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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strange Little Girl, by V. M.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Strange Little Girl
+       A Story for Children
+
+Author: V. M.
+
+Commentator: Katherine Tingley
+
+Illustrator: N. Roth
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2007 [EBook #23671]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Markus Brenner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain material
+produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        The Strange Little Girl
+
+
+                         A Story for Children
+                               By V. M.
+
+
+                       Illustrations by N. Roth
+
+
+                     _The Aryan Theosophical Press
+                        Point Loma, California_
+
+
+
+                 COPYRIGHT 1911, BY KATHERINE TINGLEY
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+                     THE ARYAN THEOSOPHICAL PRESS
+                        Point Loma, California
+
+
+[Illustration: IN THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT]
+
+
+
+
+The Strange Little Girl
+
+
+
+
+                                   I
+
+
+Once upon a time there was a beautiful palace where the king’s children
+lived as happily as they alone can live. They never wanted anything and
+they never knew that there could be others who were not as happy as
+they. Sometimes, it is true, they would hear a story which would make
+them almost think that perhaps there was a world beyond, which they did
+not know, outside the palace of the king and its gardens, but something
+would seem to say that after all it was only a fairy story, and they
+would forget that it meant anything that might really be true.
+
+One of the little princesses seemed to think more of these stories of a
+world beyond the palace garden than the others, and she would sometimes
+find herself gazing at the sun, and wondering if the great world lay
+beyond the purple forests where the golden-edged clouds shone like dark
+mountains in the distance. And the name of this princess was Eline.
+
+More and more as she thought of these things she felt sure that there
+must be a world where things were very different from the happy life in
+the palace garden; and in the stories which the children heard she
+thought of many things, which, with the others, she used to pass by
+without notice. Once they used to hear of no sorrow, no pain, but only
+joy and peace. Now, in thinking, she sometimes noticed that there were
+things which were not spoken; that there were things passed by in
+silence; that there were things which travelers passing through the
+palace kept back, as though they knew of much which the children must
+not know, and yet which they would have told had they dared.
+
+Questions Eline asked, and the answers seldom satisfied her, for they
+never seemed to tell her everything. Every time one of the travelers
+left the palace to return on his journey there seemed to be a look of
+appeal in his eyes, an appeal which only Eline seemed to see, and which
+made her wish to follow them for the very love that shone in the kind
+faces of these strangers—strangers who told the children stories of
+things they loved—of wonderful fairy worlds where they were not as in
+the palace; of worlds where Eline seemed to have traveled many times,
+long, long ago.
+
+One day she asked her father, the king:
+
+“Shall I never go out of the palace, never leave the garden of delight
+and see the world that lies beyond the cloud-mountains, beyond the
+sunset and the whispering forests?”
+
+And the king looked intently at Eline.
+
+“These are strange fancies,” he said. “Are you not happy here in the
+garden?”
+
+“Yes, I am happy,” she said, “happier than I can tell. But you have not
+answered me. Is there not a world beyond? Shall I ever see it?”
+
+“Some traveler must have been telling you forbidden tales,” said the
+king. “These things I have said may not be spoken in my garden.”
+
+“No traveler has told me,” said Eline. “I have seen them looking as
+though they would tell me, but could not, of things beyond the garden,
+beyond the palace. I have asked them, and they have told me nothing. Yet
+I have felt that I long to go with them. I have felt that I remember
+strange places, strange sights, things I know not here, when they speak.
+Sometimes, even, it seems that I hear a voice like my own repeating a
+promise—a promise unfulfilled that must be kept. ‘I will return! I
+will! I will!’ it says. And I hear voices calling in the wind, in the
+rustling of the leaves, and in the silence of the day, ‘Come back! Come
+back!’ And the birds say, ‘Come!’ The pines whisper to me strange
+things, and the laughing water in the brooks says ‘Come!’ What does it
+mean?”
+
+“I cannot tell you here,” said the king. “But why do you wish to leave
+the palace? You are yet young and there are many, many years of
+happiness before you. You may stay in the palace where all things are
+good, and put these things out of mind. There is another world, but not
+for you—yet!”
+
+Eline was troubled, or would have been had such a thing been possible in
+the palace of the king.
+
+“May I ever see that land? May I ever leave the palace?”
+
+“The children of the king are free to come and go,” he said. “I may not
+keep them if they will not stay; for I know that they will come again.”
+
+
+
+
+                                  II
+
+
+Again a traveler came to the palace. He brought with him a harp of seven
+strings, on which he played to the children. He sang to them for a while
+and then for a space was silent. Eline listened to the strange,
+beautiful music. And to her it seemed that there was speech in the
+harp—that it spoke. The other children seemed to listen to the music,
+but to them it did not seem to speak. To Eline there were echoes of
+wonderful things the palace knew not; things that the language of the
+king could not tell. The harp spoke in a way that the Princess Eline
+knew and understood, although there were no words in its tones. There
+were sad and sorrowful notes that told of sorrows the palace never knew.
+There were strains of music that sounded harsh to the listening ear,
+though to the careless they told of happiness alone. And as she
+listened, Eline dreamed. Clearer and more clear she felt that the harp
+told of a world of men where sorrow and sadness and strife were not
+unknown; where joy should be, and was not; where the people groped their
+way through darkness and thought it light. “Return! Return!” called the
+harp.
+
+[Illustration: “I WILL RETURN”]
+
+And a mighty resolve came to Eline. “I will return! I will! I will!”
+
+She remembered the king’s saying: “The children of the king are free to
+come and go,” he had said. “I may not keep them if they will not stay,”
+he had told her.
+
+She loved him much; but the call came clear, and she dared not seek him
+to say farewell, lest she should be persuaded to remain.
+
+She bowed her head and to the harper spoke:
+
+“I will go,” she said. “I will return with you.”
+
+Then the harp sent forth such a melody of joyous music that it echoed
+thrilling through the hot discordant notes of the world beyond the
+sunset; and for a moment a chord of harmony ran through the life of men:
+
+“Joy unto you, men of the underworld! Joy unto you, children of sorrow!
+Joy unto you, sons of forgetfulness! Joy unto all beings!”
+
+They passed out of the garden together, the musician and the soul.
+
+[Illustration: THROUGH PINE FOREST]
+
+
+
+
+                                  III
+
+
+Westward they traveled, westward, ever westward. The way was dark and
+sometimes dreary, and Eline felt like one awakened from a beautiful
+dream before it was ended.
+
+Through the pine forests, over mountains, in deep valleys, and by mighty
+streams they traveled. Ever they had the harp to cheer the way, to urge
+their footsteps onward. For the path was untrodden where they went.
+
+“There is a path,” the harper said, “a pleasant path and broad, but the
+journey is long and we must hasten on our way. To the setting sun, to
+the gleaming sea, we must go; nor may we seek a beaten track lest we be
+too late.”
+
+A river there was in whose waters were reflected pictures of all that
+surrounded them—such crystal clear reflections that sometimes it seemed
+as if they looked at real things in the water mirrored in the things
+around them.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+And on the waters grew beautiful lotus-flowers, lilies with cup-shaped
+leaves. In the blue and white petals of the lotus also there seemed to
+be reflections, so clear were they. The musician plucked one of the
+cup-like lily-pads and filled it with the water for Eline.
+
+The still surface of the water shone like silver in its green cup as
+Eline held it. Then the musician played. Soft and low and sweet were the
+notes of that wonderful harp. Scarcely they rippled the surface of the
+water, and yet they vibrated, trembled, spread, until picture after
+picture came to the surface of the water in colors of every hue.
+
+Scarcely may it be told what Eline saw in the magic cup in the water of
+remembrance. She seemed to see herself—and yet another—in picture after
+picture. Now she saw herself as part of a golden sea of selves which
+made but one self, so lifelike were they, so glorious was their unity.
+Then in life after life Eline seemed to see her other selves living and
+loving and working, sleeping and suffering and struggling. She saw that
+on a day she had made her great resolve to help the world. “I will
+return! I will! I will!”
+
+And now she knew what things they were she had seemed to remember in the
+king’s garden of delight. Joyously, eagerly, willingly, she saw that she
+had determined to return to earth in body after body, to help the men
+of sorrow who struggled and slumbered and suffered. She saw that she had
+before so done; that her work remained unfinished, to be begun again
+where she had laid it down. There was suffering shown to her in the cup;
+there were sorrow and grief and pain. But she saw that it must all be,
+and was content. For at other times she had desired just such things
+that she might know how others felt them, that she might help them the
+more with understanding. Happiness she had taken to give to others, and
+she must repay the debt. She saw that all things were just, and when the
+musician said in a low voice:
+
+“Will you yet proceed?”
+
+“I will!” she said.
+
+“Then drink the cup,” he said, “Drink!”
+
+She drained the green cup of the lotus leaf until scarcely a drop
+remained, and with that draught she forgot all things that had been—the
+garden, the king, the journey and the vision, and the master
+harper—all were forgotten. Only there remained a dim remembrance as of a
+dream at dawn forgotten.
+
+[Illustration: DOMES AND SPIRES]
+
+
+
+
+                                  IV
+
+
+A little ship stood by the shore of the great sea; into this Eline
+entered. There were other ships, some better, some worse. But somehow
+she knew that just this, and not another, was the ship she wanted, and
+none questioned her when she entered.
+
+So they sailed away towards the setting sun.
+
+Long was the voyage and lonely; for the seas ran high and all was dark
+below in the heart of the ship. Nine months they sailed on the ocean,
+until in the time appointed land appeared. Strange dwellings were there,
+domes and spires and crowded cities. With wide, wondering eyes Eline
+watched them as the ship passed them by in strange procession; for the
+men of that land were like none she knew; none of these things could she
+remember. For she had forgotten even her name at the river of
+forgetfulness, where remembrances are left in the mirror of the waters
+until time and their creator bring them back to life.
+
+It seemed as though one of wise and kindly countenance held her as a
+little child in his arms and whispered softly, “Remember! I will return!
+I will! I will!” A light of happy recollection came to her and she
+smiled in reply. He had spoken in her own language as the harp had
+spoken, and strangely, strangely she seemed to see in him the harper
+whose music had told her of the sorrowful land beyond the sunset. For
+this moment, she remembered, and then the thought departed.
+
+At first the air seemed heavy and oppressive to the wanderer; but by
+degrees she grew accustomed to it and even, in time, scarcely felt
+it. Yet ever and again a dim remembrance of brighter, purer skies came
+to her. She spoke of this more than once; but others only laughed and
+said: “The child is dreaming!”
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Because she was no longer dressed in shining garments, they did not know
+her for the princess she really was. Indeed, she was no way different
+from those around her but that at heart she was still the daughter of
+the king. They could not see her heart—this they could not know. And
+seeing that they did not understand, she said no more of the thoughts
+that came to her. They called it dreaming; but Eline thought that if
+this were so, a dream were better than a waking life—unless—
+
+Could these be thoughts that came to her of the world beyond the water,
+the reflection of the real life? She knew not.
+
+“We must teach this little dreamer what is life!” they said. “She will
+not know what life is if we leave her to her dreams.”
+
+They made her work and made her play: work that never seemed to do
+anyone any good, and play that seemed like work. She nearly forgot that
+in what they called her dreams she had ever known of another life.
+
+Sometimes she sang to herself, strange songs that they said sounded sad
+and sorrowful, yet of a sweetness all their own.
+
+“Where does she hear them?” people asked.
+
+But Eline never told. For the truth was that they came to her in moments
+when her thoughts were far away, dreaming.
+
+“She sings like a bird in a cage that knows of a brighter world
+outside,” said one. But he was a poet, so they only smiled as if they
+themselves would have made the same remark if it had not been so
+fanciful.
+
+And though men thought her sad and lonely, there was joy to her in the
+hum of the bees and the song of the birds and the rustling of the
+leaves. The butterflies and the flowers and the brooks were her friends.
