, a gentle +dignity in her look and bearing, a soft cadence of expectant joy +in her voice. She was womanly in every tone and motion, yet by +no means weak or uncertain. Mistress of herself and of the +house, she ruled her kingdom without an effort. Busied with many +little cares, she bore them lightly. Her spirit overflowed into +the lives around her with delicate sympathy and merry cheer. But +it was in music that her nature found its widest outlet. In the +lengthening evenings of late August she would play from Schumann, +or Chopin, or Grieg, interpreting the vague feelings of +gladness or grief which lie too deep for words. Ballads she +loved, quaint old English and Scotch airs, folk-songs of +Germany, "Come-all-ye's" of Ireland, Canadian chansons. She +sang--not like an angel, but like a woman. + +Of the two under-masters in the school, Edward Keene was +the elder. The younger, John Graham, was his opposite in +every respect. Sturdy, fair-haired, plain in the face, he was +essentially an every-day man, devoted to out-of-door sports, +a hard worker, a good player, and a sound sleeper. He came +back to the school, from a fishing-excursion, a few days after my +arrival. I liked the way in which he told of his adventures, +with a little frank boasting, enough to season but not to spoil +the story. I liked the way in which he took hold of his work, +helping to get the school in readiness for the return of the boys +in the middle of September. I liked, more than all, his attitude +to Dorothy Ward. He loved her, clearly enough. When she was in +the room the other people were only accidents to him. Yet there +was nothing of the disappointed suitor in his bearing. He was +cheerful, natural, accepting the situation, giving her the +best he had to give, and gladly taking from her the frank +reliance, the ready comradeship which she bestowed upon him. +If he envied Keene--and how could he help it--at least he +never showed a touch of jealousy or rivalry. The engagement +was a fact which he took into account as something not to be +changed or questioned. Keene was so much more brilliant, +interesting, attractive. He answered so much more fully to +the poetic side of Dorothy's nature. How could she help +preferring him? + +Thus the three actors in the drama stood, when +I became an inmate of Hilltop, and accepted the master's +invitation to undertake some of the minor classes in English, +and stay on at the school indefinitely. It was my wish to see +the little play--a pleasant comedy, I hoped--move forward to +a happy ending. And yet--what was it that disturbed me now +and then with forebodings? Something, doubtless, in the +character of Keene, for he was the dominant personality. The +key of the situation lay with him. He was the centre of +interest. Yet he was the one who seemed not perfectly in +harmony, not quite at home, as if something beckoned and urged +him away. + +"I am glad you are to stay," said he, "yet I wonder at it. +You will find the life narrow, after all your travels. +Ulysses at Ithaca--you will surely be restless to see the +world again." + +"If you find the life broad enough, I ought not to be +cramped in it." + +"Ah, but I have compensations." + +"One you certainly have," said I, thinking of Dorothy, +"and that one is enough to make a man happy anywhere." + +"Yes, yes," he answered, quickly, "but that is not what I +mean. It is not there that I look for a wider life. Love--do +you think that love broadens a man's outlook? To me it seems +to make him narrower--happier, perhaps, within his own little +circle--but distinctly narrower. Knowledge is the only thing +that broadens life, sets it free from the tyranny of the +parish, fills it with the sense of power. And love is the +opposite of knowledge. Love is a kind of an illusion--a happy +illusion, that is what love is. Don't you see that?" + +"See it?" I cried. "I don't know what you mean. Do you +mean that you don't really care for Dorothy Ward? Do you mean +that what you have won in her is an illusion? If so, you are +as wrong as a man can be." + +"No, no," he answered, eagerly, "you know I don't mean +that. I could not live without her. But love is not the only +reality. There is something else, something broader, +something----" + +"Come away," I said, "come away, man! You are talking +nonsense, treason. You are not true to yourself. You've been +working too hard at your books. There's a maggot in your brain. +Come out for a long walk." + +That indeed was what he liked best. He was a magnificent +walker, easy, steady, unwearying. He knew every road and lane +in the valleys, every footpath and trail among the mountains. +But he cared little for walking in company; one companion was +the most that he could abide. And, strange to say, it was not +Dorothy whom he chose for his most frequent comrade. With her +he would saunter down the Black Brook path, or climb slowly to +the first ridge of Storm-King. But with me he pushed out to +the farthest pinnacle that overhangs the river, and down +through the Lonely Heart gorge, and over the pass of the White +Horse, and up to the peak of Cro' Nest, and across the rugged +summit of Black Rock. At every wider outlook a strange +exhilaration seemed to come upon him. His spirit glowed like +a live coal in the wind. He overflowed with brilliant talk +and curious stories of the villages and scattered houses that +we could see from our eyries. + +But it was not with me that he made his longest expeditions. +They were solitary. Early on Saturday he would leave the rest of +us, with some slight excuse, and start away on the mountain-road, +to be gone all day. Sometimes he would not return till long +after dark. Then I could see the anxious look deepen on +Dorothy's face, and she would slip away down the road to meet +him. But he always came back in good spirits, talkable and +charming. It was the next day that the reaction came. The black +fit took him. He was silent, moody, bitter. Holding himself +aloof, yet never giving utterance to any irritation, he seemed +half-unconsciously to resent the claims of love and friendship, +as if they irked him. There was a look in his eyes as if he +measured us, weighed us, analysed us all as strangers. + +Yes, even Dorothy. I have seen her go to meet him with a +flower in her hand that she had plucked for him, and turn away +with her lips trembling, too proud to say a word, dropping the +flower on the grass. John Graham saw it, too. He waited till +she was gone; then he picked up the flower and kept it. + +There was nothing to take offence at, nothing on which one +could lay a finger; only these singular alternations of mood +which made Keene now the most delightful of friends, now an +intimate stranger in the circle. The change was inexplicable. +But certainly it seemed to have some connection, as cause or +consequence, with his long, lonely walks. + +Once, when he was absent, we spoke of his remarkable +fluctuations of spirit. + +The master labelled him. "He is an idealist, a dreamer. +They are always uncertain." + +I blamed him. "He gives way too much to his moods. He +lacks self-control. He is in danger of spoiling a fine +nature." + +I looked at Dorothy. She defended him. "Why should he be +always the same? He is too great for that. His thoughts make +him restless, and sometimes he is tired. Surely you wouldn't +have him act what he don't feel. Why do you want him to do +that?" + +"I don't know," said Graham, with a short laugh. "None of +us know. But what we all want just now is music. Dorothy, will +you sing a little for us?" + +So she sang "The Coulin," and "The Days o' the Kerry +Dancin'," and "The Hawthorn Tree," and "The Green Woods of +Truigha," and "Flowers o' the Forest," and "A la claire +Fontaine," until the twilight was filled with peace. + +The boys came back to the school. The wheels of routine +began to turn again, slowly and with a little friction at +first, then smoothly and swiftly as if they had never stopped. +Summer reddened into autumn; autumn bronzed into fall. The +maples and poplars were bare. The oaks alone kept their +rusted crimson glory, and the cloaks of spruce and hemlock on +the shoulders of the hills grew dark with wintry foliage. +Keene's transitions of mood became more frequent and more +extreme. The gulf of isolation that divided him from us when +the black days came seemed wider and more unfathomable. +Dorothy and John Graham were thrown more constantly together. +Keene appeared to encourage their companionship. He watched +them curiously, sometimes, not as if he were jealous, but rather +as if he were interested in some delicate experiment. At other +times he would be singularly indifferent to everything, remote, +abstracted, forgetful. + +Dorothy's birthday, which fell in mid-October, was kept as +a holiday. In the morning everyone had some little birthday +gift for her, except Keene. He had forgotten the birthday +entirely. The shadow of disappointment that quenched the +brightness of her face was pitiful. Even he could not be +blind to it. He flushed as if surprised, and hesitated a +moment, evidently in conflict with himself. Then a look of +shame and regret came into his eyes. He made some excuse for +not going with us to the picnic, at the Black Brook Falls, +with which the day was celebrated. In the afternoon, as we +all sat around the camp-fire, he came swinging through the +woods with his long, swift stride, and going at once to +Dorothy laid a little brooch of pearl and opal in her hand. + +"Will you forgive me?" he said. "I hope this is not too +late. But I lost the train back from Newburg and walked home. +I pray that you may never know any tears but pearls, and that +there may be nothing changeable about you but the opal." + +"Oh, Edward!" she cried, "how beautiful! Thank you a +thousand times. But I wish you had been with us all day. We +have missed you so much!" + +For the rest of that day simplicity and clearness and joy +came back to us. Keene was at his best, a leader of friendly +merriment, a master of good-fellowship, a prince of delicate +chivalry. Dorothy's loveliness unfolded like a flower in the +sun. + +But the Indian summer of peace was brief. It was hardly +a week before Keene's old moods returned, darker and stranger +than ever. The girl's unconcealable bewilderment, her sense +of wounded loyalty and baffled anxiety, her still look of hurt +and wondering tenderness, increased from day to day. John +Graham's temper seemed to change, suddenly and completely. +From the best-humoured and most careless fellow in the world, +he became silent, thoughtful, irritable toward everyone except +Dorothy. With Keene he was curt and impatient, avoiding him +as much as possible, and when they were together, evidently +struggling to keep down a deep dislike and rising anger. They +had had sharp words when they were alone, I was sure, but +Keene's coolness seemed to grow with Graham's heat. There was +no open quarrel. + +One Saturday evening, Graham came to me. "You have seen +what is going on here?" he said. + +"Something, at least," I answered, "and I am very sorry +for it. But I don't quite understand it." + +"Well, I do; and I'm going to put an end to it. I'm going +to have it out with Ned Keene. He is breaking her heart." + +"But are you the right one to take the matter up?" + +"Who else is there to do it?" + +"Her father." + +"He sees nothing, comprehends nothing. 'Practical +type--poetic type--misunderstandings sure to arise--come +together after a while each supply the other's deficiencies.' +Cursed folly! And the girl so unhappy that she can't tell +anyone. It shall not go on, I say. Keene is out on the road +now, taking one of his infernal walks. I'm going to meet him." + +"I'm afraid it will make trouble. Let me go with you." + +"The trouble is made. Come if you like. I'm going now." + +The night lay heavy upon the forest. Where the road +dipped through the valley we could hardly see a rod ahead of +us. But higher up where the way curved around the breast of +the mountain, the woods were thin on the left, and on the +right a sheer precipice fell away to the gorge of the brook. +In the dim starlight we saw Keene striding toward us. Graham +stepped out to meet him. + +"Where have you been, Ned Keene?" he cried. The cry was +a challenge. Keene lifted his head and stood still. Then he +laughed and took a step forward. + +"Taking a long walk, Jack Graham,," he answered. "It was +glorious. You should have been with me. But why this sudden +question?" + +"Because your long walk is a pretence. You are playing false. +There is some woman that you go to see at West Point, at Highland +Falls, who knows where?" + +Keene laughed again. + +"Certainly you don't know, my dear fellow; and neither do +I. Since when has walking become a vice in your estimation? +You seem to be in a fierce mood. What's the matter?" + +"I will tell you what's the matter. You have been acting +like a brute to the girl you profess to love." + +"Plain words! But between friends frankness is best. Did +she ask you to tell me?" + +"No! You know too well she would die before she would +speak. You are killing her, that is what you are doing with +your devilish moods and mysteries. You must stop. Do you +hear? You must give her up." + +"I hear well enough, and it sounds like a word for her and +two for yourself. Is that it?" + +"Damn you," cried the younger man, "let the words go! +we'll settle it this way"----and he sprang at the other's +throat. + +Keene, cool and well-braced, met him with a heavy blow in +the chest. He recoiled, and I rushed between them, holding +Graham back, and pleading for self-control. As we stood thus, +panting and confused, on the edge of the cliff, a singing +voice floated up to us from the shadows across the valley. It +was Herrick's song again: + + A heart as soft, a heart as kind, + A heart as sound and free + Is in the whole world thou canst find, + That heart I'll give to thee. + + +"Come, gentlemen," I cried, "this is folly, sheer madness. +You can never deal with the matter in this way. Think of the +girl who is singing down yonder. What would happen to her, +what would she suffer, from scandal, from her own feelings, if +either of you should be killed, or even seriously hurt by the +other? There must be no quarrel between you." + +"Certainly," said Keene, whose poise, if shaken at all, +had returned, "certainly, you are right. It is not of my +seeking, nor shall I be the one to keep it up. I am willing to +let it pass. It is but a small matter at most." + +I turned to Graham--"And you?" + +He hesitated a little, and then said, doggedly "On one +condition." + +"And that is?" + +"Keene must explain. He must answer my question." + +"Do you accept?" I asked Keene. + +"Yes and no!" he replied. "No! to answering Graham's +question. He is not the person to ask it. I wonder that he +does not see the impropriety, the absurdity of his meddling at +all in this affair. Besides, he could not understand my +answer even if he believed it. But to the explanation, I say, +Yes! I will give it, not to Graham, but to you. I make you +this proposition. To-morrow is Sunday. We shall be excused +from service if we tell the master that we have important +business to settle together. You shall come with me on one of +my long walks. I will tell you all about them. Then you can +be the judge whether there is any harm in them." + +"Does that satisfy you?" I said to Graham. + +"Yes," he answered, "that seems fair enough. I am content +to leave it in that way for the present. And to make it still +more fair, I want to take back what I said awhile ago, and to +ask Keene's pardon for it." + +"Not at all," said Keene, quickly, "it was said in haste, +I bear no grudge. You simply did not understand, that is +all." + +So we turned to go down the hill, and as we turned, +Dorothy met us, coming out of the shadows. + +"What are you men doing here?" she asked. "I heard your +voices from below. What were you talking about?" + +"We were talking," said Keene, "my dear Dorothy, we were +talking--about walking--yes, that was it--about walking, and +about views. The conversation was quite warm, almost a +debate. Now, you know all the view-points in this region. +Which do you call the best, the most satisfying, the finest +prospect? But I know what you will say: the view from the +little knoll in front of Hilltop. For there, when you are tired +of looking far away, you can turn around and see the old school, +and the linden-trees, and the garden." + +"Yes," she answered gravely, "that is really the view that +I love best. I would give up all the others rather than lose +that." + + + +III + + +There was a softness in the November air that brought back +memories of summer, and a few belated daisies were blooming in +the old clearing, as Keene and I passed by the ruins of the +farm-house again, early on Sunday morning. He had been +talking ever since we started, pouring out his praise of +knowledge, wide, clear, universal knowledge, as the best of +life's joys, the greatest of life's achievements. The +practical life was a blind, dull routine. Most men were +toiling at tasks which they did not like, by rules which they +did not understand. They never looked beyond the edge of +their work. The philosophical life was a spider's web--filmy +threads of theory spun out of the inner consciousness--it touched +the world only at certain chosen points of attachment. There was +nothing firm, nothing substantial in it. You could look through +it like a veil and see the real world lying beyond. But the +theorist could see only the web which he had spun. Knowing did +not come by speculating, theorising. Knowing came by seeing. +Vision was the only real knowledge. To see the world, the whole +world, as it is, to look behind the scenes, to read human life +like a book, that was the glorious thing--most satisfying, +divine. + +Thus he had talked as we climbed the hill. Now, as we +came by the place where we had first met, a new eagerness +sounded in his voice. + +"Ever since that day I have inclined to tell you something +more about myself. I felt sure you would understand. I am +planning to write a book--a book of knowledge, in the true +sense--a great book about human life. Not a history, not a +theory, but a real view of life, its hidden motives, its +secret relations. How different they are from what men dream +and imagine and play that they are! How much darker, how much +smaller, and therefore how much more interesting and wonderful. +No one has yet written--perhaps because no one has yet +conceived--such a book as I have in mind. I might call it a +'Bionopsis.'" + +"But surely," said I, "you have chosen a strange place to +write it--the Hilltop School--this quiet and secluded region! +The stream of humanity is very slow and slender here--it +trickles. You must get out into the busy world. You must be +in the full current and feel its force. You must take part in +the active life of mankind in order really to know it." + +"A mistake!" he cried. "Action is the thing that blinds +men. You remember Matthew Arnold's line: + + In action's dizzying eddy whurled. + +To know the world you must stand apart from it and above it; +you must look down on it." + +"Well, then," said I, "you will have to find some secret +spring of inspiration, some point of vantage from which you +can get your outlook and your insight." + +He stopped short and looked me full in the face. + +"And that," cried he, "is precisely what I have found!" + +Then he turned and pushed along the narrow trail so +swiftly that I had hard work to follow him. After a few +minutes we came to a little stream, flowing through a grove of +hemlocks. Keene seated himself on the fallen log that served +for a bridge and beckoned me to a place beside him. + +"I promised to give you an explanation to-day--to take you +on one of my long walks. Well, there is only one of them. It +is always the same. You shall see where it leads, what it +means. You shall share my secret--all the wonder and glory of +it! Of course I know my conduct, has seemed strange to you. +Sometimes it has seemed strange even to me. I have been +doubtful, troubled, almost distracted. I have been risking a +great deal, in danger of losing what I value, what most men +count the best thing in the world. But it could not be +helped. The risk was worth while. A great discovery, the +opportunity of a lifetime, yes, of an age, perhaps of many +ages, came to me. I simply could not throw it away. I must +use it, make the best of it, at any danger, at any cost. You +shall judge for yourself whether I was right or wrong. But you +must judge fairly, without haste, without prejudice. I ask you +to make me one promise. You will suspend judgment, you will say +nothing, you will keep my secret, until you have been with me +three times at the place where I am now taking you." + +By this time it was clear to me that I had to do with a +case lying far outside of the common routine of life; +something subtle, abnormal, hard to measure, in which a clear +and careful estimate would be necessary. If Keene was +labouring under some strange delusion, some disorder of mind, +how could I estimate its nature or extent, without time and +study, perhaps without expert advice? To wait a little would +be prudent, for his sake as well as for the sake of others. +If there was some extraordinary, reality behind his mysterious +hints, it would need patience and skill to test it. I gave +him the promise for which he asked. + +At once, as if relieved, he sprang up, and crying, "Come +on, follow me!" began to make his way up the bed of the brook. +It was one of the wildest walks that I have ever taken. He +turned aside for no obstacles; swamps, masses of interlacing +alders, close-woven thickets of stiff young spruces, +chevaux-de-frise of dead trees where wind-falls had mowed down +the forest, walls of lichen-crusted rock, landslides where heaps +of broken stone were tumbled in ruinous confusion--through +everything he pushed forward. I could see, here and there, the +track of his former journeys: broken branches of witch-hazel and +moose-wood, ferns trampled down, a faint trail across some +deeper bed of moss. At mid-day we rested for a half-hour to +eat lunch. But Keene would eat nothing, except a little +pellet of some dark green substance that he took from a flat +silver box in his pocket. He swallowed it hastily, and +stooping his face to the spring by which he had halted, drank +long and eagerly. + +"An Indian trick," said he, shaking the drops of water +from his face. "On a walk, food is a hindrance, a delay. But +this tiny taste of bitter gum is a tonic; it spurs the courage +and doubles the strength--if you are used to it. Otherwise I +should not recommend you to try it. Faugh! the flavour is vile." + +He rinsed his mouth again with water, and stood up, +calling me to come on. The way, now tangled among the +nameless peaks and ranges, bore steadily southward, rising all +the time, in spite of many brief downward curves where a steep +gorge must be crossed. Presently we came into a hard-wood +forest, open and easy to travel. Breasting a long slope, we +reached the summit of a broad, smoothly rounding ridge covered +with a dense growth of stunted spruce. The trees rose above +our heads, about twice the height of a man, and so thick that +we could not see beyond them. But, from glimpses here and +there, and from the purity and lightness of the air, I judged +that we were on far higher ground than any we had yet +traversed, the central comb, perhaps, of the mountain-system. + +A few yards ahead of us, through the crowded trunks of the +dwarf forest, I saw a gray mass, like the wall of a fortress, +across our path. It was a vast rock, rising from the crest of +the ridge, lifting its top above the sea of foliage. At its +base there were heaps of shattered stones, and deep crevices +almost like caves. One side of the rock was broken by a slanting +gully. + +"Be careful," cried my companion, "there is a rattlers' +den somewhere about here. The snakes are in their winter +quarters now, almost dormant, but they can still strike if you +tread on them. Step here! Give me your hand--use that point +of rock--hold fast by this bush; it is firmly rooted--so! +Here we are on Spy Rock! You have heard of it? I thought so. +Other people have heard of it, and imagine that they have +found it--five miles east of us--on a lower ridge. Others +think it is a peak just back of Cro' Nest. All wrong! There +is but one real Spy Rock--here! This earth holds no more +perfect view-point. It is one of the rare places from which +a man may see the kingdoms of the world and all the glory of +them. Look!" + +The prospect was indeed magnificent; it was strange what +a vast enlargement of vision resulted from the slight +elevation above the surrounding peaks. It was like being +lifted up so that we could look over the walls. The horizon +expanded as if by magic. The vast circumference of vision swept +around us with a radius of a hundred miles. Mountain and meadow, +forest and field, river and lake, hill and dale, village and +farmland, far-off city and shimmering water--all lay open to our +sight, and over all the westering sun wove a transparent robe of +gem-like hues. Every feature of