+
+“What a strange child,” people said when they heard her talking to these
+friends. They did not know of the stories her friends told her, stories
+which reminded her of a wonderful garden of delight where men did not
+ever stare and stare in gaping wonder because a little child talked with
+the fairies that live in all things beautiful, clothed in robes of
+sunlight and rainbow hues.
+
+They would have taken her away from these friends but for one old man,
+her grandfather, who said:
+
+“The child will be better for the fresh air. Let her live while she
+may.”
+
+So it was that she played and talked with the flowers and sang to the
+brooks and listened to the stories of the forest trees that whispered
+among themselves. None dared take her away.
+
+One day she had been for a long ramble by a mighty river, and the sun
+had sunk to the westward on its journey; but she turned not to the place
+she called her home. Tired and worn out with her play, she lay on a rock
+and slept.
+
+In her sleep it seemed that a touch upon her forehead awakened in her a
+vision of things she once had known, but had now almost forgotten. There
+was the king’s garden and the palace, and the other wonderful buildings,
+tall and stately—mighty buildings which seemed to speak of mighty
+builders, noble thoughts and great men’s deeds. Some were even more
+stately, some more humble, than the palace. But in all there was a sense
+of grander, nobler life than the life those knew who were with her now,
+and who, laughing, called her a dreamer.
+
+And she heard a voice repeating, “I will return! I will! I will!”
+
+Again she smiled as she recognized the voice. A feeling of intense
+happiness and content came to her and she—awoke. More than ever it
+seemed as if that other were the real life, and this a heavy dream.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                                   V
+
+
+The twilight glow still lingered in the west and the evening breeze
+called her to thoughts of home.
+
+But she had learned wisdom, and when they asked her where she had been,
+Eline said she had fallen asleep in the sunshine on a rock by the great
+river. Which was true.
+
+Of her dream she said nothing to any except to the old man who alone
+seemed to understand her a little. He did not laugh, but looked with
+thoughtful eyes intent, into the distance, away to the starlit sky, and
+it seemed to her that he also was trying to remember a forgotten dream
+of life. And seeing this she put her hand in his trustingly, and they
+two knew well each other’s thoughts though never a word was spoken.
+
+It seemed to the old man that the child was leading him along a familiar
+road to a home forgotten—after many weary days of wandering.
+
+“There are some things the heart can say that words can never tell,” he
+said to himself when she was gone. “I think we understand one another.”
+
+As time passed by Eline came to know more and more of that other life
+and she longed to tell these things to the people who struggled and
+surged in hot strife to win the things of the world they knew, never
+thinking that there was a happier, purer, brighter world. Some thought
+they knew of such a one; but all except a few made it seem like the one
+in which they lived—only they made it a little more bright by day, a
+little more dark by night, and with a little more success in the strife
+for the things that change and pass away. These she would tell of the
+nobler life she knew, but they listened not at all.
+
+In due time Eline was sent to school to learn. But her teachers found
+little that she did not quickly understand. For one thing she remembered
+now plainly, how in the garden of delight everything that was done was
+well done—were it the telling of a story or the singing of a song or the
+watering of the flowers that grew in that fair land. All was done with a
+wonderful thoroughness, and Eline now felt that she must do all things
+in that way or leave them quite alone. But often they would teach Eline
+things about which she seemed to care little and to understand as one in
+a dream. Then they would call her attention to the work only to find
+that she was learning to understand a great deal more than they
+themselves could tell. It was so with numbers. When they asked her what
+the numbers were by name, she not only named them all but told them why
+they were so named and what each meant. And so with music. With every
+chord she seemed to see harmonies of color, like beautiful pictures too
+glorious to paint. And when she said that life itself to her was music,
+Eline’s teachers did not understand.
+
+One said: “She has learned these things before in another life.”
+
+Another declared: “She sees the heart of things where we see only the
+outer covering. She sees the soul, we the body.”
+
+Perhaps they both were right.
+
+But many gave other reasons for these things and all of them were
+gravely discussed. But curiously enough, the two who gave the reasons I
+have told, were laughed at and told that such things could not be. So
+they said little about their thoughts because, like all those who are
+sure that they know the truth, they could afford to wait until their
+words were proved to be right.
+
+
+
+
+                                  VI
+
+
+At first Eline longed to tell the world of better things. She would
+gladly have told the world of the glorious masonry of those noble cities
+which she saw in her visions—cities where men and women moved like gods;
+where sorrow and want and selfishness seemed to be unknown. She longed
+to tell them of the harmonies which came to her of music which might
+stir a dead world to life, thrilling all nature into blossoms and fruits
+in abundance, as the music of a waterfall seems to send life into the
+flowers which grow beside. She would have told them of the colors with
+which nature loves to paint the sky, the mountains and valleys, sea and
+land, when all is ready for the master’s work. For nature paints
+wherever the canvas is prepared to receive the picture, and she asks no
+price for her work. Eline knew of times in the past—times that will come
+again—when man did not ever strive to be rich regardless of his poorer
+brothers, but each worked as he was able, all working for the whole
+world’s good. And she would have told them how in those times man did
+not earn his living by toil unending, by ceaseless pain and sorrow, but
+that nature helped him as he helped her, and the earth brought out her
+stores of rich fruits for the welfare of her upgrown sons, well knowing
+that they in turn with loving service would seek to make nobler and
+better that which nature gave to them in charge, birds and beasts,
+flowers and trees, plants and stones and all that lives—which is
+everything.
+
+Eline saw how the desire to possess more than enough, for the selfish
+pleasure of saying, “It is mine!”—how the growth of selfishness in the
+world; the love of killing nature’s younger sons for food and pleasure
+increased; how the love of ease and forgetfulness of others and of duty
+to mother nature—how all these things had chilled the warmth of the one
+great life that is in all things, and crippled the mother’s efforts to
+help her wayward sons.
+
+Others had told these things; others had striven to show the glorious
+light of life that shines behind the cold mist of sin and sorrow which
+has been cast like a veil over the earth; but all had been rejected.
+Some were ill-received; some were stoned; some were killed.
+
+“How can I raise this humanity which like a great orphan has cut itself
+off from its mother and now lies ignorant of the happiness that awaits
+its coming?” thought Eline. “I have returned to tell them of the way,
+and they will not hear. Others have returned as far as they might and
+have been rejected. Others still have boldly plunged deeper yet in the
+hot sea of human life and have been lost in its poisonous fumes. Even
+so, I will again return, yet lower, if by chance there be a few who will
+not reject my message.”
+
+
+
+
+                                  VII
+
+
+So Eline hid in her heart the things she knew and the things she would
+have told, as she had hidden in her soul at the river of forgetfulness
+the memory of the king’s garden of delight. And she took her way into
+the world with messages of love and of hope, such simple messages as the
+children understood, better sometimes than their elders. She told the
+children many beautiful fairy stories and they listened eagerly. They
+did not know that these were the stories which she had told to the
+learned ones of the earth and which were really true, though they had
+not believed.
+
+The children listened, and they said: “It is beautiful. Some day we will
+seek out such a beautiful world as that of which the stories tell.”
+
+[Illustration: SHE TOLD THE CHILDREN STORIES]
+
+There were houses, too, which they built—little toy houses with toy
+bricks. But Eline showed them how to shape the bricks and how to make
+each brick fit in its proper place so that never a one should lose its
+worth. And Eline showed the children how that behind the building of
+beautiful mansions there was the beautiful thought that made the masonry
+so noble a work, though it were only toy masonry. And the children
+understood.
+
+In their games they had done each his best and they did well. But Eline
+showed them games in which they all acted together, even the little ones
+helping and sharing. It was wonderful to them that they had not thought
+of this before, because now they found that they could do more than ever
+they had done when each worked alone and for himself.
+
+Near the city where they dwelt was a vast plain full of great boulders,
+which they could have made into a great park and a beautiful garden; but
+the people of the city cared not for such things and would not help
+them. By themselves they knew not how to move the rocks. So it remained
+a waste of wild growth, except in those places where the children had
+moved one by one, and with great difficulty, the smaller stones.
+
+Now Eline bid them take a strong rope. “For,” said she, “we will clear
+that plain, and it shall be for a dwelling and a garden for all.” She
+was thinking of the king’s garden.
+
+The children looked at her in astonishment as though they wondered if
+she meant the thing she said.
+
+“We have no rope,” they said, “and none will give us any.”
+
+“There is your rope,” said Eline, pointing out the overgrown plain,
+where, amid the rocks in the great patches from which they had slowly
+and painfully drawn the smaller stones, grew masses of pale blue
+flowers, beautiful, delicate little blossoms, like wind-flowers.
+
+Again the children looked at her, questioningly; not as the people at
+first had done, but trustingly, though they knew not what she would have
+them do, but sought to learn her wishes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+So at her bidding they gathered all the ripened stalks of the little
+flowers and laid them out in the sun as she directed.
+
+Almost it seemed a pity to destroy the plants. One little worker asked
+Eline of this matter for he loved the flowers and was sorry to see them
+gathered and dried.
+
+“Does it not hurt the flowers to pluck them?” he asked. “Some say that
+you can talk with them as with all living things, and you can tell if
+the flowers do not suffer in the gathering, although they are old and
+ripe.”
+
+His was a loving heart and Eline saw that he asked this out of no mere
+curiosity. Gently she touched his forehead with her finger.
+
+“Look!” she said. “Look and listen, for I have opened the seeing eye to
+you.”
+
+
+
+
+                                 VIII
+
+
+And the boy looked around in wonderment, amazed, and saw that the whole
+great plain was full of teeming life which he had not before seen.
+Fairies and elves peeped from every flower, gnomes and earthmen worked
+and played and danced among the boulders. And where before was silence
+but for the rustling of the leaves in the breeze, there rose a murmur of
+many voices, like the humming of bees in the sunshine. The boy listened
+and at once he knew what the flowers were whispering.
+
+“There is a saying that the flax-people are being used for a mighty
+work,” said one little blue fairy to another.
+
+“I heard a bee spreading the news,” said another. “All the flax-people
+are asked to give their dresses to help in clearing the plain for a
+palace and a garden where kings may dwell—not kings of earth and of
+little cities, but kings of wisdom whom nature loves to obey, and we
+among her children.”
+
+“Body after body have I grown,” said the other. “I have struggled and
+striven to grow useful in this glorious brotherhood of nature, and my
+only success seems to be that I have a pretty head. It is good to be
+beautiful, perhaps, but I have always thought that I would sacrifice my
+beauty for a chance of sharing in noble deeds.”
+
+A butterfly that had stopped to listen now spoke to her:
+
+“You have waited and now you will have your reward. For surely your
+body will be taken to help in the work that is going forward. The
+flax-people have indeed lived to good purpose.”
+
+“They certainly do not seem afraid to die,” said the boy to himself.
+
+And as if in answer to his whispered thought the little flax-fairy said:
+
+“Of course we are not afraid! I have been told that there are giants of
+men who really think that when they leave their worn-out stalks—bodies
+they call them—behind, they live no more, or at least are not sure what
+becomes of themselves. But it cannot be true—it must be a fairy story!”
+laughed the little elf. “They must know, as we know, that all things
+sleep awhile and then take new bodies like dresses woven while they
+worked in their last awaking which men call life. And then one day we
+know that we shall have woven dresses so fine that we shall be free to
+leave them as the butterfly leaves his dull-hued robes and spreads his
+bright wings for flight into the grand unknown which we all long to
+know.”
+
+“But _how_ do you know that these things are so?” asked the boy.
+
+“How do I know that I am alive?” answered the flax-fairy in a murmur.
+Fainter grew the voices and the vision faded from the boy’s sight.
+
+He knew not how long it was he stayed there, but after awhile he awoke
+with a start to find that Eline was no longer with him, and that he had
+slept among the flax in the sunshine.
+
+
+
+
+                                  IX
+
+
+“It must have been a dream!” he said. But he did not believe it was a
+dream—for all his words. And really the flowers seemed to him to bear a
+new life after that wonderful vision which came to him when Eline gave
+him for an hour the seeing eye.
+
+Working with the others joyfully and happily without a moment’s pause or
+one thought of failure, they saw quickly growing an immense heap of
+beautiful fine white thread. The children had helped the flax to grow
+and now in turn it aided them to clear more ground.
+
+For in no long time all was finished and before them they had a mighty
+rope growing greater every day under their Leader’s eye.
+
+One strange thing there was about the rope. For there were golden
+threads interwoven which the children did not remember having seen among
+the flax. And they wondered.
+
+But Eline only said “It is golden flax.”
+
+Whatever it was, it shone brightly in the sun until it looked like a ray
+of real sunlight in the rope.
+
+[Illustration: MAKING ROPE]
+
+One little child said:
+
+“It looks like a brother to the sun!”
+
+“Perhaps it is,” said Eline, and smiled.
+
+The work grew apace. And the play grew apace, because the children
+scarcely knew which was work and which was play. They seemed to have
+found something better than both. Stone after stone, rock after rock,
+was encircled with the cord and triumphantly drawn by that merry army of
+children to the edge of the plain. Clearer and clearer grew the space.
+Where before the stones had been, little pools of water formed, while
+round them grew masses of beautiful flowers, among which was a new crop
+of the little blue flax, stronger and better grown than any that had
+been there before. Gradually there grew up a great wall of rock around
+the plain where the boulders were drawn by the children, for each was
+taken to its nearest boundary, as Eline told them this would be the
+simplest way to clear the plain.
+
+Some mighty rocks yet remained in the center of the plain but the
+children had so seen the wisdom of their Leader that they doubted not
+that these too would be removed without difficulty, although how this
+was to be done they could not tell.
+
+And as the work was nearing an end they did as their Leader bid them in
+perfect trust. Actually they put their ropes around a rock which some
+said was like a small mountain. They pulled with a will, but the rock
+moved not.
+
+Still they pulled willingly and with all their might, for now they had
+grown strong until they scarcely knew their own powers.
+
+From the great city, from the mountains, and from the country round
+about, came sightseers and inquirers. At first they only laughed and
+talked, and helped not at all. But among them came men of strange
+countenance, strong men, wise in looks, men of kingly bearing.
+
+[Illustration: CLEARING THE PLAIN]
+
+These said: “It is not right that these children should work for ever
+alone.”
+
+And they too, with strong grip of a strange sort, laid hold of the
+golden ropes, seeing which, the idlers too came and helped until with a
+mighty song of joy the children saw the great rock move, slowly at
+first, then faster, faster, until with a run they had placed it in a far
+corner of the great plain, standing like a sentinel to the North.
+
+
+
+
+                                   X
+
+
+Another and yet others followed. East and South and West the unhewn
+boulders stood like guardians of the plain. A circle of twelve yet
+remained in the center, like giant pillars supporting the sky. But these
+Eline said should stand, as also some smaller ones which were placed
+across their tops like great beams resting upon a doorway. How this was
+done I cannot say; but there is a saying in the city that, in the night
+before they were found placed high above the giant circle, the sound of
+a great and joyous song, a hymn of power, was heard like the tones of a
+great bell shaking the houses with its vibrations and putting men in
+fear of the destruction of their city. But at sunset the children had
+not returned from the plain, so that they were not in the city when this
+happened. And not until the sunrise did the people flock to the doors
+and windows for a glimpse of the joyous army that marched in their
+streets. Led by the men of kingly bearing the children marched, singing
+a song of triumph, with such shining glory in their faces that all the
+people marveled.
+
+Tired they were, and slept; but when in the late noontide the people
+asked them what had happened, all seemed like the forgotten glory of a
+dream. They could remember little except that they were filled with the
+joy of wonderful things which no tongue could tell.
+
+The work had not taken one day, or two, but many days. Months and even
+years had passed since the children played together in the sunshine.
+Strong and sturdy lads and lasses were they now. A beautiful temple had
+arisen within the giant circle, and all around it was a garden of beauty
+like no garden which they had seen.
+
+But when Eline looked amid the rare flowers and found a little purple
+star with heart of gold, she knew that it was a flower from the king’s
+garden, and she was glad that it could grow where all was rock before.
+There were great purple pansies, too, like thoughts from the palace in
+which Eline had lived.
+
+Now it was that the children came to the temple to learn of Eline, and
+she taught them the wonderful truths which she knew; to them she told
+the wonderful things that have been and the more wonderful things that
+may be, if men will only try to bring them about.
+
+She taught them things so simple that they often wondered why they had
+not already known them without the telling. They did not know that there
+was a good reason why it should be so. Eline taught them, too, how by
+all working together for the welfare and progress of all, there is no
+task we may not overcome.
+
+“We know it,” said the children, remembering the waste of rocks in the
+plain where now the garden stood and the temple.
+
+“Each by himself can do much, but all working together can move the
+world,” she said. “Now I will tell you a strange thing, which is yet
+true. For we are not at all separate from any other thing in the world,
+but the same nature is in us as in them—in the rocks and the flowers, in
+the forests and streams, in city and mountain, in air and fire and
+water, just as the rocks and this temple are of the same stone,
+although they differ in shape. And if we only will, we can make all our
+rocks into beautiful, glorious temples.
+
+“When the world of men has learned this lesson the earth itself will
+become a mighty temple, that the wise teachers of old, whom men call
+gods, may come to us again and live with us in peace for evermore.
+
+“And it shall be known that music is life, for in music is harmony, and
+by harmony all things live, each note in its own place, doing its
+perfect work, be it great or small. For this too is a brotherhood of
+harmony.”
+
+Because in those days the people listened to the teachings from the
+temple and to the great ones who came to dwell therein when it was
+finished, and who taught the seekers after truth, through their
+messenger Eline, there were happiness and joy and peace in all the land.
+Men became nobler as they thought of nobler things than had hitherto
+been their custom.
+
+Seeing the beauty of the temple and the mighty work that comes of
+aiding nature, working in unity and harmony, they also built their
+houses to be like the temple. Stone they used for brick, beautiful they
+built them within and without, and they labored to make their dwellings
+fit temples for the gods. For it was said among them that sometimes
+strangers would visit their city, and seeking entrance, would dwell with
+them awhile where they found a welcome. And it was noticed that always
+they came to such dwellings as those where the beauty and harmony of the
+building showed beauty and harmony within. And when they left the house,
+always there seemed to remain a memory of their presence as a ray of
+light at sunset leaves a memory of joyous days and a sense of hope for
+brighter days yet to come.
+
+When this thing happened the neighbors would gather together and it was
+said:
+
+“The Master has built the house.”
+
+Then the great beam which rested on the pillars of the doors was lifted
+and where it had stood was built an arch of stone. And last of all was
+dropped in place the keystone which held the arch, and there was great
+rejoicing, for the people said: “The house is finished.” Some there were
+who would have lifted the beam and built the arch, but unless the Master
+had been in the house, always some accident would occur and the house be
+destroyed.
+
+In the center of the arch was placed a great light which was ever kept
+burning, for it was fed with oil of gold which never burns away, but
+whose smoke ever turns to oil again. Each light was like the greater
+light which ever shone from the dome of the temple, a light to lighten
+all around, such light as it was said went out to the world from the
+temple itself in the knowledge of the laws of life and of all things
+good and great and beautiful. Never was the light to be put out, lest
+harm should come. Day and night it was held a sacred duty to guard the
+light.
+
+When that light shone there was peace and plenty in the land, for
+fellowship made life joyful. Some called that glorious time the Golden
+Age; some there are even now among us who will to bring that golden age
+again to earth as then, through brotherhood and the joy of life, that
+misery shall not always be among us, nor poverty, sorrow, and pain.
+
+
+
+
+                                  XI
+
+
+But there came a day when messengers from far off lands came over sea a
+great journey to the temple. And to Eline they told the despair and want
+and the madness of unbrotherliness that men knew in the countries whence
+they came, countries where the light shone no longer. Of wars and of
+famines they spoke, of poverty, oppression, and crime.
+
+[Illustration: “GUARD WELL THE TEMPLE”]
+
+Eline’s great compassion could not be silent to appeal. “From these
+things, I say Humanity SHALL be saved!” said she. “I have a duty here,
+but there are guardians in the Temple, and the call comes loud to me
+from the world beyond. I will go!”
+
+Those messengers heard with joy of the success of their journey, for
+they had traveled far and had overcome many trials and difficulties by
+the way. And all the time they had hoped in perfect faith that they
+would return with some encouragement to the country whence they came.
+And doubtless it was because of the grand faith they showed that Eline
+herself answered their call.
+
+“Guard well the temple while I am away,” Eline charged her people. “I
+must travel far, but in no long time I will return!—I will return! Be
+watchful, therefore, that the light be burning, that the oil fade not.
+None can tell the time of the coming, whether it be by night or day.
+With your lives must you guard the light!”
+
+She spoke somewhat sadly as it seemed to them, and they supposed she
+thought of the great misery and need of those she went to succor in
+their distress.
+
+And they answered the more eagerly:
+
+“We will! We will!”
+
+For the first time since it had been built the temple was left without
+its head—a sacred trust indeed.
+
+They thought they knew themselves; they thought they knew the evil in
+their natures, and the good, did those temple watchers.
+
+And in their surety of knowing they grew careless, so that in no long
+time they lost their caution. Some there were who were faithless, and
+these began to tell them of their great success; how they had built the
+temple; how their industry and labor had succeeded; how well they had
+learned to know themselves. Gently they suggested these things, gently
+these sayings took root, almost unperceived.
+
+“Our temple which we have built is very mighty. It can never fall,” they
+said.
+
+Some few there were who would have spoken for Eline, but they were timid
+and afraid of those who talked so boastfully. Wherefore they were
+silent. It is true that one or two attempted to recall the noble deeds
+of the absent one, and to point out that she had really built the
+temple; they had supplied only the labor; yet the fruits of it were
+theirs and the world’s.
+
+“True,” said the wicked and faithless ones, “she had a great mind for
+building; but she made mistakes. She herself said so. We have learned by
+those mistakes and we know. She would have made the temple teachings too
+common altogether. Why, she actually began to turn into a teacher of
+virtues of which the world is weary, instead of building as at first.
+She had taught all she knew, but we can teach greater things, and better
+things; we can teach the world twenty different styles of building in
+metals, wood, stone, and marble; of ornaments and decorations enough to
+last for a century. Thus we honor her; thus we carry on her work and
+make it grow—although she made mistakes.”
+
+“Indeed she did make mistakes,” said one, “and the greatest mistake of
+all was when she chose such faithless craftsmen for the temple work.
+Shame on you!”
+
+“O faithful one!” said they. “Such faith deserves a great reward. To you
+we will entrust the duty of finding her. We will give you all you need
+for the voyage—a ship and provisions enough for a year!”
+
+[Illustration: ADRIFT ON THE SEA]
+
+
+
+
+                                  XII
+
+
+So those treacherous ones cast adrift on the ocean the one who remained
+faithful. And those others who would have spoken out for their absent
+Teacher were silenced against their own better natures. For those wicked
+ones had been great among them, and they were afraid.
+
+It was thought that in no long time the winds and the waves would
+destroy the little ship with its lonely voyager; yet with stout heart,
+knowing that he might not return alone, he held on fearless and
+determined. Sometimes it seems that those who so follow the voice of
+their inner wisdom in dauntless courage are helped by nature, as though
+she ever loves such brave hearts. I have heard the story told how the
+great Columbus who found a new world was beset by his followers to
+return. How nature sent him messages that he was nearing land—birds and
+driftwood, branches of trees and floating weed. He read the message
+with the eyes of one who loves all nature well, and promised sight of
+land to his men in three days, a promise that was fulfilled.
+
+So it was that the little ship with the one who remained faithful did a
+greater work than ever those desired who sent it.
+
+Slowly, slowly, in the Temple, it came about that the guardians forgot
+their duty, forgot that they were there to guard the temple in sacred
+trust for humanity; and as the wicked ones among them wished, they
+busied themselves about many things; but not the one thing needful, the
+welfare and the progress of mankind.