the landscape seemed alive, +quivering, pulsating with conscious beauty. You could almost +see the world breathe. + +"Wonderful!" I cried. "Most wonderful! You have found a +mount of vision." + +"Ah," he answered, "you don't half see the wonder yet, you +don't begin to appreciate it. Your eyes are new to it. You +have not learned the power of far sight, the secret of Spy +Rock. You are still shut in by the horizon." + +"Do you mean to say that you can look beyond it?" + +"Beyond yours--yes. And beyond any that you would dream +possible--See! Your sight reaches to that dim cloud of smoke +in the south? And beneath it you can make out, perhaps, a +vague blotch of shadow, or a tiny flash of brightness where the +sun strikes it? New York! But I can see the great buildings, +the domes, the spires, the crowded wharves, the tides of people +whirling through the streets--and beyond that, the sea, with the +ships coming and going! I can follow them on their courses--and +beyond that--Oh! when I am on Spy Rock I can see more than +other men can imagine." + +For a moment, strange to say, I almost fancied could +follow him. The magnetism of his spirit imposed upon me, +carried me away with him. Then sober reason told me that he +was talking of impossibilities. + +"Keene," said I, "you are dreaming. The view and the air +have intoxicated you. This is a phantasy, a delusion!" + +"It pleases you to call it so," he said, "but I only tell +you my real experience. Why it should be impossible I do not +understand. There is no reason why the power of sight should +not be cultivated, enlarged, expanded indefinitely." + +"And the straight rays of light?" I asked. "And the curvature +of the earth which makes a horizon inevitable?" + +"Who knows what a ray of light is?" said he. "Who can +prove that it may not be curved, under certain conditions, or +refracted in some places in a way that is not possible +elsewhere? I tell you there is something extraordinary about +this Spy Rock. It is a seat of power--Nature's observatory. +More things are visible here than anywhere else--more than I +have told you yet. But come, we have little time left. For +half an hour, each of us shall enjoy what he can see. Then +home again to the narrower outlook, the restricted life." + +The downward journey was swifter than the ascent, but no +less fatiguing. By the time we reached the school, an hour +after dark, I was very tired. But Keene was in one of his +moods of exhilaration. He glowed like a piece of phosphorus +that has been drenched with light. + +Graham took the first opportunity of speaking with me alone. + +"Well?" said he. + +"Well!" I answered. "You were wrong. There is no treason in +Keene's walks, no guilt in his moods. But there is something +very strange. I cannot form a judgment yet as to what we should +do. We must wait a few days. It will do no harm to be patient. +Indeed, I have promised not to judge, not to speak of it, until a +certain time. Are you satisfied?" + +"This is a curious story," said he, "and I am puzzled by +it. But I trust you, I agree to wait, though I am far from +satisfied." + +Our second expedition was appointed for the following +Saturday. Keene was hungry for it, and I was almost as eager, +desiring to penetrate as quickly as possible into the heart of +the affair. Already a conviction in regard to it was pressing +upon me, and I resolved to let him talk, this time, as freely +as he would, without interruption or denial. + +When we clambered up on Spy Rock, he was more subdued and +reserved than he had been the first time. For a while he +talked little, but scanned view with wide, shining eyes. Then +he began to tell me stories of the places that we could +see--strange stories of domestic calamity, and social conflict, +and eccentric passion, and hidden crime. + +"Do you remember Hawthorne's story of 'The Minister's +Black Veil?' It is the best comment on human life that ever +was written. Everyone has something to hide. The surface of +life is a mask. The substance of life is a secret. All +humanity wears the black veil. But it is not impenetrable. +No, it is transparent, if you find the right point of view. +Here, on Spy Rock, I have found it. I have learned how to +look through the veil. I can see, not by the light-rays only, +but by the rays which are colourless, imperceptible, +irresistible the rays of the unknown quantity, which penetrate +everywhere. I can see how men down in the great city are +weaving their nets of selfishness and falsehood, and calling +them industrial enterprises or political combinations. I can +see how the wheels of society are moved by the hidden springs +of avarice and greed and rivalry. I can see how children +drink in the fables of religion, without understanding them, +and how prudent men repeat them without believing them. I can +see how the illusions of love appear and vanish, and how men and +women swear that their dreams are eternal, even while they fade. +I can see how poor people blind themselves and deceive each +other, calling selfishness devotion, and bondage contentment. +Down at Hilltop yonder I can see how Dorothy Ward and John +Graham, without knowing it,without meaning it--" + +"Stop, man!" I cried. "Stop, before you say what can +never be unsaid. You know it is not true. These are +nightmare visions that ride you. Not from Spy Rock nor from +anywhere else can you see anything at Hilltop that is not +honest and pure and loyal. Come down, now, and let us go +home. You will see better there than here." + +"I think not," said he, "but I will come. Yes, of course, +I am bound to come. But let me have a few minutes here alone. +Go you down along the path a little way slowly. I will follow +you in a quarter of an hour. And remember we are to be here +together once more!" + + Once more! Yes, and then what must be done? + + +How was this strange case to be dealt with so as to save all +the actors, as far as possible, from needless suffering? That +Keene's mind was disordered at least three of us suspected +already. But to me alone was the nature and seat of the +disorder known. How make the others understand it? They +might easily conceive it to be something different from the +fact, some actual lesion of the brain, an incurable insanity. +But this it was not. As yet, at least, he was no patient for +a mad-house: it would be unjust, probably it would be +impossible to have him committed. But on the other hand they +might take it too lightly, as the result of overwork, or +perhaps of the use of some narcotic. To me it was certain +that the trouble went far deeper than this. It lay in the +man's moral nature, in the error of his central will. It was +the working out, in abnormal form, but with essential truth, +of his chosen and cherished ideal of life. Spy Rock was +something more than the seat of his delusion. it was the +expression of his temperament. The solitary trail that led +thither was the symbol of his search for happiness--alone, +forgetful of life's lowlier ties, looking down upon the world in +the cold abstraction of scornful knowledge. How was such a man +to be brought back to the real life whose first condition is the +acceptance of a limited outlook, the willingness to live by +trust as much as by sight, the power of finding joy and peace +in the things that we feel are the best, even though we cannot +prove them nor explain them? How could he ever bring anything +but discord and sorrow to those who were bound to him? + +This was what perplexed and oppressed me. I needed all +the time until the next Saturday to think the question +through, to decide what should be done. But the matter was +taken out of my hands. After our latest expedition Keene's +dark mood returned upon him with sombre intensity. Dull, +restless, indifferent, half-contemptuous, he seemed to +withdraw into himself, observing those around him with +half-veiled glances, as if he had nothing better to do and yet +found it a tiresome pastime. He was like a man waiting +wearily at a railway station for his train. Nothing pleased +him. He responded to nothing. + +Graham controlled his indignation by a constant effort. +A dozen times he was on the point of speaking out. But he +restrained himself and played fair. Dorothy's suffering could +not be hidden. Her loyalty was strained to the breaking +point. She was too tender and true for anger, but she was +wounded almost beyond endurance. + +Keene's restlessness increased. The intervening Thursday +was Thanksgiving Day; most of the boys had gone home; the +school had holiday. Early in the morning he came to me. + +"Let us take our walk to-day. We have no work to do. +Come! In this clear, frosty air, Spy Rock will be glorious!" + +"No," I answered, "this is no day for such an expedition. +This is the home day. Stay here and be happy with us all. +You owe this to love and friendship. You owe it to Dorothy +Ward." + +"Owe it?" said he. "Speaking of debts, I think each man +is his own preferred creditor. But of course you can do as +you like about to-day. Tomorrow or Saturday will answer just +as well for our third walk together." + +About noon he came down from his room and went to the +piano, where Dorothy was sitting. They talked together in low +tones. Then she stood up, with pale face and wide-open eyes. +She laid her hand on his arm. + +"Do not go, Edward. For the last time I beg you to stay +with us to-day." + +He lifted her hand and held it for an instant. Then he +bowed, and let it fall. + +"You will excuse me, Dorothy, I am sure. I feel the need +of exercise. Absolutely I must go; good-by--until the +evening." + +The hours of that day passed heavily for all of us. There +was a sense of disaster in the air. Something irretrievable +had fallen from our circle. But no one dared to name it. +Night closed in upon the house with a changing sky. All the +stars were hidden. The wind whimpered and then shouted. The +rain swept down in spiteful volleys, deepening at last into a +fierce, steady discharge. Nine o'clock, ten o'clock passed, +and Keene did not return. By midnight we were certain that +some accident had befallen him. + +It was impossible to go up into the mountains in that +pitch-darkness of furious tempest. But we could send down to +the village for men to organise a search-party and to bring +the doctor. At daybreak we set out--some of the men going +with the Master along Black Brook, others in different +directions to make sure of a complete search--Graham and the +doctor and I following the secret trail that I knew only too +well. Dorothy insisted that she must go. She would bear no +denial, declaring that it would be worse for her alone at +home, than if we took her with us. + +It was incredible how the path seemed to lengthen. Graham +watched the girl's every step, helping her over the difficult +places, pushing aside the tangled branches, his eyes resting +upon her as frankly, as tenderly as a mother looks at her +child. In single file we marched through the gray morning, +clearing cold after the storm, and the silence was seldom +broken, for we had little heart to talk. + +At last we came to the high, lonely ridge, the dwarf +forest, the huge, couchant bulk of Spy Rock. There, on the back +of it, with his right arm hanging over the edge, was the outline +of Edward Keene's form. It was as if some monster had seized him +and flung him over its shoulder to carry away. + +We called to him but there was no answer. The doctor +climbed up with me, and we hurried to the spot where he was +lying. His face was turned to the sky, his eyes blindly +staring; there was no pulse, no breath; he was already cold in +death. His right hand and arm, the side of his neck and face +were horribly swollen and livid. The doctor stooped down and +examined the hand carefully. "See!" he cried, pointing to a +great bruise on his wrist, with two tiny punctures in the +middle of it from which a few drops of blood had oozed, "a +rattlesnake has struck him. He must have fairly put his hand +upon it, perhaps in the dark, when he was climbing. And, +look, what is this?" + +He picked up a flat silver box, that lay open on the rock. +There were two olive-green pellets of a resinous paste in it. +He lifted it to his face, and drew a long breath. + +"Yes," he said, "it is Gunjab, the most powerful form of +Hashish, the narcotic hemp of India. Poor fellow, it saved +him from frightful agony. He died in a dream." + +"You are right," I said, "in a dream, and for a dream." + +We covered his face and climbed down the rock. Dorothy +and Graham were waiting below. He had put his coat around +her. She was shivering a little. There were tear-marks on +her face. + +"Well," I said, "you must know it. We have lost him." + +"Ah!" said the girl, "I lost him long ago." + + + +WOOD-MAGIC + +There are three vines that belong to the ancient forest. +Elsewhere they will not grow, though the soil prepared for +them be never so rich, the shade of the arbour built for them +never so closely and cunningly woven. Their delicate, +thread-like roots take no hold upon the earth tilled and +troubled by the fingers of man. The fine sap that steals +through their long, slender limbs pauses and fails when they +are watered by human hands. Silently the secret of their life +retreats and shrinks away and hides itself. + +But in the woods, where falling leaves and crumbling +tree-trunks and wilting ferns have been moulded by Nature into +a deep, brown humus, clean and fragrant--in the woods, where +the sunlight filters green and golden through interlacing +branches, and where pure moisture of distilling rains and +melting snows is held in treasury by never-failing banks of +moss--under the verdurous flood of the forest, like sea-weeds +under the ocean waves, these three little creeping vines put +forth their hands with joy, and spread over rock and hillock and +twisted tree-root and mouldering log, in cloaks and scarves and +wreaths of tiny evergreen, glossy leaves. + +One of them is adorned with white pearls sprinkled lightly +over its robe of green. This is Snowberry, and if you eat of +it, you will grow wise in the wisdom of flowers. You will +know where to find the yellow violet, and the wake-robin, and +the pink lady-slipper, and the scarlet sage, and the fringed +gentian. You will understand how the buds trust themselves to +the spring in their unfolding, and how the blossoms trust +themselves to the winter in their withering, and how the busy +bands of Nature are ever weaving the beautiful garment of life +out of the strands of death, and nothing is lost that yields +itself to her quiet handling. + +Another of the vines of the forest is called Partridge-berry. +Rubies are hidden among its foliage, and if you eat of this +fruit, you will grow wise in the wisdom of birds. You will know +where the oven-bird secretes her nest, and where the wood-cock +dances in the air at night; the drumming-log of the ruffed grouse +will be easy to find, and you will see the dark lodges of the +evergreen thickets inhabited by hundreds of warblers. There will +be no dead silence for you in the forest, any longer, but you +will hear sweet and delicate voices on every side, voices that +you know and love; you will catch the key-note of the silver +flute of the woodthrush, and the silver harp of the veery, and +the silver bells of the hermit; and something in your heart will +answer to them all. In the frosty stillness of October nights +you will see the airy tribes flitting across the moon, following +the secret call that guides them southward. In the calm +brightness of winter sunshine, filling sheltered copses with +warmth and cheer, you will watch the lingering blue-birds and +robins and song-sparrows playing at summer, while the chickadees +and the juncos and the cross-bills make merry in the windswept +fields. In the lucent mornings of April you will hear your old +friends coming home to you, Phoebe, and Oriole, and +Yellow-Throat, and Red-Wing, and Tanager, and Cat-Bird. When +they call to you and greet you, you will understand that Nature +knows a secret for which man has never found a word--the secret +that tells itself in song. + +The third of the forest-vines is Wood-Magic. It bears neither +flower nor fruit. Its leaves are hardly to be distinguished +from the leaves of the other vines. Perhaps they are a little +rounder than the Snowberry's, a little more pointed than the +Partridge-berry's; sometimes you might mistake them for the +one, sometimes for the other. No marks of warning have been +written upon them. If you find them it is your fortune; if +you taste them it is your fate. + +For as you browse your way through the forest, nipping +here and there a rosy leaf of young winter-green, a fragrant +emerald tip of balsam-fir, a twig of spicy birch, if by chance +you pluck the leaves of Wood-Magic and eat them, you will not +know what you have done, but the enchantment of the tree-land +will enter your heart and the charm of the wildwood will flow +through your veins. + +You will never get away from it. The sighing of the wind +through the pine-trees and the laughter of the stream in its +rapids will sound through all your dreams. On beds of silken +softness you will long for the sleep-song of whispering leaves +above your head, and the smell of a couch of balsam-boughs. At +tables spread with dainty fare you will be hungry for the joy of +the hunt, and for the angler's sylvan feast. In proud cities you +will weary for the sight of a mountain trail; in great cathedrals +you will think of the long, arching aisles of the woodland; and +in the noisy solitude of crowded streets you will hone after the +friendly forest. + +This is what will happen to you if you eat the leaves of +that little vine, Wood-Magic. And this is what happened to +Luke Dubois. + + + +I + +The Cabin by the Rivers + +Two highways meet before the door, and a third reaches away to +the southward, broad and smooth and white. But there are no +travellers passing by. The snow that has fallen during the +night is unbroken. The pale February sunrise makes blue shadows +on it, sharp and jagged, an outline of the fir-trees on the +mountain-crest quarter of, a mile away. + +In summer the highways are dissolved into three wild +rivers--the River of Rocks, which issues from the hills; the +River of Meadows, which flows from the great lake; and the +River of the Way Out, which runs down from their meeting-place +to the settlements and the little world. But in winter, when +the ice is firm under the snow, and the going is fine, there +are no tracks upon the three broad roads except the paths of +the caribou, and the footprints of the marten and the mink and +the fox, and the narrow trails made by Luke Dubois on his way +to and from his cabin by the rivers. + +He leaned in the door-way, looking out. Behind him in the +shadow, the fire was still snapping in the little stove where +he had cooked his breakfast. There was a comforting smell of +bacon and venison in the room; the tea-pot stood on the table +half-empty. Here in the corner were his rifle and some of his +traps. On the wall hung his snowshoes. Under the bunk was a +pile of skins. Half-open on the bench lay the book that he had +been reading the evening before, while the snow was falling. It +was a book of veritable fairy-tales, which told how men had made +their way in the world, and achieved great fortunes, and won +success, by toiling hard at first, and then by trading and +bargaining and getting ahead of other men. + +"Well," said Luke, to himself, as he stood at the door, "I +could do that too. Without doubt I also am one of the men who +can do things. They did not work any harder than I do. But +they got better pay. I am twenty-five. For ten years I have +worked hard, and what have I got for it? This!" + +He stepped out into the morning, alert and vigorous, +deep-chested and straight-hipped. The strength of the hills +had gone into him, and his eyes were bright with health. His +kingdom was spread before him. There along the River of +Meadows were the haunts of the moose and the caribou where he +hunted in the fall; and yonder on the burnt hills around the +great lake were the places where he watched for the bears; and +up beside the River of Rocks ran his line of traps, swinging back +by secret ways to many a nameless pond and hidden +beaver-meadow; and all along the streams, when the ice went +out in the spring, the great trout would be leaping in rapid +and pool. Among the peaks and valleys of that forest-clad +kingdom he could find his way as easily as a merchant walks +from his house to his office. The secrets of bird and beast +were known to him; every season of the year brought him its +own tribute; the woods were his domain, vast, inexhaustible, +free. + +Here was his home, his cabin that he had built with his +own hands. The roof was tight, the walls were well chinked +with moss. It was snug and warm. But small--how pitifully +small it looked to-day--and how lonely! + +His hand-sledge stood beside the door, and against it +leaned the axe. He caught it up and began to split wood for +the stove. "No!" he cried, throwing down the axe, "I'm tired +of this. It has lasted long enough. I'm going out to make my +way in the world." + +A couple of hours later, the sledge was packed with camp-gear +and bundles of skins. The door of the cabin was shut; a +ghostlike wreath of blue smoke curled from the chimney. Luke +stood, in his snowshoes, on the white surface of the River of the +Way Out. He turned to look back for a moment, and waved his +hand. + +"Good-bye, old cabin! Good-bye, the rivers! Good-bye, the +woods!" + + + +II + +The House on the Main Street + +All the good houses in Scroll-Saw City were different, in the +number and shape of the curious pinnacles that rose from their +roofs and in the trimmings of their verandas. Yet they were +all alike, too, in their general expression of putting their +best foot foremost and feeling quite sure that they made a +brave show. They had lace curtains in their front parlour +windows, and outside of the curtains were large red and yellow +pots of artificial flowers and indestructible palms and +vulcanised rubber-plants. It was a gay sight. + +But by far the bravest of these houses was the residence +of Mr. Matthew Wilson, the principal merchant of Scroll-Saw +City. It stood on a corner of Main Street, glancing slyly out +of the tail of one eye, side-ways down the street, toward the +shop and the business, but keeping a bold, complacent front +toward the street-cars and the smaller houses across the way. +It might well be satisfied with itself, for it had three more +pinnacles than any of its neighbours, and the work of the +scroll-saw was looped and festooned all around the eaves and +porticoes and bay-windows in amazing richness. Moreover, in +the front yard were cast-iron images painted white: a stag +reposing on a door-mat; Diana properly dressed and returning +from the chase; a small iron boy holding over his head a +parasol from the ferrule of which a fountain squirted. The +paths were of asphalt, gray and gritty in winter, but now, in +the summer heat, black and pulpy to the tread. + +There were many feet passing over them this afternoon, for +Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Wilson were giving a reception to +celebrate the official entrance of their daughter Amanda into a +social life which she had permeated unofficially for several +years. The house was sizzling full of people. Those who were +jammed in the parlour tried to get into the dining-room, and +those who were packed in the dining-room struggled to escape, +holding plates of stratified cake and liquefied ice-cream high +above their neighbours' heads like signals of danger and +distress. Everybody was talking at the same time, in a loud, +shrill voice, and nobody listened to what anybody else was +saying. But it did not matter, for they all said the same things. + +"Elegant house for a party, so full of--" "How perfectly +lovely Amanda Wilson looks in that--" "Awfully warm day! +Were you at the Tompkins' last--" "Wilson's Emporium must be +doing good business to keep up all this--" "Hear he's going +to enlarge the store and take Luke Woods into the--" + +"Shouldn't wonder if there might be a wedding here before +next--" + +The tide of chatter rose and swelled and ebbed and +suddenly sank away. At six o'clock, the minister and two +maiden ladies in black silk with lilac ribbons, laid down their +last plates of ice-cream and said they thought they must be +going. Amanda and her mother preened their dresses and patted +their hair. Come into the study," said Mr. Wilson to Luke. "I +want to have a talk with you." + +The little bookless room, called the study, was the one +that kept its eye on the shop and the business, away down the +street. You could see the brick front, and the plate-glass +windows, and part of the gilt sign. + +"Pretty good store," said Mr. Wilson, jingling the keys in +his pocket, "does the biggest trade in the county, biggest but +one in the whole state, I guess. And I must say, Luke Woods, +you've done your share, these last five years, in building it +up. Never had a clerk work so hard and so steady. You've got +good business sense, I guess." + +"I'm glad you think so," said Luke. "I did as well as I +could." + +"Yes," said the elder man, "and now I'm about ready to +take you in with me, give you a share in the business. I want +some one to help me run it, make it larger. We can double it, +easy, if we stick to it and spread out. No reason why you +shouldn't make a fortune out of it, and have a house just like +this on the other corner, when you're my age." + +Luke's thoughts were wandering a little. They went out +from the stuffy room, beyond the dusty street, and the +jangling cars, and the gilt sign, and the shop full of +dry-goods and notions, and the high desks in the office--out +to the dim, cool forest, where Snowberry and Partridge-berry +and Wood-Magic grow. He heard the free winds rushing over the +tree-tops, and saw the trail winding away before him in the +green shade. + +"You are very kind," said he, "I hope you will not be +disappointed in me. Sometimes I think, perhaps--" + +"Not at all, not at all," said the other. "It's all +right. You're well fitted for it. And then, there's another +thing. I guess you like my daughter Amanda pretty well. Eh? +I've watched you, young man. I've had my eye on you! Now, of +course, I can't say much about it--never can be sure of these +kind of things, you know--but if you and she--" + +The voice went on rolling out words complacently. But +something strange was working in Luke's blood, +and other voices were sounding faintly in his ears. He heard +the lisping of the leaves on the little poplar-trees, the +whistle of the black duck's wings as he circled in the air, +the distant drumming of the grouse on his log, the rumble of +the water-fall in the River of Rocks. The spray cooled his +face. He saw the fish rising along the pool, and a stag +feeding among the lily-pads. + +"I don't know how to thank you, Mr. Wilson," said he at +last, when the elder man stopped talking. "You have certainly +treated me most generously. The only question is, whether-- +But to-morrow night, I think, with your consent, I will speak +to your daughter. To-night I am going down to the store; +there is a good deal of work to do on the books." + +But when Luke came to the store, he did not go in. He +walked along the street till he came to the river. + +The water-side was strangely deserted. Everybody was at +supper. A couple of schooners were moored at the wharf. The +Portland steamer had gone out. The row-boats hung idle at their +little dock. Down the river, drifting and dancing lightly over +the opalescent ripples, following the gentle turns of the current +which flowed past the end of the dock where Luke was standing, +came a white canoe, empty and astray. + + + +III + +The White Canoe + +"That looks just like my old canoe," said he. "Somebody must +have left it adrift up the river. I wonder how it floated +down here without being picked up." He put out his hand and +caught it, as it touched the dock. + +In the stern a good paddle of maple-wood was lying; in the +middle there was a roll of blankets and a pack of camp-stuff; in +the bow a rifle. + +"All ready for a trip," he laughed. "Nobody going but me? +Well, then, au large!" And stepping into the canoe he +pushed out on the river. + +The saffron and golden lights in the sky diffused +themselves over the surface of the water, and spread from the bow +of the canoe in deeper waves of purple and orange, as he paddled +swiftly up stream. The pale yellow gas-lamps of the town faded +behind him. The lumber-yards and factories and disconsolate +little houses of the outskirts seemed to melt away. In a little +while he was floating between dark walls of forest, through the +heart of the wilderness. + +The night deepened around him and the sky hung out its +thousand lamps. Odours of the woods floated on the air: the +spicy fragrance of the firs; the breath of hidden banks of +twin-flower. Muskrats swam noiselessly in the shadows, diving +with a great commotion as the canoe ran upon them suddenly. +A horned owl hooted from the branch of a dead pine-tree; far +back in the forest a fox barked twice. The moon crept up +behind the wall of trees and touched the stream with silver. + +Presently the forest receded: the banks of the river grew +broad and open; the dew glistened on the tall grass; it was +surely the River of Meadows. Far ahead of him in a bend of +the stream, Luke's ear caught a new sound: SLOSH, SLOSH, SLOSH, +as if some heavy animal were crossing the wet meadow. Then a +great splash! Luke swung the canoe into the shadow of the bank +and paddled fast. As he turned the point a black bear came out +of the river, and stood on the shore, shaking the water around +him in glittering spray. Ping! said the rifle, and the bear +fell. "Good luck!" said Luke. "I haven't forgotten how, +after all. I'll take him into the canoe, and dress him up at +the camp." + +Yes, there was the little cabin at the meeting of the +rivers. The door was padlocked, but Luke knew how to pry off +one of the staples. Squirrels had made a litter on the floor, +but that was soon swept out, and a fire crackled in the stove. +There was tea and ham and bread in the pack in the canoe. +Supper never tasted better. "One more night in the old camp," +said Luke as he rolled himself in the blanket and dropped +asleep in a moment. + +The sun shone in at the door and woke him. "I must have +a trout for breakfast," he cried, "there's one waiting for me +at the mouth of Alder Brook, I suppose." So he caught up his +rod from behind the door, and got into the canoe and paddled +up the River of Rocks. There was the broad, dark pool, like a +little lake, with a rapid running in at the head, and close +beside the rapid, the mouth of the brook. He sent his fly out by +the edge of the alders. There was a huge swirl on the water, and +the great-grandfather of all the trout in the river was +hooked. Up and down the pool he played for half an hour, +until at last the fight was over, and for want of a net Luke +beached him on the gravel bank at the foot of the pool. + +"Seven pounds if it's an ounce," said he. "This is my +lucky day. Now all I need is some good meat to provision the +camp." + +He glanced down the river, and on the second point below +the pool he saw a great black bullmoose with horns five feet +wide. + +Quietly, swiftly, the canoe went gliding down the stream; +and ever as it crept along, the moose loped easily before it, +from point to point, from bay to bay, past the little cabin, +down the River of the Way Out, now rustling unseen through a +bank of tall alders, now standing out for a moment bold and +black on a beach of white sand--so all day long the moose loped +down the stream and the white canoe followed. Just as the +setting sun was poised above the trees, the great bull stopped +and stood with head lifted. Luke pushed the canoe as near as he +dared, and looked down for the rifle. He had left it at the +cabin! The moose tossed his huge antlers, grunted, and stepped +quietly over the bushes into the forest. + +Luke paddled on down the stream. It occurred to him, +suddenly, that it was near evening. He wondered a little how +he should reach home in time for his engagement. But it did +not seem strange, as he went swiftly on with the river, to see +the first houses of the town, and the lumber-yards, and the +schooners at the wharf. + +He made the canoe fast at the dock, and went up the Main +Street. There was the old shop, but the sign over it read, +"Wilson and Woods Company, The Big Store." He went on to the +house with the white iron images in the front yard. Diana was +still returning from the chase. The fountain still squirted +from the point of the little boy's parasol. + +On the veranda sat a stout man in a rocking chair, reading the +newspaper. At the side of the house two little girls with +pig-tails were playing croquet. Some one in the parlour was +executing "After the Ball is Over" on a mechanical piano. + +Luke accosted a stranger who passed him. "Excuse me, but +can you tell me whether this is Mr. Matthew Wilson's house?" + +"It used to be," said the stranger, "but old man Wilson +has been dead these ten years." + +"And who lives here now?" asked Luke. + +"Mr. Woods: he married Wilson's daughter," said the +stranger, and went on his way. + +"Well," said Luke to himself, "this is just a little +queer. Woods was my name for a while, when I lived here, but +now, I suppose, I'm Luke Dubois again. Dashed if I can +understand it. Somebody must have been dreaming." + +So he went back to the white canoe, and paddled away up +the river, and nobody in Scroll-Saw City ever set eyes on him +again. + + + + +THE OTHER WISE MAN + +You know the story of the Three Wise Men of the East, and how +they travelled from far away to offer their gifts at the +manger-cradle in Bethlehem. But have you ever heard the story +of the Other Wise Man, who also saw the star in its rising, +and set out to follow it, yet did not arrive with his brethren +in the presence of the young child Jesus? Of the great desire +of this fourth pilgrim, and how it was denied, yet +accomplished in the denial; of his many wanderings and the +probations of his soul; of the long way of his seeking and the +strange way of his finding the One whom he sought--I would +tell the tale as I have heard fragments of it in the Hall of +Dreams, in the palace of the Heart of Man. + + +I + +In the days when Augustus Caesar was master of many kings and +Herod reigned in Jerusalem, there lived in the city of +Ecbatana, among the mountains of Persia, a certain man named +Artaban. His house stood close to the outermost of the walls +which encircled the royal treasury. From his roof he could look +over the seven-fold battlements of black and white and crimson +and blue and red and silver and gold, to the hill where the +summer palace of the Parthian emperors glittered like a jewel in +a crown. + +Around the dwelling of Artaban spread a fair garden, a +tangle of flowers and fruit-trees, watered by a score of +streams descending from the slopes of Mount Orontes, and made +musical by innumerable birds. But all colour was lost in the +soft and odorous darkness of the late September night, and all +sounds were hushed in the deep charm of its silence, save the +plashing of the water, like a voice half-sobbing and +half-laughing under the shadows. High above the trees a dim +glow of light shone through the curtained arches of the upper +chamber, where the master of the house was holding council +with his friends. + +He stood by the doorway to greet his guests--a tall, dark +man of about forty years, with brilliant eyes set near together +under his broad brow, and firm lines graven around his fine, thin +lips; the brow of a dreamer and the mouth of a soldier, a man of +sensitive feeling but inflexible will--one of those who, in +whatever age they may live, are born for inward conflict and a +life of quest. + +His robe was of pure white wool, thrown over a tunic of +silk; and a white, pointed cap, with long lapels at the sides, +rested on his flowing black hair. It was the dress of the +ancient priesthood of the Magi, called the fire-worshippers. + +"Welcome!" he said, in his low, pleasant voice, as one +after another entered the room--"welcome, Abdus; peace be with +you, Rhodaspes and Tigranes, and with you my father, Abgarus. +You are all welcome. This house grows bright with the joy of +your presence." + +There were nine of the men, differing widely in age, but +alike in the richness of their dress of many-coloured silks, +and in the massive golden collars around their necks, marking +them as Parthian nobles, and in the winged circles of gold +resting upon their breasts, the sign of the followers of +Zoroaster. + +They took their places around a small black altar at the +end of the room, where a tiny flame was burning. Artaban, +standing beside it, and waving a barsom of thin tamarisk +branches above the fire, fed it with dry sticks of pine and +fragrant oils. Then he began the ancient chant of the Yasna, +and the voices of his companions joined in the hymn to +Ahura-Mazda: + + + We worship the Spirit Divine, + all wisdom and goodness possessing, + Surrounded by Holy Immortals, + the givers of bounty and blessing; + We joy in the work of His hands, + His truth and His power confessing. + + We praise all the things that are pure, + for these are His only Creation + The thoughts that are true, and the words + and the deeds that have won approbation; + These are supported by Him, + and for these we make adoration. + Hear us, O Mazda! Thou livest + in truth and in heavenly gladness; + Cleanse us from falsehood, and keep us + from evil and bondage to badness, + Pour out the light and the joy of Thy life + on our darkness and sadness. + + Shine on our gardens and fields, + shine on our working and waving; + Shine on the whole race of man, + believing and unbelieving; + Shine on us now through the night, + Shine on us now in Thy might, + The flame of our holy love + and the song of our worship receiving. + + + +The fire rose with the chant, throbbing as if the flame +responded to the music, until it cast a bright illumination +through the whole apartment, revealing its simplicity and +splendour. + +The floor was laid with tiles of dark blue veined with +white; pilasters of twisted silver stood out against the blue +walls; the clear-story of round-arched windows above them was +hung with azure silk; the vaulted ceiling was a pavement of +blue stones, like the body of heaven in its clearness, sown with +silver stars. From the four corners of the roof hung four +golden magic-wheels, called the tongues of the gods. At the +eastern end, behind the altar, there were two dark-red pillars +of porphyry; above them a lintel of the same stone, on which +was carved the figure of a winged archer, with his arrow set +to the string and his bow drawn. + +The doorway between the pillars, which opened upon the +terrace of the roof, was covered with a heavy curtain of the +colour of a ripe pomegranate, embroidered with innumerable +golden rays shooting upward from the floor. In effect the +room was like a quiet, starry night, all azure and silver, +flushed in the cast with rosy promise of the dawn. It was, as +the house of a man should be, an expression of the character +and spirit of the master. + +He turned to his friends when the song was ended, and +invited them to be seated on the divan at the western end of +the room. + +"You have come to-night," said he, looking around the +circle, "at my call, as the faithful scholars of Zoroaster, to +renew your worship and rekindle your faith in the God of Purity, +even as this fire has been rekindled on the altar. We worship +not the fire, but Him of whom it is the chosen symbol, because it +is the purest of all created things. It speaks to us of one who +is Light and Truth. Is it not so, my father?" + +"It is well said, my son," answered the venerable Abgarus. +"The enlightened are never idolaters. They lift the veil of +form and go in to the shrine of reality, and new light and +truth are coming to them continually through the old symbols." + "Hear me, then, my father and my friends," said Artaban, +"while I tell you of the new light and truth that have come to +me through the most ancient of all signs. We have searched +the secrets of Nature together, and studied the healing virtues +of water and fire and the plants. We have read also the +books of prophecy in which the future is dimly foretold in +words that are hard to understand. But the highest of all +learning is the knowledge of the stars. To trace their course +is to untangle the threads of the mystery of life from the +beginning to the end. If we could follow them perfectly, nothing +would be hidden from us. But is not our knowledge of them still +incomplete? Are there not many stars still beyond our +horizon--lights that are known only to the dwellers in the far +south-land, among the spice-trees of Punt and the gold mines of +Ophir?" + +There was a murmur of assent among the listeners. + +"The stars," said Tigranes, "are the thoughts of the +Eternal. They are numberless. But the thoughts of man can be +counted, like the years of his life. The wisdom of the Magi +is the greatest of all wisdoms on earth, because it knows its +own ignorance. And that is the secret of power. We keep men +always looking and waiting for a new sunrise. But we +ourselves understand that the darkness is equal to the light, +and that the conflict between them will never be ended." + +"That does not satisfy me," answered Artaban, "for, if the +waiting must be endless, if there could be no fulfilment of +it, then it would not be wisdom to look and wait. We should +become like those new teachers of the Greeks, who say that +there is no truth, and that the only wise men are those who +spend their lives in discovering and exposing the lies that +have been believed in the world. But the new sunrise will +certainly appear in the appointed time. Do not our own books +tell us that this will come to pass, and that men will see the +brightness of a great light?" + +"That is true," said the voice of Abgarus; "every faithful +disciple of Zoroaster knows the prophecy of the Avesta, and +carries the word in his heart. `In that day Sosiosh the +Victorious shall arise out of the number of the prophets in +the east country. Around him shall shine a mighty brightness, +and he shall make life everlasting, incorruptible, and +immortal, and the dead shall rise again.'" + +"This is a dark saying," said Tigranes, "and it may be +that we shall never understand it. It is better to consider +the things that are near at hand, and to increase the +influence of the Magi in their own country, rather than to +look for one who may be a stranger, and to whom we must resign +our power." + +The others seemed to approve these words. There was a +silent feeling of agreement manifest among them; their looks +responded with that indefinable expression which always +follows when a speaker has uttered the thought that has been +slumbering in the hearts of his listeners. But Artaban turned +to Abgarus with a glow on his face, and said: + +"My father, I have kept this prophecy in the secret place +of my soul. Religion without a great hope would be like an +altar without a living fire. And now the flame has burned +more brightly, and by the light of it I have read other words +which also have come from the fountain of Truth, and speak yet +more clearly of the rising of the Victorious One in his +brightness." + +He drew from the breast of his tunic two small rolls of +fine parchment, with writing upon them, and unfolded them +carefully upon his knee. + +"In the years that are lost in the past, long before our +fathers came into the land of Babylon, there were wise men in +Chaldea, from whom the first of the Magi learned the secret of +the heavens. And of these Balaam the son of Beor was one of the +mightiest. Hear the words of his prophecy: 'There shall come a +star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall arise out of Israel.'" + +The lips of Tigranes drew downward with contempt, as he +said: + +"Judah was a captive by the waters of Babylon, and the +sons of Jacob were in bondage to our kings. The tribes of +Israel are scattered through the mountains like lost sheep, +and from the remnant that dwells in Judea under the yoke of +Rome neither star nor sceptre shall arise." + + "And yet," answered Artaban, "it was the Hebrew Daniel, +the mighty searcher of dreams, the counsellor of kings, the +wise Belteshazzar, who was most honoured and beloved of our +great King Cyrus. A prophet of sure things and a reader of +the thoughts of the Eternal, Daniel proved himself to our +people. And these are the words that he wrote." (Artaban +read from the second roll:) " 'Know, therefore, and understand +that from the going forth of the commandment to restore +Jerusalem, unto the Anointed One, the Prince, the time shall be +seven and threescore and two weeks."' + +"But, my son," said Abgarus, doubtfully, "these are +mystical numbers. Who can interpret them, or who can find the +key that shall unlock their meaning?" + +Artaban answered: "It has been shown to me and to my +three companions among the Magi--Caspar, Melchior, and +Balthazar. We have searched the ancient tablets of Chaldea +and computed the time. It falls in this year. We have +studied the sky, and in the spring of the year we saw two of +the greatest planets draw near together in the sign of the +Fish, which is the house of the Hebrews. We also saw a new +star there, which shone for one night and then vanished. Now +again the two great planets are meeting. This night is their +conjunction. My three brothers are watching by the ancient +Temple of the Seven Spheres, at Borsippa, in Babylonia, and I +am watching here. If the star shines again, they will wait +ten days for me at the temple, and then we will set out +together for Jerusalem, to see and worship the promised one who +shall be born King of Israel. I believe the sign will come. I +have made ready for the journey. I have sold my possessions, and +bought these three jewels--a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl--to +carry them as tribute to the King. And I ask you to go with me +on the pilgrimage, that we may have joy together in finding the +Prince who is worthy to be served." + +While he was speaking he thrust his hand into the inmost +fold of his, girdle and drew out three great gems--one blue as +a fragment of the night sky, one redder than a ray of sunrise, +and one as pure as the peak of a snow-mountain at +twilight--and laid them on the outspread scrolls before him. + +But his friends looked on with strange and alien eyes. A +veil of doubt and mistrust came over their faces, like a fog +creeping up from the marshes to hide the hills. They glanced +at each other with looks of wonder and pity, as those who have +listened to incredible sayings, the story of a wild vision, or +the proposal of an impossible enterprise. + +At last Tigranes said: "Artaban, this is a vain dream. +It comes from too much looking upon the stars and the +cherishing of lofty thoughts. It would be wiser to spend the +time in gathering money for the new fire-temple at Chala. No +king will ever rise from the broken race of Israel, and no end +will ever come to the eternal strife of light and darkness. +He who looks for it is a chaser of shadows. Farewell." + +And another said: "Artaban, I have no knowledge of these +things, and my office as guardian of the royal treasure binds +me here. The quest is not for me. But if thou must follow +it, fare thee well." + +And another said: "In my house there sleeps a new bride, +and I cannot leave her nor take her with me on this strange +journey. This quest is not for me. But may thy steps be +prospered wherever thou goest. So, farewell." + +And another said: "I am ill and unfit for hardship, but +there is a man among my servants whom I will send with thee +when thou goest, to bring me word how thou farest." + +So, one by one, they left the house of Artaban. But +Abgarus, the oldest and the one who loved him the best, +lingered after the others had gone, and said, gravely: "My +son, it may be that the light of truth is in this sign that +has appeared in the skies, and then it will surely lead to the +Prince and the mighty brightness. Or it may be that it is +only a shadow of the light, as Tigranes has said, and then he +who follows it will have a long pilgrimage and a fruitless +search. But it is better to follow even the shadow of the +best than to remain content with the worst. And those who +would see wonderful things must often be ready to travel +alone. I am too old for this journey, but my heart shall be +a companion of thy pilgrimage day and night, and I shall know +the end of thy quest. Go in peace." + +Then Abgarus went out of the azure chamber with its silver +stars, and Artaban was left in solitude. + +He gathered up the jewels and replaced them in his girdle. +For a long time he stood and watched the flame that flickered +and sank upon the altar. Then he crossed the hall, lifted the +heavy curtain, and passed out between the pillars of porphyry to +the terrace on the roof. + +The shiver that runs through the earth ere she rouses from +her night-sleep had already begun, and the cool wind that +heralds the daybreak was drawing downward from the lofty +snow-traced ravines of Mount Orontes. Birds, half-awakened, +crept and chirped among the rustling leaves, and the smell of +ripened grapes came in brief wafts from the arbours. + +Far over the eastern plain a white mist stretched like a +lake. But where the distant peaks of Zagros serrated the +western horizon the sky was clear. Jupiter and Saturn rolled +together like drops of lambent flame about to blend in one. + +As Artaban watched them, a steel-blue spark was born out +of the darkness beneath, rounding itself with purple +splendours to a crimson sphere, and spiring upward through +rays of saffron and orange into a point of white radiance. +Tiny and infinitely remote, yet perfect in every part, it +pulsated in the enormous vault as if the three jewels in the +Magian's girdle had mingled and been transformed into a living +heart of light. + +He bowed his head. He covered his brow with his hands. + +"It is the sign," he said. "The King is coming, and I +will go to meet him." + + + +II + +All night long, Vasda, the swiftest of Artaban's horses, had +been waiting, saddled and bridled, in her stall, pawing the +ground impatiently, and shaking her bit as if she shared the +eagerness of her master's purpose, though she knew not its +meaning. + +Before the birds had fully roused to their strong, high, +joyful chant of morning song, before the white mist had begun +to lift lazily from the plain, the Other Wise Man was in the +saddle, riding swiftly along the high-road, which skirted the +base of Mount Orontes, westward. + +How close, how intimate is the comradeship between a man +and his favourite horse on a long journey. It is a silent, +comprehensive friendship, an intercourse beyond the need of +words. + +They drink at the same way-side springs, and sleep under +the same guardian stars. They are conscious together of the +subduing spell of nightfall and the quickening joy of +daybreak. The master shares his evening meal with his hungry +companion, and feels the soft, moist lips caressing the palm +of his hand as they close over the morsel of bread. In the +gray dawn he is roused from his bivouac by the gentle stir of +a warm, sweet breath over his sleeping face, and looks up into +the eyes of his faithful fellow-traveller, ready and waiting +for the toil of the day. Surely, unless he is a pagan and an +unbeliever, by whatever name he calls upon his God, he will +thank Him for this voiceless sympathy, this dumb affection, +and his morning prayer will embrace a double blessing--God +bless us both, the horse and the rider, and keep our feet from +falling and our souls from death! + +Then, through the keen morning air, the swift hoofs beat +their tattoo along the road, keeping time to the pulsing of +two hearts that are moved with the same eager desire--to +conquer space, to devour the distance, to attain the goal of +the journey. + +Artaban must indeed ride wisely and well if he would keep +the appointed hour with the other Magi; for the route was a +hundred and fifty parasangs, and fifteen was the utmost that +he could travel in a day. But he knew Vasda's strength, and +pushed forward without anxiety, making the fixed distance +every day, though he must travel late into the night, and in +the morning long before sunrise. + +He passed along the brown slopes of Mount Orontes, +furrowed by the rocky courses of a hundred torrents. + +He crossed the level plains of the Nisaeans, where the +famous herds of horses, feeding in the wide pastures, tossed +their heads at Vasda's approach, and galloped away with a +thunder of many hoofs, and flocks of wild birds rose suddenly +from the swampy meadows, wheeling in great circles with a +shining flutter of innumerable wings and shrill cries of +surprise. + +He traversed the fertile fields of Concabar, where the +dust from the threshing-floors filled the air with a golden +mist, half hiding the huge temple of Astarte with its four +hundred pillars. + +At Baghistan, among the rich gardens watered by fountains +from the rock, he looked up at the mountain thrusting its +immense rugged brow out over the road, and saw the figure of +King Darius trampling upon his fallen foes, and the proud list +of his wars and conquests graven high upon the face of the +eternal cliff. + +Over many a cold and desolate pass, crawling painfully +across the wind-swept shoulders of the hills; down many a +black mountain-gorge, where the river roared and raced before +him like a savage guide; across many a smiling vale, with +terraces of yellow limestone full of vines and fruit-trees; +through the oak-groves of Carine and the dark Gates of Zagros, +walled in by precipices; into the ancient city of Chala, where +the people of Samaria had been kept in captivity long ago; and +out again by the mighty portal, riven through the encircling +hills, where he saw the image of the High Priest of the Magi +sculptured on the wall of rock, with hand uplifted as if to bless +the centuries of pilgrims; past the entrance of the narrow +defile, filled from end to end with orchards of peaches and figs, +through which the river Gyndes foamed down to meet him; over +the broad rice-fields, where the autumnal vapours spread their +deathly mists; following along the course of the river, under +tremulous shadows of poplar and tamarind, among the lower +hills; and out upon the flat plain, where the road ran +straight as an arrow through the stubble-fields and parched +meadows; past the city of Ctesiphon, where the Parthian +emperors reigned, and the vast metropolis of Seleucia which +Alexander built; across the swirling floods of Tigris and the +many channels of Euphrates, flowing yellow through the +corn-lands--Artaban pressed onward until he arrived, at +nightfall on the tenth day, beneath the shattered walls of +populous Babylon. + +Vasda was almost spent, and Artaban would gladly have +turned into the city to find rest and refreshment for himself +and for her. But he knew that it was three hours' journey yet +to the Temple of the Seven Spheres, and he must reach the +place by midnight if he would find his comrades waiting. So +he did not halt, but rode steadily across the stubble-fields. + +A grove of date-palms made an island of gloom in the pale +yellow sea. As she passed into the shadow Vasda slackened her +pace, and began to pick her way more carefully. + +Near the farther end of the darkness an access of caution +seemed to fall upon her. She scented some danger or +difficulty; it was not in her heart to fly from it--only to be +prepared for it, and to meet it wisely, as a good horse should +do. The grove was close and silent as the tomb; not a leaf +rustled, not a bird sang. + +She felt her steps before her delicately, carrying her +head low, and sighing now and then with apprehension. At last +she gave a quick breath of anxiety and dismay, and stood +stock-still, quivering in every muscle, before a dark object in +the shadow of the last palm-tree. + +Artaban dismounted. The dim starlight revealed the form +of a man lying across the road. His humble dress and the +outline of his haggard face showed that he was probably one of +the Hebrews who still dwelt in great numbers around the city. +His pallid skin, dry and yellow as parchment, bore the mark of +the deadly fever which ravaged the marsh-lands in autumn. The +chill of death was in his lean hand, and, as Artaban released +it, the arm fell back inertly upon the motionless breast. + +He turned away with a thought of pity, leaving the body to +that strange burial which the Magians deemed most fitting--the +funeral of the desert, from which the kites and vultures rise +on dark wings, and the beasts of prey slink furtively away. +When they are gone there is only a heap of white bones on the +sand. + +But, as he turned, a long, faint, ghostly sigh came from +the man's lips. The bony fingers gripped the hem of the +Magian's robe and held him fast. + +Artaban's heart leaped to his throat, not with fear, but +with a dumb resentment at the importunity of this blind delay. + +How could he stay here in the darkness to minister to a +dying stranger? What claim had this unknown fragment of human +life upon his compassion or his service? If he lingered but +for an hour he could hardly reach Borsippa at the appointed +time. His companions would think he had given up the journey. +They would go without him. He would lose his quest. + +But if he went on now, the man would surely die. If +Artaban stayed, life might be restored. His spirit throbbed +and fluttered with the urgency of the crisis. Should he risk +the great reward of his faith for the sake of a single deed of +charity? Should he turn aside, if only for a moment, from the +following of the star, to give a cup of cold water to a poor, +perishing Hebrew? + +"God of truth and purity," he prayed, "direct me in the +holy path, the way of wisdom which Thou only knowest." + +Then he turned back to the sick man. Loosening +the grasp of his hand, he carried him to a little mound at the +foot of the palm-tree. + +He unbound the thick folds of the turban and opened the +garment above the sunken breast. He brought water from one of +the small canals near by, and moistened the sufferer's brow +and mouth. He mingled a draught of one of those simple but +potent remedies which he carried always in his girdle--for the +Magians were physicians as well as astrologers--and poured it +slowly between the colourless lips. Hour after hour he +laboured as only a skilful healer of disease can do. At last +the man's strength returned; he sat up and looked about him. + + "Who art thou?" he said, in the rude dialect of the +country, "and why hast thou sought me here to bring back my +life?" + +"I am Artaban the Magian, of the city of Ecbatana, and I +am going to Jerusalem in search of one who is to be born King +of the Jews, a great Prince and Deliverer of all men. I dare +not delay any longer upon my journey, for the caravan that has +waited for me may depart without me. But see, here is all that I +have left of bread and wine, and here is a potion of healing +herbs. When thy strength is restored thou canst find the +dwellings of the Hebrews among the houses of Babylon." + +The Jew raised his trembling hand solemnly to heaven. + +"Now may the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob bless and +prosper the journey of the merciful, and bring him in peace to +his desired haven. Stay! I have nothing to give thee in +return--only this: that I can tell thee where the Messiah must +be sought. For our prophets have said that he should be born +not in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem of Judah. May the Lord +bring thee in safety to that place, because thou hast had pity +upon the sick." + +It was already long past midnight. Artaban rode in haste, +and Vasda, restored by the brief rest, ran eagerly through the +silent plain and swam the channels of the river. She put +forth the remnant of her strength, and fled over the ground +like a gazelle. + +But the first beam of the rising sun sent a long shadow before +her as she entered upon the final stadium of the journey, and the +eyes of Artaban, anxiously scanning the great mound of Nimrod and +the Temple of the Seven Spheres, could discern no trace of his +friends. + +The many-coloured terraces of black and orange and red and +yellow and green and blue and white, shattered by the +convulsions of nature, and crumbling under the repeated blows +of human violence, still glittered like a ruined rainbow in +the morning light. + +Artaban rode swiftly around the hill. He dismounted and +climbed to the highest terrace, looking out toward the west. + +The huge desolation of the marshes stretched away to the +horizon and the border of the desert. Bitterns stood by the +stagnant pools and jackals skulked through the low bushes; but +there was no sign of the caravan of the Wise Men, far or near. + +At the edge of the terrace he saw a little cairn of broken +bricks, and under them a piece of papyrus. He caught it up +and read: "We have waited past the midnight, and can delay no +longer. We go to find the King. Follow us across the desert." + +Artaban sat down upon the ground and covered his head in +despair. + +"How can I cross the desert," said he, "with no food and +with a spent horse? I must return to Babylon, sell my +sapphire, and buy a train of camels, and provision for the +journey. I may never overtake my friends. Only God the +merciful knows whether I shall not lose the sight of the King +because I tarried to show mercy." + + + +III + +There was a silence in the Hall of Dreams, where I was +listening to the story of the Other Wise Man. Through this +silence I saw, but very dimly, his figure passing over the +dreary undulations of the desert, high upon the back of his +camel, rocking steadily onward like a ship over the waves. + +The land of death spread its cruel net around him. The +stony waste bore no fruit but briers and thorns. The dark +ledges of rock thrust themselves above the surface here and +there, like the bones of perished monsters. Arid and +inhospitable mountain-ranges rose before him, furrowed with dry +channels of ancient torrents, white and ghastly as scars on the +face of nature. Shifting hills of treacherous sand were heaped +like tombs along the horizon. By day, the fierce heat pressed +its intolerable burden on the quivering air. No living creature +moved on the dumb, swooning earth, but tiny jerboas scuttling +through the parched bushes, or lizards vanishing in the clefts of +the rock. By night the jackals prowled and barked in the +distance, and the lion made the black ravines echo with his +hollow roaring, while a bitter, blighting chill followed the +fever of the day. Through heat and cold, the Magian moved +steadily onward. + +Then I saw the gardens and orchards of Damascus, watered +by the streams of Abana and Pharpar, with their sloping swards +inlaid with bloom, and their thickets of myrrh and roses. I +saw the long, snowy ridge of Hermon, and the dark groves of +cedars, and the valley of the Jordan, and the blue waters of +the Lake of Galilee, and the fertile plain of Esdraelon, and the +hills of Ephraim, and the highlands of Judah. Through all these +I followed the figure of Artaban moving steadily onward, until he +arrived at Bethlehem. And it was the third day after the three +Wise Men had come to that place and had found Mary and Joseph, +with the young child, Jesus, and had laid their gifts of gold and +frankincense and myrrh at his feet. + +Then the Other Wise Man drew near, weary, but full of +hope, bearing his ruby and his pearl to offer to the King. +"For now at last," he said, "I shall surely find him, though +I be alone, and later than my brethren. This is the place of +which the Hebrew exile told me that the prophets had spoken, +and here I shall behold the rising of the great light. But I +must inquire about the visit of my brethren, and to what house +the star directed them, and to whom they presented their +tribute." + +The streets of the village seemed to be deserted, and +Artaban wondered whether the men had all gone up to the +hill-pastures to bring down their sheep. From the open door of a +cottage he heard the sound of a woman's voice singing softly. He +entered and found a young mother hushing her baby to rest. She +told him of the strangers from the far East who had appeared in +the village three days ago, and how they said that a star had +guided them to the place where Joseph of Nazareth was lodging +with his wife and her new-born child, and how they had paid +reverence to the child and given him many rich gifts. + +"But the travellers disappeared again," she continued, "as +suddenly as they had come. We were afraid at the strangeness +of their visit. We could not understand it. The man of +Nazareth took the child and his mother, and fled away that +same night secretly, and it was whispered that they were going +to Egypt. Ever since, there has been a spell upon the +village; something evil hangs over it. They say that the +Roman soldiers are coming from Jerusalem to force a new tax +from us, and the men have driven the flocks and herds far back +among the hills, and hidden themselves to escape it." + +Artaban listened to her gentle, timid speech, and the +child in her arms looked up in his face and smiled, stretching +out its rosy hands to grasp at the winged circle of gold on +his breast. His heart warmed to the touch. It seemed like a +greeting of love and trust to one who had journeyed long in +loneliness and perplexity, fighting with his own doubts and +fears, and following a light that was veiled in clouds. + +"Why might not this child have been the promised Prince?" +he asked within himself, as he touched its soft cheek. "Kings +have been born ere now in lowlier houses than this, and the +favourite of the stars may rise even from a cottage. But it +has not seemed good to the God of wisdom to reward my search +so soon and so easily. The one whom I seek has gone before +me; and now I must follow the King to Egypt." + +The young mother laid the baby in its cradle, and rose to +minister to the wants of the strange guest that fate had +brought into her house. She set food before him, the plain +fare of peasants, but willingly offered, and therefore full of +refreshment for the soul as well as for the body. Artaban +accepted it gratefully; and, as he ate, the child fell into a +happy slumber, and murmured sweetly in its dreams, and a great +peace filled the room. + +But suddenly there came the noise of a wild confusion in +the streets of the village, a shrieking and wailing of women's +voices, a clangour of brazen trumpets and a clashing of +swords, and a desperate cry: "The soldiers! the soldiers of +Herod! They are killing our children." + The young mother's face grew white with terror. She +clasped her child to her bosom, and crouched motionless in the +darkest corner of the room, covering him with the folds of her +robe, lest he should wake and cry. + +But Artaban went quickly and stood in the doorway of the +house. His broad shoulders filled the portal from side to +side, and the peak of his white cap all but touched the +lintel. + +The soldiers came hurrying down the street with bloody +hands and dripping swords. At the sight of the stranger in +his imposing dress they hesitated with surprise. The captain +of the band approached the threshold to thrust him aside. But +Artaban did not stir. His face was as calm as though he were +watching the stars, and in his eyes there burned that steady +radiance before which even the half-tamed hunting leopard +shrinks, and the bloodhound pauses in his leap. He held the +soldier silently for an instant, and then said in a low voice: + "I am all alone in this place, and I am waiting to give +this jewel to the prudent captain who will leave me in peace." + +He showed the ruby, glistening in the hollow of his hand +like a great drop of blood. + +The captain was amazed at the splendour of the gem. The +pupils of his eyes expanded with desire, and the hard lines of +greed wrinkled around his lips. He stretched out his hand and +took the ruby. + +"March on!" he cried to his men, "there is no child here. +The house is empty." + +The clamor and the clang of arms passed down the street +as the headlong fury of the chase sweeps by the secret covert +where the trembling deer is hidden. Artaban re-entered the +cottage. He turned his face to the east and prayed: + + "God of truth, forgive my sin! I have said the thing that +is not, to save the life of a child. And two of my gifts are +gone. I have spent for man that which was meant for God. +Shall I ever be worthy to see the face of the King?" + +But the voice of the woman, weeping for joy in the shadow +behind him, said very gently: + +"Because thou hast saved the life of my little one, may +the Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face to +shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up +His countenance upon thee and give thee peace." + + + +IV + +Again there was a silence in the Hall of Dreams, deeper and +more mysterious than the first interval, and I understood that +the years of Artaban were flowing very swiftly under the +stillness, and I caught only a glimpse, here and there, of the +river of his life shining through the mist that concealed its +course. + +I saw him moving among the throngs of men in populous +Egypt, seeking everywhere for traces of the household that had +come down from Bethlehem, and finding them under the spreading +sycamore-trees of Heliopolis, and beneath the walls of the +Roman fortress of New Babylon beside the Nile--traces so faint +and dim that they vanished before him continually, as +footprints on the wet river-sand glisten for a moment with +moisture and then disappear. + +I saw him again at the foot of the pyramids, which lifted +their sharp points into the intense saffron glow of the sunset +sky, changeless monuments of the perishable glory and the +imperishable hope of man. He looked up into the face of the +crouching Sphinx and vainly tried to read the meaning of the +calm eyes and smiling mouth. Was it, indeed, the mockery of +all effort and all aspiration, as Tigranes had said--the cruel +jest of a riddle that has no answer, a search that never can +succeed? Or was there a touch of pity and encouragement in +that inscrutable smile--a promise that even the defeated +should attain a victory, and the disappointed should discover a +prize, and the ignorant should be made wise, and the blind should +see, and the wandering should come into the haven at last? + +I saw him again in an obscure house of Alexandria, taking +counsel with a Hebrew rabbi. The venerable man, bending over +the rolls of parchment on which the prophecies of Israel were +written, read aloud the pathetic words which foretold the +sufferings of the promised Messiah--the despised and rejected +of men, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. + +"And remember, my son," said he, fixing his eyes upon the +face of Artaban, "the King whom thou seekest is not to be +found in a palace, nor among the rich and powerful. If the +light of the world and the glory of Israel had been appointed +to come with the greatness of earthly splendour, it must have +appeared long ago. For no son of Abraham will ever again +rival the power which Joseph had in the palaces of Egypt, or +the magnificence of Solomon throned between the lions in +Jerusalem. But the light for which the world is waiting is a new +light, the glory that shall rise out of patient and triumphant +suffering. And the kingdom which is to be established forever is +a new kingdom, the royalty of unconquerable love. + +"I do not know how this shall come to pass, nor how the +turbulent kings and peoples of earth shall be brought to +acknowledge the Messiah and pay homage to him. But this I +know. Those who seek him will do well to look among the poor +and the lowly, the sorrowful and the oppressed." + +So I saw the Other Wise Man again and again, travelling +from place to place, and searching among the people of the +dispersion, with whom the little family from Bethlehem might, +perhaps, have found a refuge. He passed through countries +where famine lay heavy upon the land, and the poor were crying +for bread. He made his dwelling in plague-stricken cities +where the sick were languishing in the bitter companionship of +helpless misery. He visited the oppressed and the afflicted +in the gloom of subterranean prisons, and the crowded +wretchedness of slave-markets, and the weary toil of +galley-ships. In all this populous and intricate world of +anguish, though he found none to worship, he found many to help. +He fed the hungry, and clothed the naked, and healed the sick, +and comforted the captive; and his years passed more swiftly than +the weaver's shuttle that flashes back and forth through the loom +while the web grows and the pattern is completed. + +It seemed almost as if he had forgotten his quest. But +once I saw him for a moment as he stood alone at sunrise, +waiting at the gate of a Roman prison. He had taken from a +secret resting-place in his bosom the pearl, the last of his +jewels. As he looked at it, a mellower lustre, a soft and +iridescent light, full of shifting gleams of azure and rose, +trembled upon its surface. It seemed to have absorbed some +reflection of the lost sapphire and ruby. So the secret +purpose of a noble life draws into itself the memories of past +joy and past sorrow. All that has helped it, all that has +hindered it, is transfused by a subtle magic into its very +essence. It becomes more luminous and precious the longer it +is carried close to the warmth of the beating heart. + +Then, at last, while I was thinking of this pearl, and of +its meaning, I heard the end of the story of the Other Wise +Man. + + + +V + +Three-and-thirty years of the life of Artaban had passed away, +and he was still a pilgrim and a seeker after light. His +hair, once darker than the cliffs of Zagros, was now white as +the wintry snow that covered them. His eyes, that once +flashed like flames of fire, were dull as embers smouldering +among the ashes. + +Worn and weary and ready to die, but still looking for the +King, he had come for the last time to Jerusalem. He had +often visited the holy city before, and had searched all its +lanes and crowded bevels and black prisons without finding any +trace of the family of Nazarenes who had fled from Bethlehem +long ago. But now it seemed as if he must make one more +effort, and something whispered in his heart that, at last, he +might succeed. + +It was the season of the Passover. The city was thronged +with strangers. The children of Israel, scattered in far lands, +had returned to the Temple for the great feast, and there had +been a confusion of tongues in the narrow streets for many days. + +But on this day a singular agitation was visible in the +multitude. The sky was veiled with a portentous gloom. +Currents of excitement seemed to flash through the crowd. A +secret tide was sweeping them all one way. The clatter of +sandals and the soft, thick sound of thousands of bare feet +shuffling over the stones, flowed unceasingly along the street +that leads to the Damascus gate. + +Artaban joined a group of people from his own