+
+How can the tale be told? A tale that is new, yet old—old beyond count
+of years.
+
+For the enemies of the world, with whom those wicked ones were leagued,
+came suddenly by night, when the sacred lamp which sent rays of hope
+over the great ocean was allowed to flicker and to go out. And those
+enemies destroyed the temple so that scarcely one stone remained upon
+another. And with it were destroyed those weak ones who failed in their
+trust. All perished and with them perished for a time the Light of the
+World.
+
+
+
+
+                                 XIII
+
+
+It is said, how truly I know not, that beneath the foundation pillars of
+the temple was wisely prepared by Eline a vault, a vast cave wherein
+were hidden the most sacred records of the temple and the sacred secret
+name which they had forgotten.
+
+To her over the sea came the knowledge of the faithless guard, and in
+her agony she called upon that sacred name if by chance the temple
+should be saved.
+
+In days of old men knew that there is a power in words, a power now
+forgotten. Stories there are which tell of city walls falling at a
+trumpet blast, of cities rising as if by magic at a word, of mighty
+doors thrown open, of nature spellbound by a song, of mighty names the
+jinns and genii of the desert obey.
+
+And this sacred name was such a one as these; for with its whispering a
+mighty thrill passed out over the world and the foundations of the sea
+were shaken. Vast continents were destroyed, and men said the world was
+at an end. Terrible was the time, but Eline knew that it was better so;
+for the remnant of the living might one day restore the ancient glory of
+that land. But had it been that the land remained, those wicked ones
+would have lived and worked to destroy the whole world so that not even
+a remnant should be left in the bosom of the waters to re-people the
+earth.
+
+After many days, tossed and beaten by the waves, the little ship with
+the outcast faithful one came drifting to the land where Eline was.
+
+The winds and the sea conspired, as it seemed, to urge the ship on her
+voyage, and the dwellers of the ocean pointed the way, watchful ever and
+untiring in their duty. Small as it was, and ill-found, Eline chose this
+ship for her return, and once again she came to the place where the
+temple had stood—she and that faithful one.
+
+She gazed on the ruins of that sacred spot and sadly looked at the tops
+of the mighty pillars just rising above the waves of the sea which at
+times filled the arches in between so that no man might pass beneath.
+
+Unseen guards there were, Eline knew, guards who would keep that spot
+free for future generations of a world to come. Water-nymphs,
+sea-sprites, and earth-goblins, undines, gnomes, and sylphs dwelt there
+as sentinels of a sacred trust, and Eline was content to go.
+
+“For,” she said, “the secret vault of the sacred name yet stands intact
+until these same faithless ones shall come again, purified by many
+wanderings and trials, and shall again guard that new-old temple with
+me. That time they shall not fail!”
+
+And a ray of glorious hope shone in her face as she left the ruined
+temple.
+
+“I will return!” she said. “I will return!”
+
+[Illustration: “I WILL RETURN”]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strange Little Girl, by V. M.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strange Little Girl, by V. M.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Strange Little Girl
+       A Story for Children
+
+Author: V. M.
+
+Commentator: Katherine Tingley
+
+Illustrator: N. Roth
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2007 [EBook #23671]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Markus Brenner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain material
+produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<p class="nocaption figcenter">
+<a href="images/cover.jpg"><img src="images/cover_th.jpg" alt="The Strange Little Girl" title="The Strange Little Girl" /></a></p>
+
+
+<div style="position: relative; width: 400px; height: 500px; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 139px;">
+<a href="images/illu_14.jpg"><img src="images/title_flowers.jpg" alt="lotus-flowers" title="lotus-flowers" /></a>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="title">The Strange<br />
+Little Girl</p>
+
+<p class="figornament">
+<img src="images/title_ornament_l.jpg" alt="" title="" /></p>
+
+<p class="subtitle">A Story for<br />
+Children</p>
+
+<p class="author">By V. M.</p>
+
+<p class="figornament">
+<img src="images/title_ornament_m.jpg" alt="" title="" /></p>
+
+
+
+<p class="illustrator">Illustrations by N. Roth</p>
+
+<p class="figornament">
+<img src="images/title_ornament_s.jpg" alt="" title="" /></p>
+
+
+<p class="publisher"><i>The Aryan Theosophical Press<br />
+Point Loma, California</i>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="copyright"><span class="smcap">Copyright 1911, by Katherine Tingley</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/logo.jpg"><img src="images/logo_th.jpg" alt="" title="" /></a></p>
+
+
+<p class="printerlogo">
+<span class="smcap">The Aryan Theosophical Press</span><br />
+Point Loma, California<br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/frontispiece.jpg"><img src="images/frontispiece_th.jpg" alt="IN THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT" title="IN THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">IN THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT</p>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="textbody">
+<h1><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span>The Strange Little Girl</h1>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+
+<div class="initial" style="clear: both">
+<img src="images/dropcap_01.jpg" alt="O" title="O" /></div>
+<p class="dropcapsection"><span class="firstwords">
+<span style="display: none;">O</span>nce</span> upon a time there was a
+beautiful palace where the king&#8217;s
+children lived as happily as they
+alone can live. They never wanted
+anything and they never knew
+that there could be others who were not as
+happy as they. Sometimes, it is true, they
+would hear a story which would make them
+almost think that perhaps there was a world
+beyond, which they did not know, outside
+the palace of the king and its gardens, but
+something would seem to say that after all
+it was only a fairy story, and they would
+forget that it meant anything that might
+really be true.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>One of the little princesses seemed to
+think more of these stories of a world beyond
+the palace garden than the others, and
+she would sometimes find herself gazing at
+the sun, and wondering if the great world
+lay beyond the purple forests where the
+golden-edged clouds shone like dark mountains
+in the distance. And the name of this
+princess was Eline.</p>
+
+<p>More and more as she thought of these
+things she felt sure that there must be a
+world where things were very different
+from the happy life in the palace garden;
+and in the stories which the children heard
+she thought of many things, which, with the
+others, she used to pass by without notice.
+Once they used to hear of no sorrow, no
+pain, but only joy and peace. Now, in thinking,
+she sometimes noticed that there were
+things which were not spoken; that there
+were things passed by in silence; that there
+were things which travelers passing through
+the palace kept back, as though they knew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+of much which the children must not know,
+and yet which they would have told had
+they dared.</p>
+
+<p>Questions Eline asked, and the answers
+seldom satisfied her, for they never seemed
+to tell her everything. Every time one of
+the travelers left the palace to return on his
+journey there seemed to be a look of appeal
+in his eyes, an appeal which only Eline
+seemed to see, and which made her wish to
+follow them for the very love that shone in
+the kind faces of these strangers&mdash;strangers
+who told the children stories of things
+they loved&mdash;of wonderful fairy worlds
+where they were not as in the palace; of
+worlds where Eline seemed to have traveled
+many times, long, long ago.</p>
+
+<p>One day she asked her father, the king:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shall I never go out of the palace, never
+leave the garden of delight and see the world
+that lies beyond the cloud-mountains, beyond
+the sunset and the whispering forests?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>And the king looked intently at Eline.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;These are strange fancies,&#8221; he said.
+&#8220;Are you not happy here in the garden?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I am happy,&#8221; she said, &#8220;happier
+than I can tell. But you have not answered
+me. Is there not a world beyond? Shall I
+ever see it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Some traveler must have been telling
+you forbidden tales,&#8221; said the king. &#8220;These
+things I have said may not be spoken in my
+garden.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No traveler has told me,&#8221; said Eline.
+&#8220;I have seen them looking as though they
+would tell me, but could not, of things beyond
+the garden, beyond the palace. I have
+asked them, and they have told me nothing.
+Yet I have felt that I long to go with them.
+I have felt that I remember strange places,
+strange sights, things I know not here, when
+they speak. Sometimes, even, it seems that
+I hear a voice like my own repeating a
+promise&mdash;a promise unfulfilled that must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+be kept. &#8216;I will return! I will! I will!&#8217;
+it says. And I hear voices calling in the
+wind, in the rustling of the leaves, and in
+the silence of the day, &#8216;Come back! Come
+back!&#8217; And the birds say, &#8216;Come!&#8217; The
+pines whisper to me strange things, and the
+laughing water in the brooks says &#8216;Come!&#8217;
+What does it mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I cannot tell you here,&#8221; said the king.
+&#8220;But why do you wish to leave the palace?
+You are yet young and there are many,
+many years of happiness before you. You
+may stay in the palace where all things are
+good, and put these things out of mind.
+There is another world, but not for you&mdash;yet!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Eline was troubled, or would have been
+had such a thing been possible in the palace
+of the king.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;May I ever see that land? May I ever
+leave the palace?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The children of the king are free to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+come and go,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I may not keep
+them if they will not stay; for I know that
+they will come again.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+
+<p>Again a traveler came to the palace. He
+brought with him a harp of seven strings,
+on which he played to the children. He
+sang to them for a while and then for a
+space was silent. Eline listened to the
+strange, beautiful music. And to her it
+seemed that there was speech in the harp&mdash;that
+it spoke. The other children seemed
+to listen to the music, but to them it did not
+seem to speak. To Eline there were echoes
+of wonderful things the palace knew not;
+things that the language of the king could
+not tell. The harp spoke in a way that the
+Princess Eline knew and understood, although
+there were no words in its tones.
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> -->
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> -->
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>There were sad and sorrowful notes that
+told of sorrows the palace never knew.
+There were strains of music that sounded
+harsh to the listening ear, though to the
+careless they told of happiness alone. And
+as she listened, Eline dreamed. Clearer and
+more clear she felt that the harp told of a
+world of men where sorrow and sadness and
+strife were not unknown; where joy should
+be, and was not; where the people groped
+their way through darkness and thought it
+light. &#8220;Return! Return!&#8221; called the harp.</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/illu_08.jpg"><img src="images/illu_08_th.jpg" alt="&#8220;I WILL RETURN&#8221;" title="&#8220;I WILL RETURN&#8221;" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">&#8220;I WILL RETURN&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>And a mighty resolve came to Eline. &#8220;I
+will return! I will! I will!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She remembered the king&#8217;s saying: &#8220;The
+children of the king are free to come and
+go,&#8221; he had said. &#8220;I may not keep them
+if they will not stay,&#8221; he had told her.</p>
+
+<p>She loved him much; but the call came
+clear, and she dared not seek him to say
+farewell, lest she should be persuaded to
+remain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>She bowed her head and to the harper
+spoke:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I will go,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I will return
+with you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the harp sent forth such a melody
+of joyous music that it echoed thrilling
+through the hot discordant notes of the
+world beyond the sunset; and for a moment
+a chord of harmony ran through the life
+of men:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Joy unto you, men of the underworld!
+Joy unto you, children of sorrow! Joy unto
+you, sons of forgetfulness! Joy unto all
+beings!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They passed out of the garden together,
+the musician and the soul.</p>
+
+
+<!-- <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> -->
+<p class="figcenter"><!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> -->
+<a href="images/illu_12.jpg"><img src="images/illu_12_th.jpg" alt="THROUGH PINE FOREST" title="THROUGH PINE FOREST" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">THROUGH PINE FOREST</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+
+<p>Westward they traveled, westward, ever
+westward. The way was dark and sometimes
+dreary, and Eline felt like one awakened
+from a beautiful dream before it was
+ended.</p>
+
+<p>Through the pine forests, over mountains,
+in deep valleys, and by mighty streams they
+traveled. Ever they had the harp to cheer
+the way, to urge their footsteps onward.