country, +Parthian Jews who had come up to keep the Passover, and +inquired of them the cause of the tumult, and where they were +going. + +"We are going," they answered, "to the place called +Golgotha, outside the city walls, where there is to be an +execution. Have you not heard what has happened? Two famous +robbers are to be crucified, and with them another, called +Jesus of Nazareth, a man who has done many wonderful works +among the people, so that they love him greatly. But the priests +and elders have said that he must die, because he gave himself +out to be the Son of God. And Pilate has sent him to the cross +because he said that he was the `King of the Jews.' + +How strangely these familiar words fell upon the tired +heart of Artaban! They had led him for a lifetime over land +and sea. And now they came to him mysteriously, like a +message of despair. The King had arisen, but he had been +denied and cast out. He was about to perish. Perhaps he was +already dying. Could it be the same who had been born in +Bethlehem thirty-three years ago, at whose birth the star had +appeared in heaven, and of whose coming the prophets had +spoken? + +Artaban's heart beat unsteadily with that troubled, +doubtful apprehension which is the excitement of old age. But +he said within himself: "The ways of God are stranger than +the thoughts of men, and it may be that I shall find the King, +at last, in the hands of his enemies, and shall come in time +to offer my pearl for his ransom before he dies." + +So the old man followed the multitude with slow and +painful steps toward the Damascus gate of the city. Just +beyond the entrance of the guardhouse a troop of Macedonian +soldiers came down the street, dragging a young girl with torn +dress and dishevelled hair. As the Magian paused to look at +her with compassion, she broke suddenly from the hands of her +tormentors, and threw herself at his feet, clasping him around +the knees. She had seen his white cap and the winged circle +on his breast. + +"Have pity on me," she cried, "and save me, for the sake +of the God of Purity! I also am a daughter of the true +religion which is taught by the Magi. My father was a +merchant of Parthia, but he is dead, and I am seized for his +debts to be sold as a slave. Save me from worse than death!" + +Artaban trembled. + +It was the old conflict in his soul, which had come to him +in the palm-grove of Babylon and in the cottage at +Bethlehem--the conflict between the expectation of faith and +the impulse of love. Twice the gift which he had consecrated +to the worship of religion had been drawn to the service of +humanity. This was the third trial, the ultimate probation, the +final and irrevocable choice. + +Was it his great opportunity, or his last temptation? He +could not tell. One thing only was clear in the darkness of +his mind--it was inevitable. And does not the inevitable come +from God? + +One thing only was sure to his divided heart--to rescue +this helpless girl would be a true deed of love. And is not +love the light of the soul? + +He took the pearl from his bosom. Never had it seemed so +luminous, so radiant, so full of tender, living lustre. He +laid it in the hand of the slave. + +"This is thy ransom, daughter! It is the last of my +treasures which I kept for the King." + +While he spoke, the darkness of the sky deepened, and +shuddering tremors ran through the earth heaving convulsively +like the breast of one who struggles with mighty grief. + +The walls of the houses rocked to and fro. Stones were +loosened and crashed into the street. Dust clouds filled the air. +The soldiers fled in terror, reeling like drunken men. But +Artaban and the girl whom he had ransomed crouched helpless +beneath the wall of the Praetorium. + +What had he to fear? What had he to hope? He had given +away the last remnant of his tribute for the King. He had +parted with the last hope of finding him. The quest was over, +and it had failed. But, even in that thought, accepted and +embraced, there was peace. It was not resignation. It was +not submission. It was something more profound and searching. +He knew that all was well, because he had done the best that +he could from day to day. He had been true to the light that +had been given to him. He had looked for more. And if he had +not found it, if a failure was all that came out of his life, +doubtless that was the best that was possible. He had not +seen the revelation of "life everlasting, incorruptible and +immortal." But he knew that even if he could live his earthly +life over again, it could not be otherwise than it had been. + +One more lingering pulsation of the earthquake quivered +through the ground. A heavy tile, shaken from the roof, fell and +struck the old man on the temple. He lay breathless and pale, +with his gray head resting on the young girl's shoulder, and the +blood trickling from the wound. As she bent over him, fearing +that he was dead, there came a voice through the twilight, very +small and still, like music sounding from a distance, in which +the notes are clear but the words are lost. The girl turned to +see if some one had spoken from the window above them, but she +saw no one. + +Then the old man's lips began to move, as if in answer, +and she heard him say in the Parthian tongue: + +"Not so, my Lord! For when saw I thee an hungered and fed +thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw I thee a +stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? When +saw I thee sick or in prison, and came unto thee? Three-and-- +thirty years have I looked for thee; but I have never seen thy +face, nor ministered to thee, my King." + +He ceased, and the sweet voice came again. And +again the maid heard it, very faint and far away. But now it +seemed as though she understood the words: + +"Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it +unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it +unto me." + +A calm radiance of wonder and joy lighted the pale face of +Artaban like the first ray of dawn, on a snowy mountain-peak. +A long breath of relief exhaled gently from his lips. + +His journey was ended. His treasures were accepted. The +Other Wise Man had found the King. + + + +A HANDFUL OF CLAY + +There was a handful of clay in the bank of a river. It was +only common clay, coarse and heavy; but it had high thoughts +of its own value, and wonderful dreams of the great place +which it was to fill in the world when the time came for its +virtues to be discovered. + +Overhead, in the spring sunshine, the trees whispered +together of the glory which descended upon them when the +delicate blossoms and leaves began to expand, and the forest +glowed with fair, clear colours, as if the dust of thousands +of rubies and emeralds were hanging, in soft clouds, above the +earth. + +The flowers, surprised with the joy of beauty, bent their +heads to one another, as the wind caressed them, and said: +"Sisters, how lovely you have become. You make the day +bright." + +The river, glad of new strength and rejoicing in the +unison of all its waters, murmured to the shores in music, +telling of its release from icy fetters, its swift flight from +the snow-clad mountains, and the mighty work to which it was +hurrying--the wheels of many mills to be turned, and great ships +to be floated to the sea. + +Waiting blindly in its bed, the clay comforted itself with +lofty hopes. "My time will come," it said. "I was not made +to be hidden forever. Glory and beauty and honour are coming +to me in due season." + +One day the clay felt itself taken from the place where it +had waited so long. A flat blade of iron passed beneath it, +and lifted it, and tossed it into a cart with other lumps of +clay, and it was carried far away, as it seemed, over a rough +and stony road. But it was not afraid, nor discouraged, for +it said to itself: "This is necessary. The path to glory is +always rugged. Now I am on my way to play a great part in the +world." + +But the hard journey was nothing compared with the +tribulation and distress that came after it. The clay was put +into a trough and mixed and beaten and stirred and trampled. +It seemed almost unbearable. But there was consolation in the +thought that something very fine and noble was certainly +coming out of all this trouble. The clay felt sure that, if +it could only wait long enough, a wonderful reward was in +store for it. + +Then it was put upon a swiftly turning wheel, and whirled +around until it seemed as if it must fly into a thousand +pieces. A strange power pressed it and moulded it, as it +revolved, and through all the dizziness and pain it felt that +it was taking a new form. + +Then an unknown hand put it into an oven, and fires were +kindled about it--fierce and penetrating--hotter than all the +heats of summer that had ever brooded upon the bank of the +river. But through all, the clay held itself together and +endured its trials, in the confidence of a great future. +"Surely," it thought, "I am intended for something very +splendid, since such pains are taken with me. Perhaps I am +fashioned for the ornament of a temple, or a precious vase for +the table of a king." + +At last the baking was finished. The clay was taken from +the furnace and set down upon a board, in the cool air, under the +blue sky. The tribulation was passed. The reward was at hand. + +Close beside the board there was a pool of water, not very +deep, nor very clear, but calm enough to reflect, with +impartial truth, every image that fell upon it. There, for +the first time, as it was lifted from the board, the clay saw +its new shape, the reward of all its patience and pain, the +consummation of its hopes--a common flower-pot, straight and +stiff, red and ugly. And then it felt that it was not +destined for a king's house, nor for a palace of art, because +it was made without glory or beauty or honour; and it murmured +against the unknown maker, saying, "Why hast thou made me +thus?" + +Many days it passed in sullen discontent. Then it was +filled with earth, and something--it knew not what--but +something rough and brown and dead-looking, was thrust into +the middle of the earth and covered over. The clay rebelled +at this new disgrace. "This is the worst of all that has +happened to me, to be filled with dirt and rubbish. Surely I +am a failure." + +But presently it was set in a greenhouse, where the +sunlight fell warm upon it, and water was sprinkled over it, +and day by day as it waited, a change began to come to it. +Something was stirring within it--a new hope. Still it was +ignorant, and knew not what the new hope meant. + +One day the clay was lifted again from its place, and +carried into a great church. Its dream was coming true after +all. It had a fine part to play in the world. Glorious music +flowed over it. It was surrounded with flowers. Still it +could not understand. So it whispered to another vessel of +clay, like itself, close beside it, "Why have they set me +here? Why do all the people look toward us?" And the other +vessel answered, "Do you not know? You are carrying a royal +sceptre of lilies. Their petals are white as snow, and the +heart of them is like pure gold. The people look this way +because the flower is the most wonderful in the world. And +the root of it is in your heart." + +Then the clay was content, and silently thanked its maker, +because, though an earthen vessel, it held so great a +treasure. + + + + + +THE LOST WORD + + +"Come down, Hermas, come down! The night is past. It is time +to be stirring. Christ is born today. Peace be with you in +His name. Make haste and come down!" + + A little group of young men were standing in a street of +Antioch, in the dusk of early morning, fifteen hundred years +ago--a class of candidates who had nearly finished their years +of training for the Christian church. They had come to call +their fellow-student Hermas from his lodging. + +Their voices rang out cheerily through the cool air. They +were full of that glad sense of life which the young feel when +they have risen early and come to rouse one who is still +sleeping. There was a note of friendly triumph in their call, +as if they were exulting unconsciously in having begun the +adventure of the new day before their comrade. + +But Hermas was not asleep. He had been waking for hours, +and the walls of his narrow lodging had been a prison to his +heart. A nameless sorrow and discontent had fallen upon him, and +he could find no escape from the heaviness of his own thoughts. + +There is a sadness of youth into which the old cannot +enter. It seems unreal and causeless. But it is even more +bitter and burdensome than the sadness of age. There is a +sting of resentment in it, a fever of angry surprise that the +world should so soon be a disappointment, and life so early +take on the look of a failure. It has little reason in it, +perhaps, but it has all the more weariness and gloom, because +the man who is oppressed by it feels dimly that it is an +unnatural thing that he should be tired of living before he +has fairly begun to live. + +Hermas had fallen into the very depths of this strange +self-pity. He was out of tune with everything around him. He +had been thinking, through the dead night, of all that he had +given up when he left the house of his father, the wealthy +pagan Demetrius, to join the company of the Christians. Only +two years ago he had been one of the richest young men in +Antioch. Now he was one of the poorest. The worst of it was +that, though he had made the choice willingly and with a kind of +enthusiasm, he was already dissatisfied with it. + +The new life was no happier than the old. He was weary of +vigils and fasts, weary of studies and penances, weary of +prayers and sermons. He felt like a slave in a treadmill. He +knew that he must go on. His honour, his conscience, his +sense of duty, bound him. He could not go back to the old +careless pagan life again; for something had happened within +him which made a return impossible. Doubtless he had found +the true religion, but he had found it only as a task and a +burden; its joy and peace had slipped away from him. + +He felt disillusioned and robbed. He sat beside his hard +couch, waiting without expectancy for the gray dawn of another +empty day, and hardly lifting his head at the shouts of his +friends. + +"Come down, Hermas, you sluggard! Come down! It is +Christmas morn. Awake, and be glad with us!" + +"I am coming," he answered listlessly; "only have patience +a moment. I have been awake since midnight, and waiting for +the day." + +"You hear him!" said his friends one to another. "How he +puts us all to shame! He is more watchful, more eager, than +any of us. Our master, John the Presbyter, does well to be +proud of him. He is the best man in our class." + +While they were talking the door opened and Hermas stepped +out. He was a figure to be remarked in any company--tall, +broad-shouldered, straight-hipped, with a head proudly poised +on the firm column of the neck, and short brown curls +clustering over the square forehead. It was the perpetual +type of vigorous and intelligent young manhood, such as may be +found in every century among the throngs of ordinary men, as +if to show what the flower of the race should be. But the +light in his eyes was clouded and uncertain; his smooth cheeks +were leaner than they should have been at twenty; and there +were downward lines about his mouth which spoke of desires +unsatisfied and ambitions repressed. He joined his +companions with brief greetings,--a nod to one, a word to +another,--and they passed together down the steep street. + +Overhead the mystery of daybreak was silently +transfiguring the sky. The curtain of darkness had lifted +along the edge of the horizon. The ragged crests of Mount +Silpius were outlined with pale saffron light. In the central +vault of heaven a few large stars twinkled drowsily. The +great city, still chiefly pagan, lay more than half-asleep. +But multitudes of the Christians, dressed in white and carrying +lighted torches in their hands, were hurrying toward the +Basilica of Constantine to keep the new holy-day of the +church, the festival of the birthday of their Master. + +The vast, bare building was soon crowded, and the younger +converts, who were not yet permitted to stand among the +baptised, found it difficult to come to their appointed place +between the first two pillars of the house, just within the +threshold. There was some good-humoured pressing and jostling +about the door; but the candidates pushed steadily forward. + +"By your leave, friends, our station is beyond you. Will +you let us pass? Many thanks." + +A touch here, a courteous nod there, a little patience, a +little persistence, and at last they stood in their place. +Hermas was taller than his companions; he could look easily +over their heads and survey the sea of people stretching away +through the columns, under the shadows of the high roof, as +the tide spreads on a calm day into the pillared cavern of +Staffa, quiet as if the ocean hardly dared to breathe. The +light of many flambeaux fell, in flickering, uncertain rays, +over the assembly. At the end of the vista there was a circle +of clearer, steadier radiance. Hermas could see the bishop in +his great chair, surrounded by the presbyters, the lofty desks +on either side for the readers of the Scripture, the +communion-table and the table of offerings in the middle of +the church. + +The call to prayer sounded down the long aisle. Thousands +of hands were joyously lifted in the air, as if the sea had +blossomed into waving lilies, and the "Amen" was like the +murmur of countless ripples in an echoing place. + +Then the singing began, led by the choir of a hundred +trained voices which the Bishop Paul had founded in Antioch. +Timidly, at first, the music felt its way, as the people +joined with a broken and uncertain cadence: the mingling of +many little waves not yet gathered into rhythm and harmony. +Soon the longer, stronger billows of song rolled in, sweeping +from side to side as the men and the women answered in the +clear antiphony. + +Hermas had often been carried on those + + Tides of music's golden sea + Selling toward eternity. + +But to-day his heart was a rock that stood motionless. The +flood passed by and left him unmoved. + +Looking out from his place at the foot of the pillar, he +saw a man standing far off in the lofty bema. Short and +slender, wasted by sickness, gray before his time, with pale +cheeks and wrinkled brow, he seemed at first like a person of +no significance--a reed shaken in the wind. But there was a +look in his deep-set, poignant eyes, as he gathered all the +glances of the multitude to himself, that belied his mean +appearance and prophesied power. Hermas knew very well who it +was: the man who had drawn him from his father's house, the +teacher who was instructing him as a son in the Christian faith, +the guide and trainer of his soul--John of Antioch, whose fame +filled the city and began to overflow Asia, and who was called +already Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed preacher. + +Hermas had felt the magic of his eloquence many a time; +and to-day, as the tense voice vibrated through the stillness, +and the sentences moved onward, growing fuller and stronger, +bearing argosies of costly rhetoric and treasures of homely +speech in their bosom, and drawing the hearts of men with a +resistless magic, Hermas knew that the preacher had never been +more potent, more inspired. + +He played on that immense congregation as a master on an +instrument. He rebuked their sins, and they trembled. He +touched their sorrows, and they wept. He spoke of the +conflicts, the triumphs, the glories of their faith, and they +broke out in thunders of applause. He hushed them into reverent +silence, and led them tenderly, with the wise men of the East, to +the lowly birthplace of Jesus. + +"Do thou, therefore, likewise leave the Jewish people, the +troubled city, the bloodthirsty tyrant, the pomp of the world, +and hasten to Bethlehem, the sweet house of spiritual bread. +For though thou be but a shepherd, and come hither, thou shalt +behold the young Child in an inn. Though thou be a king, and +come not hither, thy purple robe shall profit thee nothing. +Though thou be one of the wise men, this shall be no hindrance +to thee. Only let thy coming be to honour and adore, with +trembling joy, the Son of God, to whose name be glory, on this +His birthday, and forever and forever." + +The soul of Hermas did not answer to the musician's touch. +The strings of his heart were slack and soundless; there was +no response within him. He was neither shepherd, nor king, +nor wise man; only an unhappy, dissatisfied, questioning +youth. He was out of sympathy with the eager preacher, +the joyous hearers. In their harmony he had no part. Was it +for this that he had forsaken his inheritance and narrowed his +life to poverty and hardship? What was it all worth? + +The gracious prayers with which the young converts were +blessed and dismissed before the sacrament sounded hollow in +his ears. Never had he felt so utterly lonely as in that +praying throng. He went out with his companions like a man +departing from a banquet where all but he had been fed. + +"Farewell, Hermas," they cried, as he turned from them at +the door. But he did not look back, nor wave his hand. He +was already alone in his heart. + + +When he entered the broad Avenue of the Colonnades, the +sun had already topped the eastern hills, and the ruddy light +was streaming through the long double row of archways and over +the pavements of crimson marble. But Hermas turned his back +to the morning, and walked with his shadow before him. + +The street began to swarm and whirl and quiver with the +motley life of a huge city: beggars and jugglers, dancers and +musicians, gilded youths in their chariots, and daughters of +joy looking out from their windows, all intoxicated with the +mere delight of living and the gladness of a new day. The +pagan populace of Antioch--reckless, pleasure-loving, +spendthrift--were preparing for the Saturnalia. But all this +Hermas had renounced. He cleft his way through the crowd +slowly, like a reluctant swimmer weary of breasting the tide. + +At the corner of the street where the narrow, populous +Lane of the Camel-drivers crossed the Colonnades, a +storyteller had bewitched a circle of people around him. It +was the same old tale of love and adventure that many +generations have listened to; but the lively fancy of the +hearers rent it new interest, and the wit of the improviser +drew forth sighs of interest and shouts of laughter. + +A yellow-haired girl on the edge of the throng turned, as +Hermas passed, and smiled in his face. She put out her hand +and caught him by the sleeve. + +"Stay," she said, "and laugh a bit with us. I know who +you are--the son of Demetrius. You must have bags of gold. +Why do you look so black? Love is alive yet." + +Hermas shook off her hand, but not ungently. + +"I don't know what you mean," he said. "You are mistaken +in me. I am poorer than you are." + +But as he passed on, he felt the warm touch of her fingers +through the cloth on his arm. It seemed as if she had plucked +him by the heart. + +He went out by the Western Gate, under the golden cherubim +that the Emperor Titus had stolen from the ruined Temple of +Jerusalem and fixed upon the arch of triumph. He turned to +the left, and climbed the hill to the road that led to the +Grove of Daphne. + +In all the world there was no other highway as beautiful. +It wound for five miles along the foot of the mountains, among +gardens and villas, plantations of myrtles and mulberries, +with wide outlooks over the valley of Orontes and the distant, +shimmering sea. + +The richest of all the dwellings was the House +of the Golden Pillars, the mansion of Demetrius. He had won +the favor of the apostate Emperor Julian, whose vain efforts +to restore the worship of the heathen gods, some twenty years +ago, had opened an easy way to wealth and power for all who +would mock and oppose Christianity. Demetrius was not a +sincere fanatic like his royal master; but he was bitter +enough in his professed scorn of the new religion, to make him +a favourite at the court where the old religion was in +fashion. He had reaped a rich reward of his policy, and a +strange sense of consistency made him more fiercely loyal to +it than if it had been a real faith. He was proud of being +called "the friend of Julian"; and when his son joined himself +to the Christians, and acknowledged the unseen God, it seemed +like an insult to his father's success. He drove the boy from +his door and disinherited him. + +The glittering portico of the serene, haughty house, the +repose of the well-ordered garden, still blooming with belated +flowers, seemed at once to deride and to invite the young +outcast plodding along the dusty road. "This is your +birthright," whispered the clambering rose-trees by the gate; and +the closed portals of carven bronze said: "You have sold it for +a thought--a dream."' + + + +II + +Hermas found the Grove of Daphne quite deserted. There was no +sound in the enchanted vale but the rustling of the light +winds chasing each other through the laurel thickets, and the +babble of innumerable streams. Memories of the days and +nights of delicate pleasure that the grove had often seen +still haunted the bewildered paths and broken fountains. At +the foot of a rocky eminence, crowned with the ruins of +Apollo's temple, which had been mysteriously destroyed by fire +just after Julian had restored and reconsecrated it, Hermas +sat down beside a gushing spring, and gave himself up to +sadness. + +"How beautiful the world would be, how joyful, how easy to +live in, without religion! These questions about unseen +things, perhaps about unreal things, these restraints and +duties and sacrifices-if I were only free from them all, and +could only forget them all, then I could live my life as I +pleased, and be happy." + +"Why not?" said a quiet voice at his back. + +He turned, and saw an old man with a long beard and a +threadbare cloak (the garb affected by the pagan philosophers) +standing behind him and smiling curiously. + +"How is it that you answer that which has not been +spoken?" said Hermas; "and who are you that honour me with +your company?" + +"Forgive the intrusion," answered the stranger; "it is not +ill meant. A friendly interest is as good as an introduction." + +"But to what singular circumstance do I owe this interest?" + +"To your face," said the old man, with a courteous +inclination. "Perhaps also a little to the fact that I am the +oldest inhabitant here, and feel as if all visitors were my +guests, in a way." + +"Are you, then, one of the keepers of the grove? And have +you given up your work with the trees to take a holiday as a +philosopher? + +"Not at all. The robe of philosophy is a mere +affectation, I must confess. I think little of it. My +profession is the care of altars. In fact, I am the solitary +priest of Apollo whom the Emperor Julian found here when he +came to revive the worship of the grove, some twenty years +ago. You have heard of the incident?" + +"Yes," said Hermas, beginning to be interested; "the whole +city must have heard of it, for it is still talked of. But +surely it was a strange sacrifice that you brought to +celebrate the restoration of Apollo's temple?" + +"You mean the ancient goose?" said the old man laughing. +"Well, perhaps it was not precisely what the emperor expected. +But it was all that I had, and it seemed to me not +inappropriate. You will agree to that if you are a Christian, +as I guess from your dress." + +"You speak lightly for a priest of Apollo." + +"Oh, as for that, I am no bigot. The priesthood is a +professional matter, and the name of Apollo is as good as any +other. How many altars do you think there have been in this +grove?" + +"I do not know." + +"Just four-and-twenty, including that of the martyr +Babylas, whose ruined chapel you see just beyond us. I have +had something to do with most of them in my time. They are +transitory. They give employment to care-takers for a while. +But the thing that lasts, and the thing that interests me, is +the human life that plays around them. The game has been +going on for centuries. It still disports itself very +pleasantly on summer evenings through these shady walks. +Believe me, for I know. Daphne and Apollo are shadows. But +the flying maidens and the pursuing lovers, the music and the +dances, these are realities. Life is a game, and the world +keeps it up merrily. But you? You are of a sad countenance +for one so young and so fair. Are you a loser in the game?" + The words and tone of the speaker fitted Hermas' mood as +a key fits the lock. He opened his heart to the old man, and +told him the story of his life: his luxurious boyhood in his +father's house; the irresistible spell which compelled him to +forsake it when he heard John's preaching of the new religion; +his lonely year with the anchorites among the mountains; the +strict discipline in his teacher's house at Antioch; his +weariness of duty, his distaste for poverty, his discontent with +worship. + +"And to-day," said he, "I have been thinking that I am a +fool. My life is swept as bare as a hermit's cell. There is +nothing in it but a dream, a thought of God, which does not +satisfy me." + +The singular smile deepened on his companion's face. "You +are ready, then," he suggested, "to renounce your new religion +and go back to that of your father?" + +"No; I renounce nothing, I accept nothing. I do not wish +to think about it. I only wish to live." + +"A very reasonable wish, and I think you are about to see +its accomplishment. Indeed, I may even say that I can put you +in the way of securing it. Do you believe in magic?" + +"I do not know whether I believe in anything. This is not +a day on which I care to make professions of faith. I believe +in what I see. I want what will give me pleasure." + +"Well," said the old man, soothingly, as he plucked a leaf +from the laurel-tree above them and dipped it in the spring, "let +us dismiss the riddles of belief. I like them as little as you +do. You know this is a Castalian fountain. The Emperor Hadrian +once read his fortune here from a leaf dipped in the water. Let +us see what this leaf tells us. It is already turning yellow. +How do you read that?" + +"Wealth," said Hermas, laughing, as he looked at his mean +garments. + +"And here is a bud on the stem that seems to be swelling. +What is that?" + +"Pleasure," answered Hermas, bitterly. + +"And here is a tracing of wreaths upon the surface. What +do you make of that?" + +"What you will," said Hermas, not even taking the trouble +to look. "Suppose we say success and fame?" + +"Yes," said the stranger; "it is all written here. I +promise that you shall enjoy it all. But you do not need to +believe in my promise. I am not in the habit of requiring +faith of those whom I would serve. No such hard conditions +for me! There is only one thing that I ask. This is the season +that you Christians call the Christmas, and you have taken up the +pagan custom of exchanging gifts. Well, if I give to you, you +must give to me. It is a small thing, and really the thing you +can best afford to part with: a single word--the name of Him you +profess to worship. Let me take that word and all that +belongs to it entirely out of your life, so that you shall +never hear it or speak it again. You will be richer without +it. I promise you everything, and this is all I ask in +return. Do you consent?" + +"Yes. I consent," said Hermas, mocking. "If you can take +your price, a word, you can keep your promise, a dream." + +The stranger laid the long, cool, wet leaf softly across +the young man's eyes. An icicle of pain darted through them; +every nerve in his body was drawn together there in a knot of +agony. + +Then all the tangle of pain seemed to be lifted out of +him. A cool languor of delight flowed back through every +vein, and he sank into a profound sleep. + + +III + +There is a slumber so deep that it annihilates time. It is +like a fragment of eternity. Beneath its enchantment of +vacancy, a day seems like a thousand years, and a thousand +years might well pass as one day. + +It was such a sleep that fell upon Hermas in the Grove of +Daphne. An immeasurable period, an interval of life so blank +and empty that he could not tell whether it was long or short, +had passed over him when his senses began to stir again. The +setting sun was shooting arrows of gold under the glossy +laurel-leaves. He rose and stretched his arms, grasping a +smooth branch above him and shaking it, to make sure that he +was alive. Then he hurried back toward Antioch, treading +lightly as if on air. + +The ground seemed to spring beneath his feet. Already his +life had changed, he knew not how. Something that did not +belong to him had dropped away; he had returned to a former +state of being. He felt as if anything might happen to him, and +he was ready for anything. He was a new man, yet curiously +familiar to himself--as if he had done with playing a tiresome +part and returned to his natural state. He was buoyant and free, +without a care, a doubt, a fear. + +As he drew near to his father's house he saw a confusion +of servants in the porch, and the old steward ran down to meet +him at the gate. + +"Lord, we have been seeking you everywhere. The master is +at the point of death, and has sent for you. Since the sixth +hour he calls your name continually. Come to him quickly, +lord, for I fear the time is short." + +Hermas entered the house at once; nothing could amaze him +to-day. His father lay on an ivory couch in the inmost +chamber, with shrunken face and restless eyes, his lean +fingers picking incessantly at the silken coverlet. + +"My son!" he murmured; "Hermas, my son! It is good that +you have come back to me. I have missed you. I was wrong to +send you away. You shall never leave me again. You are my +son, my heir. I have changed everything. Hermas, my son, come +nearer--close beside me. Take my hand, my son!" + +The young man obeyed, and, kneeling by the couch, gathered +his father's cold, twitching fingers in his firm, warm grasp. + +"Hermas, life is passing--long, rich, prosperous; the last +sands, I cannot stay them. My religion, a good policy--Julian +was my friend. But now he is gone--where? My soul is +empty--nothing beyond--very dark--I am afraid. But you know +something better. You found something that made you willing +to give up your life for it--it, must have been almost like +dying--yet you were happy. What was it you found? See, I am +giving you everything. I have forgiven you. Now forgive me. +Tell me, what is it? Your secret, your faith--give it to me +before I go." + +At the sound of this broken pleading a strange passion of +pity and love took the young man by the throat. His voice +shook a little as he answered eagerly: + +"Father, there is nothing to forgive. I am your son; I will +gladly tell you all that I know. I will give you the secret. +Father, you must believe with all your heart, and soul, and +strength in--" + +Where was the word--the word that he had been used to +utter night and morning, the word that had meant to him more +than he had ever known? What had become of it? + +He groped for it in the dark room of his mind. He had +thought he could lay his hand upon it in a moment, but it was +gone. Some one had taken it away. Everything else was most +clear to him: the terror of death; the lonely soul appealing +from his father's eyes; the instant need of comfort and help. +But at the one point where he looked for help he could find +nothing; only an empty space. The word of hope had vanished. +He felt for it blindly and in desperate haste. + +"Father, wait! I have forgotten something--it has slipped +away from me. I shall find it in a moment. There is hope--I +will tell you presently--oh, wait!" + +The bony hand gripped his like a vice; the glazed eyes opened +wider. "Tell me," whispered the old man; "tell me quickly, for I +must go." + +The voice sank into a dull rattle. The fingers closed +once more, and relaxed. The light behind the eyes went out. + +Hermas, the master of the House of the Golden Pillars, was +keeping watch by the dead. + + + +IV + +The break with the old life was as clean as if it had been cut +with a knife. Some faint image of a hermit's cell, a bare +lodging in a back street of Antioch, a class-room full of +earnest students, remained in Hermas' memory. Some dull echo +of the voice of John the Presbyter, and the measured sound of +chanting, and the murmur of great congregations, still +lingered in his ears; but it was like something that had +happened to another person, something that he had read long +ago, but of which he had lost the meaning. + +His new life was full and smooth and rich--too rich for +any sense of loss to make itself felt. There were a hundred +affairs to busy him, and the days ran swiftly by as if they were +shod with winged sandals. + +Nothing needed to be considered, prepared for, begun. +Everything was ready and waiting for him. All that he had to +do was to go on. + +The estate of Demetrius was even greater than the world +had supposed. There were fertile lands in Syria which the +emperor had given him, marble-quarries in Phrygia, and forests +of valuable timber in Cilicia; the vaults of the villa +contained chests of gold and silver; the secret cabinets in +the master's room were full of precious stones. The stewards +were diligent and faithful. The servants of the household +rejoiced at the young master's return. His table was spread; +the rose-garland of pleasure was woven for his head; his cup +was overflowing with the spicy wine of power. + +The period of mourning for his father came at a fortunate +moment to seclude and safeguard him from the storm of +political troubles and persecutions that fell upon Antioch +after the insults offered by the people to the imperial +statues in the year 387. The friends of Demetrius, prudent and +conservative persons, gathered around Hermas and made him welcome +to their circle. Chief among them was Libanius, the sophist, his +nearest neighbour, whose daughter Athenais had been the playmate +of Hermas in the old days. + +He had left her a child. He found her a beautiful woman. +What transformation is so magical, so charming, as this? To +see the uncertain lines of youth rounded into firmness and +symmetry, to discover the half-ripe, merry, changing face of +the girl matured into perfect loveliness, and looking at you +with calm, clear, serious eyes, not forgetting the past, but +fully conscious of the changed present--this is to behold a +miracle in the flesh. + +"Where have you been, these two years?" said Athenais, as +they walked together through the garden of lilies where they +had so often played. + +"In a land of tiresome dreams," answered Hermas; "but you +have wakened me, and I am never going back again." + +It was not to be supposed that the sudden disappearance of +Hermas from among his former associates could long remain +unnoticed. At first it was a mystery. There was a fear, for two +or three days, that he might be lost. Some of his more intimate +companions maintained that his devotion had led him out into the +desert to join the anchorites. But the news of his return to the +House of the Golden Pillars, and of his new life as its +master, filtered quickly through the gossip of the city. + +Then the church was filled with dismay and grief and +reproach. Messengers and letters were sent to Hermas. They +disturbed him a little, but they took no hold upon him. It +seemed to him as if the messengers spoke in a strange +language. As he read the letters there were words blotted out +of the writing which made the full sense unintelligible. + +His old companions came to reprove him for leaving them, +to warn him of the peril of apostasy, to entreat him to +return. It all sounded vague and futile. They spoke as if he +had betrayed or offended some one; but when they came to name +the object of his fear--the one whom he had displeased, and to +whom he should return--he heard nothing; there was a blur of +silence in their speech. The clock pointed to the hour, but the +bell did not strike. At last Hermas refused to see them any +more. + +One day John the Presbyter stood in the atrium. Hermas +was entertaining Libanius and Athenais in the banquet-hall. +When the visit of the Presbyter was announced, the young +master loosed a collar of gold and jewels from his neck, and +gave it to his scribe. + +"Take this to John of Antioch, and tell him it is a gift +from his former pupil--as a token of remembrance, or to spend +for the poor of the city. I will always send him what he +wants, but it is idle for us to talk together any more. I do +not understand what he says. I have not gone to the temple, +nor offered sacrifice, nor denied his teaching. I have simply +forgotten. I do not think about those things any longer. I +am only living. A happy man wishes him all happiness and +farewell." + +But John let the golden collar fall on the marble floor. +"Tell your master that we shall talk together again, in due +time," said he, as he passed sadly out of +the hall. + +The love of Athenais and Hermas was like a tiny rivulet +that sinks out of sight in a cavern, but emerges again a +bright and brimming stream. The careless comradery of +childhood was mysteriously changed into a complete +companionship. + +When Athenais entered the House of the Golden Pillars as +a bride, all the music of life came with her. Hermas called +the feast of her welcome "the banquet of the full chord." Day +after day, night after night, week after week, month after +month, the bliss of the home unfolded like a rose of a +thousand leaves. When a child came to them, a strong, +beautiful boy, worthy to be the heir of such a house, the +heart of the rose was filled with overflowing fragrance. +Happiness was heaped upon happiness. Every wish brought its +own accomplishment. Wealth, honour, beauty, peace, love--it +was an abundance of felicity so great that the soul of Hermas +could hardly contain it. + +Strangely enough, it began to press upon him, to trouble +him with the very excess of joy. He felt as if there were +something yet needed to complete and secure it all. There was an +urgency within him, a longing to find some outlet for his +feelings, he knew not how--some expression and culmination of his +happiness, he knew not what. + +Under his joyous demeanour a secret fire of restlessness +began to burn--an expectancy of something yet to come which +should put the touch of perfection on his life. He spoke of +it to Athenais, as they sat together, one summer evening, in +a bower of jasmine, with their boy playing at their feet. +There had been music in the garden; but now the singers and +lute-players had withdrawn, leaving the master and mistress +alone in the lingering twilight, tremulous with inarticulate +melody of unseen birds. There was a secret voice in the hour +seeking vainly for utterance a word waiting to be spoken. + +"How deep is our happiness, my beloved!" said Hermas; +"deeper than the sea that slumbers yonder, below the city. +And yet it is not quite full and perfect. There is a depth of +joy that we have not yet known--a repose of happiness that is +still beyond us. What is it? I have no superstitions, like the +king who cast his signet-ring into the sea because he dreaded +that some secret vengeance would fall on his unbroken good +fortune. That was an idle terror. But there is something +that oppresses me like an invisible burden. There is +something still undone, unspoken, unfelt--something that we +need to complete everything. Have you not felt it, too? Can +you not lead me to it?" + +"Yes," she answered, lifting her eyes to his face; "I, +too, have felt it, Hermas, this burden, this need, this +unsatisfied longing. I think I know what it means. It is +gratitude--the language of the heart, the music of happiness. +There is no perfect joy without gratitude. But we have never +learned it, and the want of it troubles us. It is like being +dumb with a heart full of love. We must find the word for it, +and say it together. Then we shall be perfectly joined in +perfect joy. Come, my dear lord, let us take the boy with us, +and give thanks." + +Hermas lifted the child in his arms, and turned with +Athenais into the depth of the garden. There was a dismantled +shrine of some forgotten fashion of worship half-hidden among the +luxuriant flowers. A fallen image lay beside it, face downward +in the grass. They stood there, hand in hand, the boy drowsily +resting on his father's shoulder. + +Silently the roseate light caressed the tall spires of the +cypress-trees; silently the shadows gathered at their feet; +silently the tranquil stars looked out from the deepening arch +of heaven. The very breath of being paused. It was the hour +of culmination, the supreme moment of felicity waiting for its +crown. The tones of Hermas were clear and low as he began, +half-speaking and half-chanting, in the rhythm of an ancient +song: + +"Fair is the world, the sea, the sky, the double kingdom +of day and night, in the glow of morning, in the shadow of +evening, and under the dripping light of stars. + +"Fairer still is life in our breasts, with its manifold +music and meaning, with its wonder of seeing and hearing and +feeling and knowing and being. + +"Fairer and still more fair is love, that draws us together, +mingles our lives in its flow, and bears them along like a river, +strong and clear and swift, reflecting the stars in its bosom. + +"Wide is our world; we are rich; we have all things. Life +is abundant within us--a measureless deep. Deepest of all is +our love, and it longs to speak. + +"Come, thou final word; Come, thou crown of speech! Come, +thou charm of peace! Open the gates of our hearts. Lift the +weight of our joy and bear it upward. + +"For all good gifts, for all perfect gifts, for love, for +life, for the world, we praise, we bless, we thank--" + + +As a soaring bird, struck by an arrow, falls headlong from +the sky, so the song of Hermas fell. At the end of his flight +of gratitude there was nothing--a blank, a hollow space. + + +He looked for a face, and saw a void. He sought for a +hand, and clasped vacancy. His heart was throbbing and +swelling with passion; the bell swung to and fro within him, +beating from side to side as if it would burst; but not a +single note came from it. All the fulness of his feeling, +that had risen upward like a fountain, fell back from the empty +sky, as cold as snow, as hard as hail, frozen and dead. There +was no meaning in his happiness. No one had sent it to him. +There was no one to thank for it. His felicity was a closed +circle, a wall of ice. + +"Let us go back," he said sadly to Athenais; "the child is +heavy upon my shoulder. We will lay him to sleep, and go into +the library. The air grows chilly. We were mistaken. The +gratitude of life is only a dream. There is no one to thank." + +And in the garden it was already night. + + + +V + +No outward change came to the House of the Golden Pillars. +Everything moved as smoothly, as delicately, as prosperously, +as before. But inwardly there was a subtle, inexplicable +transformation. A vague discontent, a final and inevitable +sense of incompleteness, overshadowed existence from that +night when Hermas realised that his joy could never go beyond +itself. + +The next morning the old man whom he had seen in the Grove +of Daphne, but never since, appeared mysteriously at the door +of the house, as if he had been sent for, and entered like an +invited guest. + +Hermas could not but make him welcome, and at first he +tried to regard him with reverence and affection as the one +through whom fortune had come. But it was impossible. There +was a chill in the inscrutable smile of Marcion, as he called +himself, that seemed to mock at reverence. He was in the +house as one watching a strange experiment--tranquil, +interested, ready to supply anything that might be needed for +its completion, but thoroughly indifferent to the feelings of +the subject; an anatomist of life, looking curiously to see +how long it would continue, and how it would act, after the +heart had been removed. + +In his presence Hermas was conscious of a certain +irritation, a resentful anger against the calm, frigid +scrutiny of the eyes that followed him everywhere, like a pair +of spies, peering out over the smiling mouth and the long +white beard. + +"Why do you look at me so curiously?" asked Hermas, one +morning, as they sat together in the library. "Do you see +anything strange in me?" + +"No," answered Marcion; "something familiar." + +"And what is that?" + +"A singular likeness to a discontented young man that I +met some years ago in the Grove of Daphne." + +"But why should that interest you? Surely it was to be +expected." + +"A thing that we expect often surprises us when we see it. +Besides, my curiosity is piqued. I suspect you of keeping a +secret from me." + +"You are jesting with me. There is nothing in my life +that you do not know. What is the secret?" + +"Nothing more than the wish to have one. You are growing +tired of your bargain. The play wearies you. That is +foolish. Do you want to try a new part?" + +The question was like a mirror upon which one comes +suddenly in a half-lighted room. A quick illumination falls on +it, and the passer-by is startled by the look of his own face. + +"You are right," said Hermas. "I am tired. We have been +going on stupidly in this house, as if nothing were possible +but what my father had done before me. There is nothing +original in being rich, and well-fed, and well-dressed. +Thousands of men have tried it, and have not been satisfied. Let +us do something new. Let us make a mark in the world." + +"It is well said," nodded the old man; "you are speaking +again like a man after my own heart. There is no folly but +the loss of an opportunity to enjoy a new sensation." + +From that day Hermas seemed to be possessed with a +perpetual haste, an uneasiness that left him no repose. The +summit of life had been attained, the highest possible point +of felicity. Henceforward the course could only be at a +level--perhaps downward. It might be brief; at the best it +could not be very long. It was madness to lose a day, an +hour. That would be the only