+For the path was untrodden where they
+went.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is a path,&#8221; the harper said, &#8220;a
+pleasant path and broad, but the journey is
+long and we must hasten on our way. To
+the setting sun, to the gleaming sea, we
+must go; nor may we seek a beaten track
+lest we be too late.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A river there was in whose waters were
+reflected pictures of all that surrounded
+them&mdash;such crystal clear reflections that
+sometimes it seemed as if they looked at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+real things in the water
+mirrored in the things
+around them.</p>
+
+<span class="figleft">
+<a href="images/illu_14.jpg"><img src="images/illu_14_th.jpg" alt="lotus-flowers" title="lotus-flowers" /></a>
+</span>
+
+<p>And on the waters
+grew beautiful lotus-flowers,
+lilies with cup-shaped
+leaves. In the
+blue and white petals
+of the lotus also there
+seemed to be reflections,
+so clear were
+they. The musician
+plucked one of the cup-like
+lily-pads and filled
+it with the water for
+Eline.</p>
+
+<p>The still surface of
+the water shone like
+silver in its green cup
+as Eline held it. Then
+the musician played.
+Soft and low and sweet
+were the notes of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+wonderful harp. Scarcely they rippled the
+surface of the water, and yet they vibrated,
+trembled, spread, until picture after picture
+came to the surface of the water in colors
+of every hue.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely may it be told what Eline saw in
+the magic cup in the water of remembrance.
+She seemed to see herself&mdash;and yet another&mdash;in
+picture after picture. Now she saw
+herself as part of a golden sea of selves
+which made but one self, so lifelike were
+they, so glorious was their unity. Then in
+life after life Eline seemed to see her other
+selves living and loving and working, sleeping
+and suffering and struggling. She saw
+that on a day she had made her great resolve
+to help the world. &#8220;I will return! I will!
+I will!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And now she knew what things they were
+she had seemed to remember in the king&#8217;s
+garden of delight. Joyously, eagerly, willingly,
+she saw that she had determined to
+return to earth in body after body, to help<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+the men of sorrow who struggled and slumbered
+and suffered. She saw that she had
+before so done; that her work remained
+unfinished, to be begun again where she had
+laid it down. There was suffering shown
+to her in the cup; there were sorrow and
+grief and pain. But she saw that it must
+all be, and was content. For at other times
+she had desired just such things that she
+might know how others felt them, that she
+might help them the more with understanding.
+Happiness she had taken to give to
+others, and she must repay the debt. She
+saw that all things were just, and when the
+musician said in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will you yet proceed?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I will!&#8221; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then drink the cup,&#8221; he said, &#8220;Drink!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She drained the green cup of the lotus
+leaf until scarcely a drop remained, and with
+that draught she forgot all things that had
+been&mdash;the garden, the king, the journey
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> -->
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> -->
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>and the vision, and the master harper&mdash;all
+were forgotten. Only there remained a dim
+remembrance as of a dream at dawn forgotten.</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/illu_18.jpg"><img src="images/illu_18_th.jpg" alt="DOMES AND SPIRES" title="DOMES AND SPIRES" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">DOMES AND SPIRES</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>A little ship stood by the shore of the
+great sea; into this Eline entered. There
+were other ships, some better, some worse.
+But somehow she knew that just this, and
+not another, was the ship she wanted, and
+none questioned her when she entered.</p>
+
+<p>So they sailed away towards the setting
+sun.</p>
+
+<p>Long was the voyage and lonely; for the
+seas ran high and all was dark below in the
+heart of the ship. Nine months they sailed
+on the ocean, until in the time appointed
+land appeared. Strange dwellings were
+there, domes and spires and crowded cities.
+With wide, wondering eyes Eline watched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+them as the ship passed them by in strange
+procession; for the men of that land were
+like none she knew; none of these things
+could she remember. For she had forgotten
+even her name at the river of forgetfulness,
+where remembrances are left in the mirror
+of the waters until time and their creator
+bring them back to life.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as though one of wise and
+kindly countenance held her as a little child
+in his arms and whispered softly, &#8220;Remember!
+I will return! I will! I will!&#8221; A
+light of happy recollection came to her and
+she smiled in reply. He had spoken in her
+own language as the harp had spoken, and
+strangely, strangely she seemed to see in
+him the harper whose music had told her
+of the sorrowful land beyond the sunset.
+For this moment, she remembered, and then
+the thought departed.</p>
+
+<p>At first the air seemed heavy and oppressive
+to the wanderer; but by degrees she
+grew accustomed to it and even, in time,
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> -->
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> -->
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>scarcely felt it. Yet ever and again a dim
+remembrance of brighter, purer skies came
+to her. She spoke of this more than once;
+but others only laughed and said: &#8220;The
+child is dreaming!&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p class="nocaption figcenter">
+<a href="images/illu_22.jpg"><img src="images/illu_22_th.jpg" alt="" title="" /></a></p>
+
+
+<p>Because she was no longer dressed in
+shining garments, they did not know her
+for the princess she really was. Indeed,
+she was no way different from those around
+her but that at heart she was still the daughter
+of the king. They could not see her
+heart&mdash;this they could not know. And
+seeing that they did not understand, she
+said no more of the thoughts that came to
+her. They called it dreaming; but Eline
+thought that if this were so, a dream were
+better than a waking life&mdash;unless&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Could these be thoughts that came to her
+of the world beyond the water, the reflection
+of the real life? She knew not.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We must teach this little dreamer what
+is life!&#8221; they said. &#8220;She will not know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+what life is if we leave her to her dreams.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They made her work and made her play:
+work that never seemed to do anyone any
+good, and play that seemed like work. She
+nearly forgot that in what they called her
+dreams she had ever known of another life.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes she sang to herself, strange
+songs that they said sounded sad and sorrowful,
+yet of a sweetness all their own.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where does she hear them?&#8221; people
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>But Eline never told. For the truth was
+that they came to her in moments when her
+thoughts were far away, dreaming.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She sings like a bird in a cage that
+knows of a brighter world outside,&#8221; said
+one. But he was a poet, so they only smiled
+as if they themselves would have made the
+same remark if it had not been so fanciful.</p>
+
+<p>And though men thought her sad and
+lonely, there was joy to her in the hum of
+the bees and the song of the birds and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+rustling of the leaves. The butterflies and
+the flowers and the brooks were her friends.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What a strange child,&#8221; people said when
+they heard her talking to these friends.
+They did not know of the stories her friends
+told her, stories which reminded her of a
+wonderful garden of delight where men did
+not ever stare and stare in gaping wonder
+because a little child talked with the fairies
+that live in all things beautiful, clothed in
+robes of sunlight and rainbow hues.</p>
+
+<p>They would have taken her away from
+these friends but for one old man, her
+grandfather, who said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The child will be better for the fresh
+air. Let her live while she may.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So it was that she played and talked with
+the flowers and sang to the brooks and listened
+to the stories of the forest trees that
+whispered among themselves. None dared
+take her away.</p>
+
+<p>One day she had been for a long ramble<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+by a mighty river, and the sun had sunk
+to the westward on its journey; but she
+turned not to the place she called her home.
+Tired and worn out with her play, she lay
+on a rock and slept.</p>
+
+<p>In her sleep it seemed that a touch upon
+her forehead awakened in her a vision of
+things she once had known, but had now
+almost forgotten. There was the king&#8217;s garden
+and the palace, and the other wonderful
+buildings, tall and stately&mdash;mighty buildings
+which seemed to speak of mighty builders,
+noble thoughts and great men&#8217;s deeds.
+Some were even more stately, some more
+humble, than the palace. But in all there
+was a sense of grander, nobler life than the
+life those knew who were with her now,
+and who, laughing, called her a dreamer.</p>
+
+<p>And she heard a voice repeating, &#8220;I will
+return! I will! I will!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Again she smiled as she recognized the
+voice. A feeling of intense happiness and
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> -->
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> -->
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>content came to her and she&mdash;awoke.
+More than ever it seemed as if that other
+were the real life, and this a heavy dream.</p>
+
+
+<p class="nocaption figcenter">
+<a href="images/illu_28.jpg"><img src="images/illu_28_th.jpg" alt="" title="" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+
+<p>The twilight glow still lingered in the
+west and the evening breeze called her to
+thoughts of home.</p>
+
+<p>But she had learned wisdom, and when
+they asked her where she had been, Eline
+said she had fallen asleep in the sunshine
+on a rock by the great river. Which was
+true.</p>
+
+<p>Of her dream she said nothing to any
+except to the old man who alone seemed to
+understand her a little. He did not laugh,
+but looked with thoughtful eyes intent, into
+the distance, away to the starlit sky, and it
+seemed to her that he also was trying to
+remember a forgotten dream of life. And
+seeing this she put her hand in his trustingly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+and they two knew well each other&#8217;s
+thoughts though never a word was spoken.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to the old man that the child
+was leading him along a familiar road to a
+home forgotten&mdash;after many weary days
+of wandering.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are some things the heart can
+say that words can never tell,&#8221; he said to
+himself when she was gone. &#8220;I think we
+understand one another.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As time passed by Eline came to know
+more and more of that other life and she
+longed to tell these things to the people who
+struggled and surged in hot strife to win
+the things of the world they knew, never
+thinking that there was a happier, purer,
+brighter world. Some thought they knew
+of such a one; but all except a few made
+it seem like the one in which they lived&mdash;only
+they made it a little more bright by
+day, a little more dark by night, and with
+a little more success in the strife for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+things that change and pass away. These
+she would tell of the nobler life she knew,
+but they listened not at all.</p>
+
+<p>In due time Eline was sent to school to
+learn. But her teachers found little that
+she did not quickly understand. For one
+thing she remembered now plainly, how in
+the garden of delight everything that was
+done was well done&mdash;were it the telling
+of a story or the singing of a song or the
+watering of the flowers that grew in that
+fair land. All was done with a wonderful
+thoroughness, and Eline now felt that she
+must do all things in that way or leave them
+quite alone. But often they would teach
+Eline things about which she seemed to care
+little and to understand as one in a dream.
+Then they would call her attention to the
+work only to find that she was learning to
+understand a great deal more than they
+themselves could tell. It was so with numbers.
+When they asked her what the numbers
+were by name, she not only named<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+them all but told them why they were so
+named and what each meant. And so with
+music. With every chord she seemed to see
+harmonies of color, like beautiful pictures
+too glorious to paint. And when she said
+that life itself to her was music, Eline&#8217;s
+teachers did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>One said: &#8220;She has learned these things
+before in another life.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Another declared: &#8220;She sees the heart
+of things where we see only the outer covering.
+She sees the soul, we the body.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps they both were right.</p>
+
+<p>But many gave other reasons for these
+things and all of them were gravely discussed.
+But curiously enough, the two who
+gave the reasons I have told, were laughed
+at and told that such things could not be.
+So they said little about their thoughts because,
+like all those who are sure that they
+know the truth, they could afford to wait
+until their words were proved to be right.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>At first Eline longed to tell the world of
+better things. She would gladly have told
+the world of the glorious masonry of those
+noble cities which she saw in her visions&mdash;cities
+where men and women moved like
+gods; where sorrow and want and selfishness
+seemed to be unknown. She longed to
+tell them of the harmonies which came to
+her of music which might stir a dead world
+to life, thrilling all nature into blossoms and
+fruits in abundance, as the music of a waterfall
+seems to send life into the flowers which
+grow beside. She would have told them of
+the colors with which nature loves to paint
+the sky, the mountains and valleys, sea and
+land, when all is ready for the master&#8217;s
+work. For nature paints wherever the canvas
+is prepared to receive the picture, and
+she asks no price for her work. Eline knew
+of times in the past&mdash;times that will come
+again&mdash;when man did not ever strive to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+be rich regardless of his poorer brothers,
+but each worked as he was able, all working
+for the whole world&#8217;s good. And she
+would have told them how in those times
+man did not earn his living by toil unending,
+by ceaseless pain and sorrow, but that
+nature helped him as he helped her, and the
+earth brought out her stores of rich fruits
+for the welfare of her upgrown sons, well
+knowing that they in turn with loving service
+would seek to make nobler and better
+that which nature gave to them in charge,
+birds and beasts, flowers and trees, plants
+and stones and all that lives&mdash;which is
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>Eline saw how the desire to possess more
+than enough, for the selfish pleasure of saying,
+&#8220;It is mine!&#8221;&mdash;how the growth of
+selfishness in the world; the love of killing
+nature&#8217;s younger sons for food and pleasure
+increased; how the love of ease and forgetfulness
+of others and of duty to mother
+nature&mdash;how all these things had chilled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+the warmth of the one great life that is in
+all things, and crippled the mother&#8217;s efforts
+to help her wayward sons.</p>
+
+<p>Others had told these things; others had
+striven to show the glorious light of life
+that shines behind the cold mist of sin and
+sorrow which has been cast like a veil over
+the earth; but all had been rejected. Some
+were ill-received; some were stoned; some
+were killed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How can I raise this humanity which
+like a great orphan has cut itself off from
+its mother and now lies ignorant of the
+happiness that awaits its coming?&#8221; thought
+Eline. &#8220;I have returned to tell them of
+the way, and they will not hear. Others
+have returned as far as they might and
+have been rejected. Others still have boldly
+plunged deeper yet in the hot sea of human
+life and have been lost in its poisonous
+fumes. Even so, I will again return, yet
+lower, if by chance there be a few who will
+not reject my message.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>So Eline hid in her heart the things she
+knew and the things she would have told,
+as she had hidden in her soul at the river
+of forgetfulness the memory of the king&#8217;s
+garden of delight. And she took her way
+into the world with messages of love and
+of hope, such simple messages as the children
+understood, better sometimes than their
+elders. She told the children many beautiful
+fairy stories and they listened eagerly.