fatal mistake: to forfeit +anything of the bargain that he had made. He would have it, and +hold it, and enjoy it all to the full. The world might have +nothing better to give than it had already given; but surely it +had many things that were new, and Marcion should help him to +find them. + +Under his learned counsel the House of the Golden Pillars +took on a new magnificence. Artists were brought from Corinth +and Rome and Alexandria to adorn it with splendour. Its fame +glittered around the world. Banquets of incredible luxury +drew the most celebrated guests into its triclinium, and +filled them with envious admiration. The bees swarmed and +buzzed about the golden hive. The human insects, gorgeous +moths of pleasure and greedy flies of appetite, parasites and +flatterers and crowds of inquisitive idlers, danced and +fluttered in the dazzling light that surrounded Hermas. + +Everything that he touched prospered. He bought a tract +of land in the Caucasus, and emeralds were discovered among +the mountains. He sent a fleet of wheat-ships to Italy, and +the price of grain doubled while it was on the way. He sought +political favour with the emperor, and was rewarded with the +governorship of the city. His name was a word to conjure with. + +The beauty of Athenais lost nothing with the passing +seasons, but grew more perfect, even under the inexplicable +shade of dissatisfaction that sometimes veiled it. "Fair as +the wife of Hermas" was a proverb in Antioch; and soon men +began to add to it, "Beautiful as the son of Hermas"; for the +child developed swiftly in that favouring clime. At nine +years of age he was straight and strong, firm of limb and +clear of eye. His brown head was on a level with his father's +heart. He was the jewel of the House of the Golden Pillars; +the pride of Hermas, the new Fortunatus. + +That year another drop of success fell into his brimming +cup. His black Numidian horses, which he had been training +for the world-renowned chariot-races of Antioch, won the +victory over a score of rivals. Hermas received the prize +carelessly from the judge's hands, and turned to drive once +more around the circus, to show himself to the people. He +lifted the eager boy into the chariot beside him to share his +triumph. + +Here, indeed, was the glory of his life--this matchless +son, his brighter counterpart carved in breathing ivory, +touching his arm, and balancing himself proudly on the swaying +floor of the chariot. As the horses pranced around the ring, +a great shout of applause filled the amphitheatre, and +thousands of spectators waved their salutations of praise: +"Hail, fortunate Hermas, master of success! Hail, little +Hermas, prince of good luck!" + +The, sudden tempest of acclamation, the swift fluttering +of innumerable garments in the air, startled the horses. They +dashed violently forward, and plunged upon the bits. The left +rein broke. They swerved to the right, swinging the chariot +sideways with a grating noise, and dashing it against the +stone parapet of the arena. In an instant the wheel was +shattered. The axle struck the ground, and the chariot was +dragged onward, rocking and staggering. + +By a strenuous effort Hermas kept his place on the frail +platform, clinging to the unbroken rein. But the boy was +tossed lightly from his side at the first shock. His head struck +the wall. And when Hermas turned to look for him, he was lying +like a broken flower on the sand. + + + +VI + +They carried the boy in a litter to the House of the Golden +Pillars, summoning the most skilful physician of Antioch to +attend him. For hours the child was as quiet as death. +Hermas watched the white eyelids, folded close like lily-buds +at night, even as one watches for the morning. At last they +opened; but the fire of fever was burning in the eyes, and the +lips were moving in a wild delirium. + +Hour after hour that sweet childish voice rang through the +halls and chambers of the splendid, helpless house, now rising +in shrill calls of distress and senseless laughter, now +sinking in weariness and dull moaning. The stars shone and +faded; the sun rose and set; the roses bloomed and fell in the +garden; the birds sang and slept among the jasmine-bowers. +But in the heart of Hermas there was no song, no bloom, no +light--only speechless anguish, and a certain fearful looking-for +of desolation. + +He was like a man in a nightmare. He saw the shapeless +terror that was moving toward him, but he was impotent to stay +or to escape it. He had done all that he could. There was +nothing left but to wait. + +He paced to and fro, now hurrying to the boy's bed as if +he could not bear to be away from it, now turning back as if +he could not endure to be near it. The people of the house, +even Athenais, feared to speak to him, there was something so +vacant and desperate in his face. + +At nightfall on the second of those eternal days he shut +himself in the library. The unfilled lamp had gone out, +leaving a trail of smoke in the air. The sprigs of mignonette +and rosemary, with which the room was sprinkled every day, +were unrenewed, and scented the gloom with close odours of +decay. A costly manuscript of Theocritus was tumbled in +disorder on the floor. Hermas sank into a chair like a man in +whom the very spring of being is broken. Through the darkness +some one drew near. He did not even lift his head. A hand +touched him; a soft arm was laid over his shoulders. It was +Athenais, kneeling beside him and speaking very low: + +"Hermas--it is almost over--the child! His voice grows +weaker hour by hour. He moans and calls for some one to help +him; then he laughs. It breaks my heart. He has just fallen +asleep. The moon is rising now. Unless a change comes he +cannot last till sunrise. Is there nothing we can do? Is +there no power that can save him? Is there no one to pity us +and spare us? Let us call, let us beg for compassion and +help; let us pray for his life!" + +Yes; this was what he wanted--this was the only thing that +could bring relief: to pray; to pour out his sorrow somewhere; +to find a greater strength than his own and cling to it and +plead for mercy and help. To leave this undone was to be +false to his manhood; it was to be no better than the dumb +beasts when their young perish. How could he let his boy +suffer and die, without an effort, a cry, a prayer? + +He sank on his knees beside Athenais. + +"Out of the depths--out of the depths we call for pity. +The, light of our eyes is fading--the child is dying. Oh, the +child, the child! Spare the child's life, thou merciful--" + +Not a word; only that deathly blank. The hands of Hermas, +stretched out in supplication, touched the marble table. He +felt the cool hardness of the polished stone beneath his +fingers. A roll of papyrus, dislodged by his touch, fell +rustling to the floor. Through the open door, faint and far +off, came the footsteps of the servants, moving cautiously. +The heart of Hermas was like a lump of ice in his bosom. He +rose slowly to his feet, lifting Athenais with him. + +"It is in vain," he said; "there is nothing for us to do. +Long ago I knew something. I think it would have helped us. +But I have forgotten it. It is all gone. But I would give +all that I have, if I could bring it back again now, at this +hour, in this time of our bitter trouble." + +A slave entered the room while he was speaking, and +approached hesitatingly. + +"Master," he said, "John of Antioch, whom we were +forbidden to admit to the house, has come again. He would +take no denial. Even now he waits in the peristyle; and the +old man Marcion is with him, seeking to turn him away." + +"Come," said Hermas to his wife, "let us go to him." + +In the central hall the two men were standing; Marcion, +with disdainful eyes and sneering lips, taunting the unbidden +guest; John, silent, quiet, patient, while the wondering +slaves looked on in dismay. He lifted his searching gaze to +the haggard face of Hermas. + +"My son, I knew that I should see you again, even though +you did not send for me. I have come to you because I have +heard that you are in trouble." + +"It is true," answered Hermas, passionately; "we are in +trouble, desperate trouble, trouble accursed. Our child is +dying. We are poor, we are destitute, we are afflicted. In +all this house, in all the world, there is no one that can +help us. I knew something long ago, when I was with you,--a +word, a name,--in which we might have found hope. But I have +lost it. I gave it to this man. He has taken it away from me +forever." + +He pointed to Marcion. The old man's lips curled +scornfully. "A word, a name!" he sneered. "What is that, O +most wise man and holy Presbyter? A thing of air, a thing +that men make to describe their own dreams and fancies. Who +would go about to rob any one of such a thing as that? It is +a prize that only a fool would think of taking. Besides, the +young man parted with it of his own free will. He bargained +with me cleverly. I promised him wealth and pleasure and +fame. What did he give in return? An empty name, which was +a burden--" + +"Servant of demons, be still!" The voice of John rang +clear, like a trumpet, through the hall. "There is a name +which none shall dare to take in vain. There is a name which +none can lose without being lost. There is a name at which +the devils tremble. Go quickly, before I speak it!" + +Marcion shrank into the shadow of one of the pillars. A +lamp near him tottered on its pedestal and fell with a crash. In +the confusion he vanished, as noiselessly as a shade. + +John turned to Hermas, and his tone softened as he said: +"My son, you have sinned deeper than you know. The word with +which you parted so lightly is the keyword of all life. +Without it the world has no meaning, existence no peace, death +no refuge. It is the word that purifies love, and comforts +grief, and keeps hope alive forever. It is the most precious +word that ever ear has heard, or mind has known, or heart has +conceived. It is the name of Him who has given us life and +breath and all things richly to enjoy; the name of Him who, +though we may forget Him, never forgets us; the name of Him +who pities us as you pity your suffering child; the name of +Him who, though we wander far from Him, seeks us in the +wilderness, and sent His Son, even as His Son has sent me this +night, to breathe again that forgotten name in the heart that +is perishing without it. Listen, my son, listen with all your +soul to the blessed name of God our Father." + +The cold agony in the breast of Hermas dissolved like a +fragment of ice that melts in the summer sea. A sense of sweet +release spread through him from head to foot. The lost was +found. The dew of peace fell on his parched soul, and the +withering flower of human love raised its head again. He stood +upright, and lifted his hands high toward heaven. + +"Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord! O my +God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusteth in Thee. My God, +Thou hast given; take not Thy gift away from me, O my God! +Spare the life of this my child, O Thou God, my Father, my +Father!" + +A deep hush followed the cry. "Listen!" whispered +Athenais, breathlessly. + +Was it an echo? It could not be, for it came again--the +voice of the child, clear and low, waking from sleep, and +calling: "Father!" + + + + +THE FIRST CHRISTMAS-TREE + +I + +The day before Christmas, in the year of our Lord 722. + +Broad snow-meadows glistening white along the banks of the +river Moselle; steep hill-sides blooming with mystic +forget-me-not where the glow of the setting sun cast long +shadows down their eastern slope; an arch of clearest, deepest +gentian bending overhead; in the centre of the aerial garden +the walls of the cloister of Pfalzel, steel-blue to the east, +violet to the west; silence over all,--a gentle, eager, +conscious stillness, diffused through the air, as if earth and +sky were hushing themselves to hear the voice of the river +faintly murmuring down the valley. + +In the cloister, too, there was silence at the sunset +hour. All day long there had been a strange and joyful stir +among the nuns. A breeze of curiosity and excitement had +swept along the corridors and through every quiet cell. A famous +visitor had come to the convent. + +It was Winfried of England, whose name in the Roman tongue +was Boniface, and whom men called the Apostle of Germany. A +great preacher; a wonderful scholar; but, more than all, a +daring traveller, a venturesome pilgrim, a priest of romance. + +He had left his home and his fair estate in Wessex; he +would not stay in the rich monastery of Nutescelle, even +though they had chosen him as the abbot; he had refused a +bishopric at the court of King Karl. Nothing would content +him but to go out into the wild woods and preach to the +heathen. + +Through the forests of Hesse and Thuringia, and along the +borders of Saxony, he had wandered for years, with a handful +of companions, sleeping under the trees, crossing mountains +and marshes, now here, now there, never satisfied with ease +and comfort, always in love with hardship and danger. + +What a man he was! Fair and slight, but straight as a +spear and strong as an oaken staff. His face was still young; the +smooth skin was bronzed by wind and sun. His gray eyes, clean +and kind, flashed like fire when he spoke of his adventures, and +of the evil deeds of the false priests with whom he contended. + +What tales he had told that day! Not of miracles wrought +by sacred relics; not of courts and councils and splendid +cathedrals; though he knew much of these things. But to-day +he had spoken of long journeyings by sea and land; of perils +by fire and flood; of wolves and bears, and fierce snowstorms, +and black nights in the lonely forest; of dark altars of +heathen gods, and weird, bloody sacrifices, and narrow escapes +from murderous bands of wandering savages. + +The little novices had gathered around him, and their +faces had grown pale and their eyes bright as they listened +with parted lips, entranced in admiration, twining their arms +about one another's shoulders and holding closely together, +half in fear, half in delight. The older nuns had turned from +their tasks and paused, in passing by, to bear the pilgrim's +story. Too well they knew the truth of what he spoke. Many a +one among them had seen the smoke rising from the ruins of her +father's roof. Many a one had a brother far away in the wild +country to whom her heart went out night and day, wondering if he +were still among the living. + +But now the excitements of that wonderful day were over; +the hour of the evening meal had come; the inmates of the +cloister were assembled in the refectory. + +On the dais sat the stately Abbess Addula, daughter of +King Dagobert, looking a princess indeed, in her purple tunic, +with the hood and cuffs of her long white robe trimmed with +ermine, and a snowy veil resting like a crown on her silver +hair. At her right hand was the honoured guest, and at her +left hand her grandson, the young Prince Gregor, a big, manly +boy, just returned from school. + +The long, shadowy hall, with its dark-brown rafters and +beams; the double row of nuns, with their pure veils and fair +faces; the ruddy glow of the slanting sunbeams striking upward +through the tops of the windows and painting a pink glow +high up on the walls,--it was all as beautiful as a picture, +and as silent. For this was the rule of the cloister, that at +the table all should sit in stillness for a little while, and +then one should read aloud, while the rest listened. + +"It is the turn of my grandson to read to-day," said the +abbess to Winfried; "we shall see how much he has learned in +the school. Read, Gregor; the place in the book is marked." + +The lad rose from his seat and turned the pages of the +manuscript. It was a copy of Jerome's version of the +Scriptures in Latin, and the marked place was in the letter of +St. Paul to the Ephesians,--the passage where he describes the +preparation of the Christian as a warrior arming for battle. +The young voice rang out clearly, rolling the sonorous words, +without slip or stumbling, to the end of the chapter. + +Winfried listened smiling. "That was bravely read, my +son," said he, as the reader paused. "Understandest thou what +thou readest?" + +"Surely, father," answered the boy; "it was taught me by +the masters at Treves; and we have read this epistle from +beginning to end, so that I almost know it by heart." + +Then he began to repeat the passage, turning away from the +page as if to show his skill. + +But Winfried stopped him with a friendly lifting of the +hand. + +"Not so, my son; that was not my meaning. When we pray, +we speak to God. When we read, God speaks to us. I ask +whether thou hast heard what He has said to thee in the common +speech. Come, give us again the message of the warrior and +his armour and his battle, in the mother-tongue, so that all +can understand it." + +The boy hesitated, blushed, stammered; then he came around +to Winfried's seat, bringing the book. "Take the book, my +father," he cried, "and read it for me. I cannot see the +meaning plain, though I love the sound of the words. Religion +I know, and the doctrines of our faith, and the life of +priests and nuns in the cloister, for which my grandmother +designs me, though it likes me little. And fighting I know, +and the life of warriors and heroes, for I have read of it in +Virgil and the ancients, and heard a bit from the soldiers at +Treves; and I would fain taste more of it, for it likes me much. +But how the two lives fit together, or what need there is of +armour for a clerk in holy orders, I can never see. Tell me the +meaning, for if there is a man in all the world that knows it, +I am sure it is thou." + +So Winfried took the book and closed it, clasping the +boy's hand with his own. + +"Let us first dismiss the others to their vespers said he, +"lest they should be weary." + +A sign from the abbess; a chanted benediction; a murmuring +of sweet voices and a soft rustling of many feet over the +rushes on the floor; the gentle tide of noise flowed out +through the doors and ebbed away down the corridors; the three +at the head of the table were left alone in the darkening +room. + +Then Winfried began to translate the parable of the +soldier into the realities of life. + +At every turn he knew how to flash a new light into the +picture out of his own experience. He spoke of the combat +with self, and of the wrestling with dark spirits in solitude. +He spoke of the demons that men had worshipped for centuries in +the wilderness, and whose malice they invoked against the +stranger who ventured into the gloomy forest. Gods, they called +them, and told weird tales of their dwelling among the +impenetrable branches of the oldest trees and in the caverns of +the shaggy hills; of their riding on the wind-horses and hurling +spears of lightning against their foes. Gods they were not, but +foul spirits of the air, rulers of the darkness. Was there not +glory and honour in fighting them, in daring their anger under +the shield of faith, in putting them to flight with the sword +of truth? What better adventure could a brave man ask than to +go forth against them, and wrestle with them, and conquer +them? + +"Look you, my friends," said Winfried, "how sweet and +peaceful is this convent to-night! It is a garden full of +flowers in the heart of winter; a nest among the branches of +a great tree shaken by the winds; a still haven on the edge of +a tempestuous sea. And this is what religion means for +those who are chosen and called to quietude and prayer and +meditation. + +"But out yonder in the wide forest, who knows what storms +are raving to-night in the hearts of men, though all the woods +are still? who knows what haunts of wrath and cruelty are +closed tonight against the advent of the Prince of Peace? And +shall I tell you what religion means to those who are called +and chosen to dare, and to fight, and to conquer the world for +Christ? It means to go against the strongholds of the +adversary. It means to struggle to win an entrance for the +Master everywhere. What helmet is strong enough for this +strife save the helmet of salvation? What breastplate can +guard a man against these fiery darts but the breastplate of +righteousness? What shoes can stand the wear of these +journeys but the preparation of the gospel of peace?" + +"Shoes?" he cried again, and laughed as if a sudden +thought had struck him. He thrust out his foot, covered with +a heavy cowhide boot, laced high about his leg with thongs of +skin. + +"Look here,--how a fighting man of the cross is +shod! I have seen the boots of the Bishop of Tours,--white +kid, broidered with silk; a day in the bogs would tear them to +shreds. I have seen the sandals that the monks use on the +highroads,--yes, and worn them; ten pair of them have I worn +out and thrown away in a single journey. Now I shoe my feet +with the toughest hides, hard as iron; no rock can cut them, +no branches can tear them. Yet more than one pair of these +have I outworn, and many more shall I outwear ere my journeys +are ended. And I think, if God is gracious to me, that I +shall die wearing them. Better so than in a soft bed with +silken coverings. The boots of a warrior, a hunter, a +woodsman,--these are my preparation of the gospel of peace. + +"Come, Gregor," he said, laying his brown hand on the +youth's shoulder, "come, wear the forester's boots with me. +This is the life to which we are called. Be strong in the +Lord, a hunter of the demons, a subduer of the wilderness, a +woodsman of the faith. Come." + +The boy's eyes sparkled. He turned to his grandmother. +She shook her head vigorously. + +"Nay, father," she said, "draw not the lad away from my +side with these wild words. I need him to help me with my +labours, to cheer my old age." + +"Do you need him more than the Master does?" asked +Winfried; "and will you take the wood that is fit for a bow to +make a distaff?" + +"But I fear for the child. Thy life is too hard for him. +He will perish with hunger in the woods." + +"Once," said Winfried, smiling, "we were camped on the +bank of the river Ohru. The table was set for the morning +meal, but my comrades cried that it was empty; the provisions +were exhausted; we must go without breakfast, and perhaps +starve before we could escape from the wilderness. While they +complained, a fish-hawk flew up from the river with flapping +wings, and let fall a great pike in the midst of the camp. +There was food enough and to spare! Never have I seen the +righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." + +"But the fierce pagans of the forest," cried the +abbess,--"they may pierce the boy with their arrows, or dash +out his brains with their axes. He is but a child, too young for +the danger and the strife." + +"A child in years," replied Winfried, "but a man in +spirit. And if the hero fall early in the battle, he wears +the brighter crown, not a leaf withered, not a flower fallen." + +The aged princess trembled a little. She drew Gregor +close to her side, and laid her hand gently on his brown hair. + "I am not sure that he wants to leave me yet. Besides, +there is no horse in the stable to give him, now, and he +cannot go as befits the grandson of a king." + +Gregor looked straight into her eyes. + +"Grandmother," said he, "dear grandmother, if thou wilt +not give me a horse to ride with this man of God, I will go +with him afoot." + + + +II + +Two years had passed since that Christmas-eve in the cloister +of Pfalzel. A little company of pilgrims, less than a score +of men, were travelling slowly northward through the wide forest +that rolled over the hills of central Germany. + +At the head of the band marched Winfried, clad in a tunic +of fur, with his long black robe girt high above his waist, so +that it might not hinder his stride. His hunter's boots were +crusted with snow. Drops of ice sparkled like jewels along +the thongs that bound his legs. There were no other ornaments +of his dress except the bishop's cross hanging on his breast, +and the silver clasp that fastened his cloak about his neck. +He carried a strong, tall staff in his hand, fashioned at the +top into the form of a cross. + +Close beside him, keeping step like a familiar comrade, +was the young Prince Gregor. Long marches through the +wilderness had stretched his legs and broadened his back, and +made a man of him in stature as well as in spirit. His +jacket and cap were of wolf-skin, and on his shoulder he +carried an axe, with broad, shining blade. He was a mighty +woodsman now, and could make a spray of chips fly around him +as he hewed his way through the trunk of a pine-tree. + +Behind these leaders followed a pair of teamsters, guiding +a rude sledge, loaded with food and the equipage of the camp, +and drawn by two big, shaggy horses, blowing thick clouds of +steam from their frosty nostrils. Tiny icicles hung from the +hairs on their lips. Their flanks were smoking. They sank +above the fetlocks at every step in the soft snow. + +Last of all came the rear guard, armed with bows and +javelins. It was no child's play, in those days, to cross +Europe