+They did not know that these were the
+stories which she had told to the learned
+ones of the earth and which were really
+true, though they had not believed.</p>
+
+<p>The children listened, and they said: &#8220;It
+is beautiful. Some day we will seek out
+such a beautiful world as that of which the
+stories tell.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/illu_37.jpg"><img src="images/illu_37_th.jpg" alt="SHE TOLD THE CHILDREN STORIES" title="SHE TOLD THE CHILDREN STORIES" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">SHE TOLD THE CHILDREN STORIES</p>
+
+
+<p>There were houses, too, which they built&mdash;little
+toy houses with toy bricks. But
+Eline showed them how to shape the bricks
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> -->
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> -->
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>and how to make each brick fit in its proper
+place so that never a one should lose its
+worth. And Eline showed the children how
+that behind the building of beautiful mansions
+there was the beautiful thought that
+made the masonry so noble a work, though
+it were only toy masonry. And the children
+understood.</p>
+
+<p>In their games they had done each his
+best and they did well. But Eline showed
+them games in which they all acted together,
+even the little ones helping and sharing. It
+was wonderful to them that they had not
+thought of this before, because now they
+found that they could do more than ever
+they had done when each worked alone and
+for himself.</p>
+
+<p>Near the city where they dwelt was a
+vast plain full of great boulders, which they
+could have made into a great park and a
+beautiful garden; but the people of the city
+cared not for such things and would not
+help them. By themselves they knew not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+how to move the rocks. So it remained a
+waste of wild growth, except in those places
+where the children had moved one by one,
+and with great difficulty, the smaller stones.</p>
+
+<span class="figright">
+<a href="images/illu_41.jpg"><img src="images/illu_41_th.jpg" alt="little flowers" title="little flowers" /></a>
+</span>
+
+<p>Now Eline bid them take a strong rope.
+&#8220;For,&#8221; said she, &#8220;we will clear that plain,
+and it shall be for a dwelling and a garden
+for all.&#8221; She was thinking of the king&#8217;s
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>The children looked at her in astonishment
+as though they wondered if she meant
+the thing she said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We have no rope,&#8221; they said, &#8220;and none
+will give us any.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is your rope,&#8221; said Eline, pointing
+out the overgrown plain, where, amid
+the rocks in the great patches from which
+they had slowly and painfully drawn the
+smaller stones, grew masses of pale blue
+flowers, beautiful, delicate little blossoms,
+like wind-flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Again the children looked at her, questioningly;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+not as the people
+at first had done, but
+trustingly, though they
+knew not what she would
+have them do, but sought
+to learn her wishes.</p>
+
+<p>So at her bidding they
+gathered all the ripened
+stalks of the little flowers
+and laid them out in the
+sun as she directed.</p>
+
+<p>Almost it seemed a
+pity to destroy the plants.
+One little worker asked
+Eline of this matter for
+he loved the flowers and
+was sorry to see them
+gathered and dried.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Does it not hurt the
+flowers to pluck them?&#8221;
+he asked. &#8220;Some say
+that you can talk with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+them as with all living things, and you can
+tell if the flowers do not suffer in the gathering,
+although they are old and ripe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His was a loving heart and Eline saw
+that he asked this out of no mere curiosity.
+Gently she touched his forehead with her
+finger.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look!&#8221; she said. &#8220;Look and listen, for
+I have opened the seeing eye to you.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>And the boy looked around in wonderment,
+amazed, and saw that the whole great
+plain was full of teeming life which he had
+not before seen. Fairies and elves peeped
+from every flower, gnomes and earthmen
+worked and played and danced among the
+boulders. And where before was silence
+but for the rustling of the leaves in the
+breeze, there rose a murmur of many voices,
+like the humming of bees in the sunshine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+The boy listened and at once he knew what
+the flowers were whispering.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is a saying that the flax-people
+are being used for a mighty work,&#8221; said
+one little blue fairy to another.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I heard a bee spreading the news,&#8221; said
+another. &#8220;All the flax-people are asked to
+give their dresses to help in clearing the
+plain for a palace and a garden where kings
+may dwell&mdash;not kings of earth and of little
+cities, but kings of wisdom whom nature
+loves to obey, and we among her children.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Body after body have I grown,&#8221; said
+the other. &#8220;I have struggled and striven
+to grow useful in this glorious brotherhood
+of nature, and my only success seems to
+be that I have a pretty head. It is good
+to be beautiful, perhaps, but I have always
+thought that I would sacrifice my beauty
+for a chance of sharing in noble deeds.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A butterfly that had stopped to listen
+now spoke to her:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>&#8220;You have waited and now you will have
+your reward. For surely your body will be
+taken to help in the work that is going forward.
+The flax-people have indeed lived to
+good purpose.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They certainly do not seem afraid to
+die,&#8221; said the boy to himself.</p>
+
+<p>And as if in answer to his whispered
+thought the little flax-fairy said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course we are not afraid! I have
+been told that there are giants of men who
+really think that when they leave their worn-out
+stalks&mdash;bodies they call them&mdash;behind,
+they live no more, or at least are not sure
+what becomes of themselves. But it cannot
+be true&mdash;it must be a fairy story!&#8221;
+laughed the little elf. &#8220;They must know,
+as we know, that all things sleep awhile and
+then take new bodies like dresses woven
+while they worked in their last awaking
+which men call life. And then one day we
+know that we shall have woven dresses so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+fine that we shall be free to leave them as
+the butterfly leaves his dull-hued robes and
+spreads his bright wings for flight into the
+grand unknown which we all long to know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But <i>how</i> do you know that these things
+are so?&#8221; asked the boy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How do I know that I am alive?&#8221; answered
+the flax-fairy in a murmur. Fainter
+grew the voices and the vision faded
+from the boy&#8217;s sight.</p>
+
+<p>He knew not how long it was he stayed
+there, but after awhile he awoke with a
+start to find that Eline was no longer with
+him, and that he had slept among the flax
+in the sunshine.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>&#8220;It must have been a dream!&#8221; he said.
+But he did not believe it was a dream&mdash;for
+all his words. And really the flowers
+seemed to him to bear a new life after that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+wonderful vision which came to him when
+Eline gave him for an hour the seeing eye.</p>
+
+<p>Working with the others joyfully and
+happily without a moment&#8217;s pause or one
+thought of failure, they saw quickly growing
+an immense heap of beautiful fine white
+thread. The children had helped the flax to
+grow and now in turn it aided them to clear
+more ground.</p>
+
+<p>For in no long time all was finished and
+before them they had a mighty rope growing
+greater every day under their Leader&#8217;s
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>One strange thing there was about the
+rope. For there were golden threads interwoven
+which the children did not remember
+having seen among the flax. And they
+wondered.</p>
+
+<p>But Eline only said &#8220;It is golden flax.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Whatever it was, it shone brightly in
+the sun until it looked like a ray of real sunlight
+in the rope.</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter"><!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> -->
+<a href="images/illu_47.jpg"><img src="images/illu_47_th.jpg" alt="MAKING ROPE" title="MAKING ROPE" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">MAKING ROPE</p>
+
+
+<!-- <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> -->
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>One little child said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It looks like a brother to the sun!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps it is,&#8221; said Eline, and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>The work grew apace. And the play grew
+apace, because the children scarcely knew
+which was work and which was play. They
+seemed to have found something better than
+both. Stone after stone, rock after rock,
+was encircled with the cord and triumphantly
+drawn by that merry army of children to
+the edge of the plain. Clearer and clearer
+grew the space. Where before the stones
+had been, little pools of water formed, while
+round them grew masses of beautiful flowers,
+among which was a new crop of the
+little blue flax, stronger and better grown
+than any that had been there before. Gradually
+there grew up a great wall of rock
+around the plain where the boulders were
+drawn by the children, for each was taken
+to its nearest boundary, as Eline told them
+this would be the simplest way to clear the
+plain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>Some mighty rocks yet remained in the
+center of the plain but the children had so
+seen the wisdom of their Leader that they
+doubted not that these too would be removed
+without difficulty, although how this was to
+be done they could not tell.</p>
+
+<p>And as the work was nearing an end they
+did as their Leader bid them in perfect trust.
+Actually they put their ropes around a rock
+which some said was like a small mountain.
+They pulled with a will, but the rock moved
+not.</p>
+
+<p>Still they pulled willingly and with all
+their might, for now they had grown strong
+until they scarcely knew their own powers.</p>
+
+<p>From the great city, from the mountains,
+and from the country round about, came
+sightseers and inquirers. At first they only
+laughed and talked, and helped not at all.
+But among them came men of strange countenance,
+strong men, wise in looks, men of
+kingly bearing.</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter"><!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> -->
+<a href="images/illu_51.jpg"><img src="images/illu_51_th.jpg" alt="CLEARING THE PLAIN" title="CLEARING THE PLAIN" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">CLEARING THE PLAIN</p>
+
+<!-- <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> -->
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>These said: &#8220;It is not right that these
+children should work for ever alone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And they too, with strong grip of a
+strange sort, laid hold of the golden ropes,
+seeing which, the idlers too came and helped
+until with a mighty song of joy the children
+saw the great rock move, slowly at first,
+then faster, faster, until with a run they
+had placed it in a far corner of the great
+plain, standing like a sentinel to the North.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+
+<p>Another and yet others followed. East
+and South and West the unhewn boulders
+stood like guardians of the plain. A circle
+of twelve yet remained in the center, like
+giant pillars supporting the sky. But these
+Eline said should stand, as also some smaller
+ones which were placed across their tops
+like great beams resting upon a doorway.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+How this was done I cannot say; but there
+is a saying in the city that, in the night
+before they were found placed high above
+the giant circle, the sound of a great and
+joyous song, a hymn of power, was heard
+like the tones of a great bell shaking the
+houses with its vibrations and putting men
+in fear of the destruction of their city. But
+at sunset the children had not returned from
+the plain, so that they were not in the city
+when this happened. And not until the sunrise
+did the people flock to the doors and
+windows for a glimpse of the joyous army
+that marched in their streets. Led by the
+men of kingly bearing the children marched,
+singing a song of triumph, with such shining
+glory in their faces that all the people
+marveled.</p>
+
+<p>Tired they were, and slept; but when in
+the late noontide the people asked them what
+had happened, all seemed like the forgotten
+glory of a dream. They could remember
+little except that they were filled with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+joy of wonderful things which no tongue
+could tell.</p>
+
+<p>The work had not taken one day, or two,
+but many days. Months and even years had
+passed since the children played together in
+the sunshine. Strong and sturdy lads and
+lasses were they now. A beautiful temple
+had arisen within the giant circle, and all
+around it was a garden of beauty like no
+garden which they had seen.</p>
+
+<p>But when Eline looked amid the rare
+flowers and found a little purple star with
+heart of gold, she knew that it was a flower
+from the king&#8217;s garden, and she was glad
+that it could grow where all was rock before.
+There were great purple pansies, too,
+like thoughts from the palace in which Eline
+had lived.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was that the children came to the
+temple to learn of Eline, and she taught
+them the wonderful truths which she knew;
+to them she told the wonderful things that
+have been and the more wonderful things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+that may be, if men will only try to bring
+them about.</p>
+
+<p>She taught them things so simple that
+they often wondered why they had not already
+known them without the telling. They
+did not know that there was a good reason
+why it should be so. Eline taught them, too,
+how by all working together for the welfare
+and progress of all, there is no task we may
+not overcome.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We know it,&#8221; said the children, remembering
+the waste of rocks in the plain where
+now the garden stood and the temple.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Each by himself can do much, but all
+working together can move the world,&#8221; she
+said. &#8220;Now I will tell you a strange thing,
+which is yet true. For we are not at all
+separate from any other thing in the world,
+but the same nature is in us as in them&mdash;in
+the rocks and the flowers, in the forests
+and streams, in city and mountain, in air
+and fire and water, just as the rocks and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+this temple are of the same stone, although
+they differ in shape. And if we only will,
+we can make all our rocks into beautiful,
+glorious temples.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When the world of men has learned
+this lesson the earth itself will become a
+mighty temple, that the wise teachers of old,
+whom men call gods, may come to us again
+and live with us in peace for evermore.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And it shall be known that music is life,
+for in music is harmony, and by harmony
+all things live, each note in its own place,
+doing its perfect work, be it great or small.
+For this too is a brotherhood of harmony.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Because in those days the people listened
+to the teachings from the temple and to the
+great ones who came to dwell therein when
+it was finished, and who taught the seekers
+after truth, through their messenger Eline,
+there were happiness and joy and peace in
+all the land. Men became nobler as they
+thought of nobler things than had hitherto
+been their custom.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>Seeing the beauty of the temple and the
+mighty work that comes of aiding nature,
+working in unity and harmony, they also
+built their houses to be like the temple.
+Stone they used for brick, beautiful they
+built them within and without, and they
+labored to make their dwellings fit temples
+for the gods. For it was said among them
+that sometimes strangers would visit their
+city, and seeking entrance, would dwell with
+them awhile where they found a welcome.
+And it was noticed that always they came
+to such dwellings as those where the beauty
+and harmony of the building showed beauty
+and harmony within. And when they left
+the house, always there seemed to remain a
+memory of their presence as a ray of light
+at sunset leaves a memory of joyous days
+and a sense of hope for brighter days yet
+to come.</p>
+
+<p>When this thing happened the neighbors
+would gather together and it was said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Master has built the house.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>Then the great beam which rested on the
+pillars of the doors was lifted and where it
+had stood was built an arch of stone. And
+last of all was dropped in place the keystone
+which held the arch, and there was great
+rejoicing, for the people said: &#8220;The house
+is finished.&#8221; Some there were who would
+have lifted the beam and built the arch, but
+unless the Master had been in the house,
+always some accident would occur and the
+house be destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>In the center of the arch was placed a
+great light which was ever kept burning,
+for it was fed with oil of gold which never
+burns away, but whose smoke ever turns to
+oil again. Each light was like the greater
+light which ever shone from the dome of
+the temple, a light to lighten all around,
+such light as it was said went out to the
+world from the temple itself in the knowledge
+of the laws of life and of all things
+good and great and beautiful. Never was
+the light to be put out, lest harm should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+come. Day and night it was held a sacred
+duty to guard the light.</p>
+
+<p>When that light shone there was peace
+and plenty in the land, for fellowship made
+life joyful. Some called that glorious time
+the Golden Age; some there are even now
+among us who will to bring that golden age
+again to earth as then, through brotherhood
+and the joy of life, that misery shall not
+always be among us, nor poverty, sorrow,
+and pain.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+
+
+<p>But there came a day when messengers
+from far off lands came over sea a great
+journey to the temple. And to Eline they
+told the despair and want and the madness
+of unbrotherliness that men knew in the
+countries whence they came, countries where
+the light shone no longer. Of wars and of
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> -->
+<!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -->
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>famines they spoke, of poverty, oppression,
+and crime.</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/illu_62.jpg"><img src="images/illu_62_th.jpg" alt="&#8220;GUARD WELL THE TEMPLE&#8221;" title="&#8220;GUARD WELL THE TEMPLE&#8221;" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">&#8220;GUARD WELL THE TEMPLE&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>Eline&#8217;s great compassion could not be
+silent to appeal. &#8220;From these things, I say
+Humanity <small>SHALL</small> be saved!&#8221; said she. &#8220;I
+have a duty here, but there are guardians in
+the Temple, and the call comes loud to me
+from the world beyond. I will go!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Those messengers heard with joy of the
+success of their journey, for they had traveled
+far and had overcome many trials and
+difficulties by the way. And all the time
+they had hoped in perfect faith that they
+would return with some encouragement to
+the country whence they came. And doubtless
+it was because of the grand faith they
+showed that Eline herself answered their
+call.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Guard well the temple while I am away,&#8221;
+Eline charged her people. &#8220;I must travel
+far, but in no long time I will return!&mdash;I
+will return! Be watchful, therefore, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+the light be burning, that the oil fade not.
+None can tell the time of the coming, whether
+it be by night or day. With your lives
+must you guard the light!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She spoke somewhat sadly as it seemed
+to them, and they supposed she thought of
+the great misery and need of those she went
+to succor in their distress.</p>
+
+<p>And they answered the more eagerly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We will! We will!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time since it had been built
+the temple was left without its head&mdash;a
+sacred trust indeed.</p>
+
+<p>They thought they knew themselves; they
+thought they knew the evil in their natures,
+and the good, did those temple watchers.</p>
+
+<p>And in their surety of knowing they grew
+careless, so that in no long time they lost
+their caution. Some there were who were
+faithless, and these began to tell them of
+their great success; how they had built the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+temple; how their industry and labor had
+succeeded; how well they had learned to
+know themselves. Gently they suggested
+these things, gently these sayings took root,
+almost unperceived.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Our temple which we have built is very
+mighty. It can never fall,&#8221; they said.</p>
+
+<p>Some few there were who would have
+spoken for Eline, but they were timid and
+afraid of those who talked so boastfully.
+Wherefore they were silent. It is true that
+one or two attempted to recall the noble
+deeds of the absent one, and to point out
+that she had really built the temple; they
+had supplied only the labor; yet the fruits
+of it were theirs and the world&#8217;s.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;True,&#8221; said the wicked and faithless
+ones, &#8220;she had a great mind for building;
+but she made mistakes. She herself said so.
+We have learned by those mistakes and we
+know. She would have made the temple
+teachings too common altogether. Why, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+actually began to turn into a teacher of virtues
+of which the world is weary, instead of
+building as at first. She had taught all she
+knew, but we can teach greater things, and
+better things; we can teach the world twenty
+different styles of building in metals, wood,
+stone, and marble; of ornaments and decorations
+enough to last for a century. Thus
+we honor her; thus we carry on her work
+and make it grow&mdash;although she made mistakes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Indeed she did make mistakes,&#8221; said
+one, &#8220;and the greatest mistake of all was
+when she chose such faithless craftsmen for
+the temple work. Shame on you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;O faithful one!&#8221; said they. &#8220;Such faith
+deserves a great reward. To you we will
+entrust the duty of finding her. We will
+give you all you need for the voyage&mdash;a
+ship and provisions enough for a year!&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<!-- <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> -->
+
+<p class="figcenter"><!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> -->
+<a href="images/illu_68.jpg"><img src="images/illu_68_th.jpg" alt="ADRIFT ON THE SEA" title="ADRIFT ON THE SEA" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">ADRIFT ON THE SEA</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+
+
+<p>So those treacherous ones cast adrift on
+the ocean the one who remained faithful.
+And those others who would have spoken
+out for their absent Teacher were silenced
+against their own better natures. For those
+wicked ones had been great among them,
+and they were afraid.</p>
+
+<p>It was thought that in no long time the
+winds and the waves would destroy the little
+ship with its lonely voyager; yet with stout
+heart, knowing that he might not return
+alone, he held on fearless and determined.
+Sometimes it seems that those who so follow
+the voice of their inner wisdom in dauntless
+courage are helped by nature, as though she
+ever loves such brave hearts. I have heard
+the story told how the great Columbus who
+found a new world was beset by his followers
+to return. How nature sent him messages
+that he was nearing land&mdash;birds and
+driftwood, branches of trees and floating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+weed. He read the message with the eyes
+of one who loves all nature well, and promised
+sight of land to his men in three days,
+a promise that was fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that the little ship with the one
+who remained faithful did a greater work
+than ever those desired who sent it.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, slowly, in the Temple, it came
+about that the guardians forgot their duty,
+forgot that they were there to guard the
+temple in sacred trust for humanity; and
+as the wicked ones among them wished, they
+busied themselves about many things; but
+not the one thing needful, the welfare and
+the progress of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>How can the tale be told? A tale that is
+new, yet old&mdash;old beyond count of years.</p>
+
+<p>For the enemies of the world, with whom
+those wicked ones were leagued, came suddenly
+by night, when the sacred lamp which
+sent rays of hope over the great ocean was
+allowed to flicker and to go out. And those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+enemies destroyed the temple so that scarcely
+one stone remained upon another. And
+with it were destroyed those weak ones who
+failed in their trust. All perished and with
+them perished for a time the Light of the
+World.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is said, how truly I know not, that
+beneath the foundation pillars of the temple
+was wisely prepared by Eline a vault, a vast
+cave wherein were hidden the most sacred
+records of the temple and the sacred secret
+name which they had forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>To her over the sea came the knowledge
+of the faithless guard, and in her agony she
+called upon that sacred name if by chance
+the temple should be saved.</p>
+
+<p>In days of old men knew that there is a
+power in words, a power now forgotten.
+Stories there are which tell of city walls falling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+at a trumpet blast, of cities rising as if
+by magic at a word, of mighty doors thrown
+open, of nature spellbound by a song, of
+mighty names the jinns and genii of the
+desert obey.</p>
+
+<p>And this sacred name was such a one as
+these; for with its whispering a mighty
+thrill passed out over the world and the
+foundations of the sea were shaken. Vast
+continents were destroyed, and men said the
+world was at an end. Terrible was the
+time, but Eline knew that it was better so;
+for the remnant of the living might one day
+restore the ancient glory of that land. But
+had it been that the land remained, those
+wicked ones would have lived and worked
+to destroy the whole world so that not even
+a remnant should be left in the bosom of the
+waters to re-people the earth.</p>
+
+<p>After many days, tossed and beaten by
+the waves, the little ship with the outcast
+faithful one came drifting to the land where
+Eline was.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>The winds and the sea conspired, as it
+seemed, to urge the ship on her voyage, and
+the dwellers of the ocean pointed the way,
+watchful ever and untiring in their duty.
+Small as it was, and ill-found, Eline chose
+this ship for her return, and once again she
+came to the place where the temple had
+stood&mdash;she and that faithful one.</p>
+
+<p>She gazed on the ruins of that sacred
+spot and sadly looked at the tops of the
+mighty pillars just rising above the waves
+of the sea which at times filled the arches
+in between so that no man might pass beneath.</p>
+
+<p>Unseen guards there were, Eline knew,
+guards who would keep that spot free for
+future generations of a world to come.
+Water-nymphs, sea-sprites, and earth-goblins,
+undines, gnomes, and sylphs dwelt there
+as sentinels of a sacred trust, and Eline was
+content to go.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For,&#8221; she said, &#8220;the secret vault of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+sacred name yet stands intact until these
+same faithless ones shall come again, purified
+by many wanderings and trials, and
+shall again guard that new-old temple with
+me. That time they shall not fail!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And a ray of glorious hope shone in her
+face as she left the ruined temple.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I will return!&#8221; she said. &#8220;I will return!&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter"><!-- <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> -->
+<a href="images/illu_75.jpg"><img src="images/illu_75_th.jpg" alt="&#8220;I WILL RETURN&#8221;" title="&#8220;I WILL RETURN&#8221;" /></a></p>
+<p class="caption">&#8220;I WILL RETURN&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strange Little Girl, by V. M.