afoot. + +The weird woodland, sombre and illimitable, covered hill +and vale, table-land and mountain-peak. There were wide moors +where the wolves hunted in packs as if the devil drove them, +and tangled thickets where the lynx and the boar made their +lairs. Fierce bears lurked among the rocky passes, and had +not yet learned to fear the face of man. The gloomy recesses +of the forest gave shelter to inhabitants who were still more +cruel and dangerous than beasts of prey,--outlaws and sturdy +robbers and mad were-wolves and bands of wandering pillagers. + +The pilgrim who would pass from the mouth of the Tiber to +the mouth of the Rhine must trust in God and keep his arrows +loose in the quiver. + +The travellers were surrounded by an ocean of trees, so +vast, so full of endless billows, that it seemed to be +pressing on every side to overwhelm them. Gnarled oaks, with +branches twisted and knotted as if in rage, rose in groves +like tidal waves. Smooth forests of beech-trees, round and +gray, swept over the knolls and slopes of land in a mighty +ground-swell. But most of all, the multitude of pines and +firs, innumerable and monotonous, with straight, stark trunks, +and branches woven together in an unbroken flood of darkest +green, crowded through the valleys and over the hills, rising +on the highest ridges into ragged crests, like the foaming +edge of breakers. + +Through this sea of shadows ran a narrow stream of shining +whiteness,--an ancient Roman road, covered with snow. It was +as if some great ship had ploughed through the green ocean +long ago, and left behind it a thick, smooth wake of foam. +Along this open track the travellers held their way,--heavily, +for the drifts were deep; warily, for the hard winter had driven +many packs of wolves down from the moors. + +The steps of the pilgrims were noiseless; but the sledges +creaked over the dry snow, and the panting of the horses +throbbed through the still air. The pale-blue shadows on the +western side of the road grew longer. The sun, declining +through its shallow arch, dropped behind the tree-tops. +Darkness followed swiftly, as if it had been a bird of prey +waiting for this sign to swoop down upon the world. + +"Father," said Gregor to the leader, "surely this day's +march is done. It is time to rest, and eat, and sleep. If we +press onward now, we cannot see our steps; and will not that +be against the word of the psalmist David, who bids us not to +put confidence in the legs of a man?" + +Winfried laughed. "Nay, my son Gregor," said he, "thou +hast tripped, even now, upon thy text. For David said only, +'I take no pleasure in the legs of a man.' And so say I, for +I am not minded to spare thy legs or mine, until we come farther +on our way, and do what must be done this night. Draw thy +belt tighter, my son, and hew me out this tree that is fallen +across the road, for our campground is not here." + +The youth obeyed; two of the foresters sprang to help him; +and while the soft fir-wood yielded to the stroke of the axes, +and the snow flew from the bending branches, Winfried turned +and spoke to his followers in a cheerful voice, that refreshed +them like wine. + +"Courage, brothers, and forward yet a little! The moon +will light us presently, and the path is plain. Well know I +that the journey is weary; and my own heart wearies also for +the home in England, where those I love are keeping feast this +Christmas-eve. But we have work to do before we feast +to-night. For this is the Yuletide, and the heathen people of +the forest are gathered at the thunder-oak of Geismar to +worship their god, Thor. Strange things will be seen there, +and deeds which make the soul black. But we are sent to +lighten their darkness; and we will teach our kinsmen to keep +a Christmas with us such as the woodland has never known. +Forward, then, and stiffen up the feeble knees!" + +A murmur of assent came from the men. Even the horses +seemed to take fresh heart. They flattened their backs to +draw the heavy loads, and blew the frost from their nostrils +as they pushed ahead. + +The night grew broader and less oppressive. A gate of +brightness was opened secretly somewhere in the sky. Higher +and higher swelled the clear moon-flood, until it poured over +the eastern wall of forest into the road. A drove of wolves +howled faintly in the distance, but they were receding, and +the sound soon died away. The stars sparkled merrily through +the stringent air; the small, round moon shone like silver; +little breaths of dreaming wind wandered across the pointed +fir-tops, as the pilgrims toiled bravely onward, following +their clew of light through a labyrinth of darkness. + +After a while the road began to open out a little. There +were spaces of meadow-land, fringed with alders, behind which +a boisterous river ran clashing through spears of ice. + +Rude houses of hewn logs appeared in the openings, each one +casting a patch of inky shadow upon the snow. Then the travellers +passed a larger group of dwellings, all silent and unlighted; and +beyond, they saw a great house, with many outbuildings and +inclosed courtyards, from which the hounds bayed furiously, and a +noise of stamping horses came from the stalls. But there was no +other sound of life. The fields around lay naked to the moon. +They saw no man, except that once, on a path that skirted the +farther edge of a meadow, three dark figures passed them, running +very swiftly. + +Then the road plunged again into a dense thicket, +traversed it, and climbing to the left, emerged suddenly upon +a glade, round and level except at the northern side, where a +hillock was crowned with a huge oak-tree. It towered above +the heath, a giant with contorted arms, beckoning to the host +of lesser trees. "Here," cried Winfried, as his eyes flashed +and his hand lifted his heavy staff, "here is the Thunder-oak; +and here the cross of Christ shall break the hammer of the +false god Thor." + +Withered leaves still clung to the branches of the oak: torn +and faded banners of the departed summer. The bright crimson +of autumn had long since disappeared, bleached away by the +storms and the cold. But to-night these tattered remnants of +glory were red again: ancient bloodstains against the +dark-blue sky. For an immense fire had been kindled in front +of the tree. Tongues of ruddy flame, fountains of ruby +sparks, ascended through the spreading limbs and flung a +fierce illumination upward and around. The pale, pure +moonlight that bathed the surrounding forests was quenched and +eclipsed here. Not a beam of it sifted through the branches +of the oak. It stood like a pillar of cloud between the still +light of heaven and the crackling, flashing fire of earth. + +But the fire itself was invisible to Winfried and his +companions. A great throng of people were gathered around it +in a half-circle, their backs to the open glade, their faces +toward the oak. Seen against that glowing background, it was but +the silhouette of a crowd, vague, black, formless, mysterious. + +The travellers paused for a moment at the edge of the +thicket, and took counsel together. + +"It is the assembly of the tribe," said one of the +foresters, "the great night of the council. I heard of it +three days ago, as we passed through one of the villages. All +who swear by the old gods have been summoned. They will +sacrifice a steed to the god of war, and drink blood, and eat +horse-flesh to make them strong. It will be at the peril of +our lives if we approach them. At least we must hide the +cross, if we would escape death." + +"Hide me no cross," cried Winfried, lifting his staff, +"for I have come to show it, and to make these blind folk see +its power. There is more to be done here to-night than the +slaying of a steed, and a greater evil to be stayed than the +shameful eating of meat sacrificed to idols. I have seen it +in a dream. Here the cross must stand and be our rede." + +At his command the sledge was left in the border +of the wood, with two of the men to guard it, and the rest of +the company moved forward across the open ground. They +approached unnoticed, for all the multitude were looking +intently toward the fire at the foot of the oak. + +Then Winfried's voice rang out, "Hail, ye sons of the +forest! A stranger claims the warmth of your fire in the +winter night." + +Swiftly, and as with a single motion, a thousand eyes were +bent upon the speaker. The semicircle opened silently in the +middle; Winfried entered with his followers; it closed again +behind them. + +Then, as they looked round the curving ranks, they saw +that the hue of the assemblage was not black, but +white,--dazzling, radiant, solemn. White, the robes of the +women clustered together at the points of the wide crescent; +white, the glittering byrnies of the warriors standing in +close ranks; white, the fur mantles of the aged men who held +the central palace in the circle; white, with the shimmer of +silver ornaments and the purity of lamb's-wool, the raiment of +a little group of children who stood close by the fire; white, +with awe and fear, the faces of all who looked at them; and over +all the flickering, dancing radiance of the flames played and +glimmered like a faint, vanishing tinge of blood on snow. + +The only figure untouched by the glow was the old priest, +Hunrad, with his long, spectral robe, flowing hair and beard, +and dead-pale face, who stood with his back to the fire and +advanced slowly to meet the strangers. + +"Who are you? Whence come you, and what seek you here?" + +"Your kinsman am I, of the German brotherhood," answered +Winfried, "and from England, beyond the sea, have I come to +bring you a greeting from that land, and a message from the +All-Father, whose servant I am." + +"Welcome, then," said Hunrad, "welcome, kinsman, and be +silent; for what passes here is too high to wait, and must be +done before the moon crosses the middle heaven, unless, +indeed, thou hast some sign or token from the gods. Canst +thou work miracles?" + +The question came sharply, as if a sudden gleam of hope +had flashed through the tangle of the old priest's mind. But +Winfried's voice sank lower and a cloud of disappointment +passed over his face as he replied: "Nay, miracles have I +never wrought, though I have heard of many; but the All-Father +has given no power to my hands save such as belongs to common +man." + +"Stand still, then, thou common man," said Hunrad, +scornfully, "and behold what the gods have called us hither to +do. This night is the death-night of the sun-god, Baldur the +Beautiful, beloved of gods and men. This night is the hour of +darkness and the power of winter, of sacrifice and mighty +fear. This night the great Thor, the god of thunder and war, +to whom this oak is sacred, is grieved for the death of +Baldur, and angry with this people because they have forsaken +his worship. Long is it since an offering has been laid upon +his altar, long since the roots of his holy tree have been fed +with blood. Therefore its leaves have withered before the +time, and its boughs are heavy with death. Therefore the +Slavs`and the Wends have beaten us in battle. Therefore the +harvests have failed, and the wolf-hordes have ravaged the +folds, and the strength has departed from the bow, and the +wood of the spear has broken, and the wild boar has slain the +huntsman. Therefore the plague has fallen on our dwellings, +and the dead are more than the living in all our villages. +Answer me, ye people, are not these things true? " + + A hoarse sound of approval ran through the circle. A +chant, in which the voices of the men and women blended, like +the shrill wind in the pinetrees above the rumbling thunder of +a waterfall, rose and fell in rude cadences. + + O Thor, the Thunderer + Mighty and merciless, + Spare us from smiting! + Heave not thy hammer, + Angry, aginst us; + Plague not thy people. + Take from our treasure + Richest Of ransom. + Silver we send thee, + Jewels and javelins, + Goodliest garments, + All our possessions, + Priceless, we proffer. + Sheep will we slaughter, + Steeds will we sacrifice; + Bright blood shall bathe + O tree of Thunder, + Life-floods shall lave thee, + Strong wood of wonder. + Mighty, have mercy, + Smile as no more, + Spare us and save us, + Spare us, Thor! Thor! + + + +With two great shouts the song ended, and stillness +followed so intense that the crackling of the fire was heard +distinctly. The old priest stood silent for a moment. His +shaggy brows swept down ever his eyes like ashes quenching +flame. Then he lifted his face and spoke. + +"None of these things will please the god. More costly is +the offering that shall cleanse your sin, more precious the +crimson dew that shall send new life into this holy tree of +blood. Thor claims your dearest and your noblest gift." + +Hunrad moved nearer to the group of children who stood +watching the fire and the swarms of spark-serpents darting +upward. They had heeded none of the priest's words, and did +not notice now that he approached them, so eager were they to +see which fiery snake would go highest among the oak branches. +Foremost among them, and most intent on the pretty game, was +a boy like a sunbeam, slender and quick, with blithe brown +eyes and laughing lips. The priest's hand was laid upon his +shoulder. The boy turned and looked up in his face. + +"Here," said the old man, with his voice vibrating as when +a thick rope is strained by a ship swinging from her moorings, +"here is the chosen one, the eldest son of the Chief, the +darling of the people. Hearken, Bernhard, wilt thou go to +Valhalla, where the heroes dwell with the gods, to bear a +message to Thor?" + +The boy answered, swift and clear: + +"Yes, priest, I will go if my father bids me. Is +it far away? Shall I run quickly? Must I take my bow and +arrows for the wolves?" + +The boy's father, the Chieftain Gundhar, standing among +his bearded warriors, drew his breath deep, and leaned so +heavily on the handle of his spear that the wood cracked. And +his wife, Irma, bending forward from the ranks of women, +pushed the golden hair from her forehead with one hand. The +other dragged at the silver chain about her neck until the +rough links pierced her flesh, and the red drops fell unheeded +on her breast. + +A sigh passed through the crowd, like the murmur of the +forest before the storm breaks. Yet no one spoke save Hunrad: + +"Yes, my Prince, both bow and spear shalt thou have, for +the way is long, and thou art a brave huntsman. But in +darkness thou must journey for a little space, and with eyes +blindfolded. Fearest thou?" + +"Naught fear I," said the boy, "neither darkness, nor the +great bear, nor the were-wolf. For I am Gundhar's son, and the +defender of my folk." + +Then the priest led the child in his raiment of +lamb's-wool to a broad stone in front of the fire. He gave +him his little bow tipped with silver, and his spear with +shining head of steel. He bound the child's eyes with a white +cloth, and bade him kneel beside the stone with his face to +the cast. Unconsciously the wide arc of spectators drew +inward toward the centre, as the ends of the bow draw together +when the cord is stretched. Winfried moved noiselessly until +he stood close behind the priest. + +The old man stooped to lift a black hammer of stone from +the ground,--the sacred hammer of the god Thor. Summoning all +the strength of his withered arms, he swung it high in the +air. It poised for an instant above the child's fair +head--then turned to fall. + +One keen cry shrilled out from where the women stood: +"Me! take me! not Bernhard!" + +The flight of the mother toward her child was swift as the +falcon's swoop. But swifter still was the hand of the +deliverer. + +Winfried's heavy staff thrust mightily against the hammer's +handle as it fell. Sideways it glanced from the old man's grasp, +and the black stone, striking on the altar's edge, split in +twain. A shout of awe and joy rolled along the living circle. +The branches of the oak shivered. The flames leaped higher. As +the shout died away the people saw the lady Irma, with her arms +clasped round her child, and above them, on the altar-stone, +Winfried, his face shining like the face of an angel. + + + +IV + +A swift mountain-flood rolling down its channel; a huge rock +tumbling from the hill-side and falling in mid-stream: the +baffled waters broken and confused, pausing in their flow, +dash high against the rock, foaming and murmuring, with +divided impulse, uncertain whether to turn to the right or the +left. + +Even so Winfried's bold deed fell into the midst of the +thoughts and passions of the council. They were at a +standstill. Anger and wonder, reverence and joy and confusion +surged through the crowd. They knew not which way to move: to +resent the intrusion of the stranger as an insult to their gods, +or to welcome him as the rescuer of their prince. + +The old priest crouched by the altar, silent. Conflicting +counsels troubled the air. Let the sacrifice go forward; the +gods must be appeased. Nay, the boy must not die; bring the +chieftain's best horse and slay it in his stead; it will be +enough; the holy tree loves the blood of horses. Not so, +there is a better counsel yet; seize the stranger whom the +gods have led hither as a victim and make his life pay the +forfeit of his daring. + +The withered leaves on the oak rustled and whispered +overhead. The fire flared and sank again. The angry voices +clashed against each other and fell like opposing waves. Then +the chieftain Gundhar struck the earth with his spear and gave +his decision. + +"All have spoken, but none are agreed. There is no voice +of the council. Keep silence now, and let the stranger speak. +His words shall give us judgment, whether he is to live or to +die." + +Winfried lifted himself high upon the altar, drew a roll +of parchment from his bosom, and began to read. + +"A letter from the great Bishop of Rome, who sits on a +golden throne, to the people of the forest, Hessians and +Thuringians, Franks and Saxons. In nomin Domini, sanctae et +individuae Trinitatis, amen!" + +A murmur of awe ran through the crowd. "It is the sacred +tongue of the Romans; the tongue that is heard and understood +by the wise men of every land. There is magic in it. +Listen!" + +Winfried went on to read the letter, translating it into +the speech of the people. + +"We have sent unto you our Brother Boniface, and appointed +him your bishop, that he may teach you the only true faith, +and baptise you, and lead you back from the ways of error to +the path of salvation. Hearken to him in all things like a +father. Bow your hearts to his teaching. He comes not for +earthly gain, but for the gain of your souls. Depart from +evil works. Worship not the false gods, for they are devils. +Offer no more bloody sacrifices, nor eat the flesh of horses, but +do as our Brother Boniface commands you. Build a house for him +that he may dwell among you, and a church where you may offer +your prayers to the only living God, the Almighty King of +Heaven." + +It was a splendid message: proud, strong, peaceful, +loving. The dignity of the words imposed mightily upon the +hearts of the people. They were quieted as men who have +listened to a lofty strain of music. + +"Tell us, then," said Gundhar, "what is the word that thou +bringest to us from the Almighty? What is thy counsel for the +tribes of the woodland on this night of sacrifice?" + +"This is the word, and this is the counsel," answered +Winfried. "Not a drop of blood shall fall to-night, save that +which pity has drawn from the breast of your princess, in love +for her child. Not a life shall be blotted out in the +darkness to-night; but the great shadow of the tree which +hides you from the light of heaven shall be swept away. For +this is the birth-night of the white Christ, son of the +All-Father, and Saviour of mankind. Fairer is He than Baldur +the Beautiful, greater than Odin the Wise, kinder than Freya +the Good. Since He has come to earth the bloody sacrifice +must cease. The dark Thor, on whom you vainly call, is dead. +Deep in the shades of Niffelheim he is lost forever. His +power in the world is broken. Will you serve a helpless god? +See, my brothers, you call this tree his oak. Does he dwell +here? Does he protect it?" + +A troubled voice of assent rose from the throng. The +people stirred uneasily. Women covered their eyes. Hunrad +lifted his head and muttered hoarsely, "Thor! take vengeance! +Thor!" + +Winfried beckoned to Gregor. "Bring the axes, thine and +one for me. Now, young woodsman, show thy craft! The +king-tree of the forest must fall, and swiftly, or all is +lost!" + +The two men took their places facing each other, one on +each side of the oak. Their cloaks were flung aside, their +heads bare. Carefully they felt the ground with their feet, +seeking a firm grip of the earth. Firmly they grasped the +axe-helves and swung the shining blades. + +"Tree-god!" cried Winfried, "art thou angry? Thus we +smite thee!" + +"Tree-god!" answered Gregor, "art thou mighty? Thus we +fight thee!" + +Clang! clang! the alternate strokes beat time upon the +hard, ringing wood. The axe-heads glittered in their rhythmic +flight, like fierce eagles circling about their quarry. + +The broad flakes of wood flew from the deepening gashes in +the sides of the oak. The huge trunk quivered. There was a +shuddering in the branches. Then the great wonder of +Winfried's life came to pass. + +Out of the stillness of the winter night, a mighty rushing +noise sounded overhead. + +Was it the ancient gods on their white battlesteeds, with +their black hounds of wrath and their arrows of lightning, +sweeping through the air to destroy their foes? + +A strong, whirling wind passed over the treetops. It +gripped the oak by its branches and tore it from the roots. +Backward it fell, like a ruined tower, groaning and crashing as +it split asunder in four great pieces. + +Winfried let his axe drop, and bowed his head for a moment +in the presence of almighty power. + +Then he turned to the people, "Here is the timber," he +cried, "already felled and split for your new building. On +this spot shall rise a chapel to the true God and his servant +St. Peter. + +"And here," said he, as his eyes fell on a young fir-tree, +standing straight and green, with its top pointing toward the +stars, amid the divided ruins of the fallen oak, "here is the +living tree, with no stain of blood upon it, that shall be the +sign of your new worship. See how it points to the sky. Call +it the tree of the Christ-child. Take it up and carry it to +the chieftain's hall. You shall go no more into the shadows +of the forest to keep your feasts with secret rites of shame. +You shall keep them at home, with laughter and songs and rites +of love. The thunder-oak has fallen, and I think the day is +coming when there shall not be a home in all Germany where the +children are not gathered around the green fir-tree to rejoice in +the birth-night of Christ." + +So they took the little fir from its place, and carried it +in joyous procession to the edge of the glade, and laid it on +the sledge. The horses tossed their heads and drew their load +bravely, as if the new burden had made it lighter. + +When they came to the house of Gundhar, he bade them throw +open the doors of the hall and set the tree in the midst of +it. They kindled lights among the branches until it seemed to +be tangled full of fire-flies. The children encircled it, +wondering, and the sweet odour of the balsam filled the house. + +Then Winfried stood beside the chair of Gundhar, on the +dais at the end of the hall, and told the story of Bethlehem; +of the babe in the manger, of the shepherds on the hills, of +the host of angels and their midnight song. All the people +listened, charmed into stillness. + +But the boy Bernhard, on Irma's knee, folded in her soft +arms, grew restless as the story lengthened, and began to prattle +softly at his mother's ear. + +"Mother," whispered the child, "why did you cry out so +loud, when the priest was going to send me to Valhalla?" + +"Oh, hush, my child," answered the mother, and pressed him +closer to her side. + +"Mother," whispered the boy again, laying his finger on +the stains upon her breast, "see, your dress is red! What are +these stains? Did some one hurt you?" + +The mother closed his mouth with a kiss. "Dear, be still, +and listen!" + +The boy obeyed. His eyes were heavy with sleep. But he +heard the last words of Winfried as he spoke of the angelic +messengers, flying over the hills of Judea and singing as they +flew. The child wondered and dreamed and listened. Suddenly +his face grew bright. He put his lips close to Irma's cheek +again. + +"Oh, mother!" he whispered very low, "do not speak. Do +you hear them? Those angels have come back again. They are +singing now behind the tree." + + +And some say that it was true; but others say that it was +only Gregor and his companions at the lower end of the hall, +chanting their Christmas hymn: + + + All glory be to God on high, + And on the earth be peace! + Good-will, henceforth, from heaven to man, + Begin and never cease. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Blue Flower, by Henry van Dyke + |