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+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strange Little Girl, by V. M.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Strange Little Girl
+       A Story for Children
+
+Author: V. M.
+
+Commentator: Katherine Tingley
+
+Illustrator: N. Roth
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2007 [EBook #23671]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Markus Brenner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain material
+produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        The Strange Little Girl
+
+
+                         A Story for Children
+                               By V. M.
+
+
+                       Illustrations by N. Roth
+
+
+                     _The Aryan Theosophical Press
+                        Point Loma, California_
+
+
+
+                 COPYRIGHT 1911, BY KATHERINE TINGLEY
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+                     THE ARYAN THEOSOPHICAL PRESS
+                        Point Loma, California
+
+
+[Illustration: IN THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT]
+
+
+
+
+The Strange Little Girl
+
+
+
+
+                                   I
+
+
+Once upon a time there was a beautiful palace where the king's children
+lived as happily as they alone can live. They never wanted anything and
+they never knew that there could be others who were not as happy as
+they. Sometimes, it is true, they would hear a story which would make
+them almost think that perhaps there was a world beyond, which they did
+not know, outside the palace of the king and its gardens, but something
+would seem to say that after all it was only a fairy story, and they
+would forget that it meant anything that might really be true.
+
+One of the little princesses seemed to think more of these stories of a
+world beyond the palace garden than the others, and she would sometimes
+find herself gazing at the sun, and wondering if the great world lay
+beyond the purple forests where the golden-edged clouds shone like dark
+mountains in the distance. And the name of this princess was Eline.
+
+More and more as she thought of these things she felt sure that there
+must be a world where things were very different from the happy life in
+the palace garden; and in the stories which the children heard she
+thought of many things, which, with the others, she used to pass by
+without notice. Once they used to hear of no sorrow, no pain, but only
+joy and peace. Now, in thinking, she sometimes noticed that there were
+things which were not spoken; that there were things passed by in
+silence; that there were things which travelers passing through the
+palace kept back, as though they knew of much which the children must
+not know, and yet which they would have told had they dared.
+
+Questions Eline asked, and the answers seldom satisfied her, for they
+never seemed to tell her everything. Every time one of the travelers
+left the palace to return on his journey there seemed to be a look of
+appeal in his eyes, an appeal which only Eline seemed to see, and which
+made her wish to follow them for the very love that shone in the kind
+faces of these strangers--strangers who told the children stories of
+things they loved--of wonderful fairy worlds where they were not as in
+the palace; of worlds where Eline seemed to have traveled many times,
+long, long ago.
+
+One day she asked her father, the king:
+
+"Shall I never go out of the palace, never leave the garden of delight
+and see the world that lies beyond the cloud-mountains, beyond the
+sunset and the whispering forests?"
+
+And the king looked intently at Eline.
+
+"These are strange fancies," he said. "Are you not happy here in the
+garden?"
+
+"Yes, I am happy," she said, "happier than I can tell. But you have not
+answered me. Is there not a world beyond? Shall I ever see it?"
+
+"Some traveler must have been telling you forbidden tales," said the
+king. "These things I have said may not be spoken in my garden."
+
+"No traveler has told me," said Eline. "I have seen them looking as
+though they would tell me, but could not, of things beyond the garden,
+beyond the palace. I have asked them, and they have told me nothing. Yet
+I have felt that I long to go with them. I have felt that I remember
+strange places, strange sights, things I know not here, when they speak.
+Sometimes, even, it seems that I hear a voice like my own repeating a
+promise--a promise unfulfilled that must be kept. 'I will return! I
+will! I will!' it says. And I hear voices calling in the wind, in the
+rustling of the leaves, and in the silence of the day, 'Come back! Come
+back!' And the birds say, 'Come!' The pines whisper to me strange
+things, and the laughing water in the brooks says 'Come!' What does it
+mean?"
+
+"I cannot tell you here," said the king. "But why do you wish to leave
+the palace? You are yet young and there are many, many years of
+happiness before you. You may stay in the palace where all things are
+good, and put these things out of mind. There is another world, but not
+for you--yet!"
+
+Eline was troubled, or would have been had such a thing been possible in
+the palace of the king.
+
+"May I ever see that land? May I ever leave the palace?"
+
+"The children of the king are free to come and go," he said. "I may not
+keep them if they will not stay; for I know that they will come again."
+
+
+
+
+                                  II
+
+
+Again a traveler came to the palace. He brought with him a harp of seven
+strings, on which he played to the children. He sang to them for a while
+and then for a space was silent. Eline listened to the strange,
+beautiful music. And to her it seemed that there was speech in the
+harp--that it spoke. The other children seemed to listen to the music,
+but to them it did not seem to speak. To Eline there were echoes of
+wonderful things the palace knew not; things that the language of the
+king could not tell. The harp spoke in a way that the Princess Eline
+knew and understood, although there were no words in its tones. There
+were sad and sorrowful notes that told of sorrows the palace never knew.
+There were strains of music that sounded harsh to the listening ear,
+though to the careless they told of happiness alone. And as she
+listened, Eline dreamed. Clearer and more clear she felt that the harp
+told of a world of men where sorrow and sadness and strife were not
+unknown; where joy should be, and was not; where the people groped their
+way through darkness and thought it light. "Return! Return!" called the
+harp.
+
+[Illustration: "I WILL RETURN"]
+
+And a mighty resolve came to Eline. "I will return! I will! I will!"
+
+She remembered the king's saying: "The children of the king are free to
+come and go," he had said. "I may not keep them if they will not stay,"
+he had told her.
+
+She loved him much; but the call came clear, and she dared not seek him
+to say farewell, lest she should be persuaded to remain.
+
+She bowed her head and to the harper spoke:
+
+"I will go," she said. "I will return with you."
+
+Then the harp sent forth such a melody of joyous music that it echoed
+thrilling through the hot discordant notes of the world beyond the
+sunset; and for a moment a chord of harmony ran through the life of men:
+
+"Joy unto you, men of the underworld! Joy unto you, children of sorrow!
+Joy unto you, sons of forgetfulness! Joy unto all beings!"
+
+They passed out of the garden together, the musician and the soul.
+
+[Illustration: THROUGH PINE FOREST]
+
+
+
+
+                                  III
+
+
+Westward they traveled, westward, ever westward. The way was dark and
+sometimes dreary, and Eline felt like one awakened from a beautiful
+dream before it was ended.
+
+Through the pine forests, over mountains, in deep valleys, and by mighty
+streams they traveled. Ever they had the harp to cheer the way, to urge
+their footsteps onward. For the path was untrodden where they went.
+
+"There is a path," the harper said, "a pleasant path and broad, but the
+journey is long and we must hasten on our way. To the setting sun, to
+the gleaming sea, we must go; nor may we seek a beaten track lest we be
+too late."
+
+A river there was in whose waters were reflected pictures of all that
+surrounded them--such crystal clear reflections that sometimes it seemed
+as if they looked at real things in the water mirrored in the things
+around them.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+And on the waters grew beautiful lotus-flowers, lilies with cup-shaped
+leaves. In the blue and white petals of the lotus also there seemed to
+be reflections, so clear were they. The musician plucked one of the
+cup-like lily-pads and filled it with the water for Eline.
+
+The still surface of the water shone like silver in its green cup as
+Eline held it. Then the musician played. Soft and low and sweet were the
+notes of that wonderful harp. Scarcely they rippled the surface of the
+water, and yet they vibrated, trembled, spread, until picture after
+picture came to the surface of the water in colors of every hue.
+
+Scarcely may it be told what Eline saw in the magic cup in the water of
+remembrance. She seemed to see herself--and yet another--in picture after
+picture. Now she saw herself as part of a golden sea of selves which
+made but one self, so lifelike were they, so glorious was their unity.
+Then in life after life Eline seemed to see her other selves living and
+loving and working, sleeping and suffering and struggling. She saw that
+on a day she had made her great resolve to help the world. "I will
+return! I will! I will!"
+
+And now she knew what things they were she had seemed to remember in the
+king's garden of delight. Joyously, eagerly, willingly, she saw that she
+had determined to return to earth in body after body, to help the men
+of sorrow who struggled and slumbered and suffered. She saw that she had
+before so done; that her work remained unfinished, to be begun again
+where she had laid it down. There was suffering shown to her in the cup;
+there were sorrow and grief and pain. But she saw that it must all be,
+and was content. For at other times she had desired just such things
+that she might know how others felt them, that she might help them the
+more with understanding. Happiness she had taken to give to others, and
+she must repay the debt. She saw that all things were just, and when the
+musician said in a low voice:
+
+"Will you yet proceed?"
+
+"I will!" she said.
+
+"Then drink the cup," he said, "Drink!"
+
+She drained the green cup of the lotus leaf until scarcely a drop
+remained, and with that draught she forgot all things that had been--the
+garden, the king, the journey and the vision, and the master
+harper--all were forgotten. Only there remained a dim remembrance as of a
+dream at dawn forgotten.
+
+[Illustration: DOMES AND SPIRES]
+
+
+
+
+                                  IV
+
+
+A little ship stood by the shore of the great sea; into this Eline
+entered. There were other ships, some better, some worse. But somehow
+she knew that just this, and not another, was the ship she wanted, and
+none questioned her when she entered.
+
+So they sailed away towards the setting sun.
+
+Long was the voyage and lonely; for the seas ran high and all was dark
+below in the heart of the ship. Nine months they sailed on the ocean,
+until in the time appointed land appeared. Strange dwellings were there,
+domes and spires and crowded cities. With wide, wondering eyes Eline
+watched them as the ship passed them by in strange procession; for the
+men of that land were like none she knew; none of these things could she
+remember. For she had forgotten even her name at the river of
+forgetfulness, where remembrances are left in the mirror of the waters
+until time and their creator bring them back to life.
+
+It seemed as though one of wise and kindly countenance held her as a
+little child in his arms and whispered softly, "Remember! I will return!
+I will! I will!" A light of happy recollection came to her and she
+smiled in reply. He had spoken in her own language as the harp had
+spoken, and strangely, strangely she seemed to see in him the harper
+whose music had told her of the sorrowful land beyond the sunset. For
+this moment, she remembered, and then the thought departed.
+
+At first the air seemed heavy and oppressive to the wanderer; but by
+degrees she grew accustomed to it and even, in time, scarcely felt
+it. Yet ever and again a dim remembrance of brighter, purer skies came
+to her. She spoke of this more than once; but others only laughed and
+said: "The child is dreaming!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Because she was no longer dressed in shining garments, they did not know
+her for the princess she really was. Indeed, she was no way different
+from those around her but that at heart she was still the daughter of
+the king. They could not see her heart--this they could not know. And
+seeing that they did not understand, she said no more of the thoughts
+that came to her. They called it dreaming; but Eline thought that if
+this were so, a dream were better than a waking life--unless--
+
+Could these be thoughts that came to her of the world beyond the water,
+the reflection of the real life? She knew not.
+
+"We must teach this little dreamer what is life!" they said. "She will
+not know what life is if we leave her to her dreams."
+
+They made her work and made her play: work that never seemed to do
+anyone any good, and play that seemed like work. She nearly forgot that
+in what they called her dreams she had ever known of another life.
+
+Sometimes she sang to herself, strange songs that they said sounded sad
+and sorrowful, yet of a sweetness all their own.
+
+"Where does she hear them?" people asked.
+
+But Eline never told. For the truth was that they came to her in moments
+when her thoughts were far away, dreaming.
+
+"She sings like a bird in a cage that knows of a brighter world
+outside," said one. But he was a poet, so they only smiled as if they
+themselves would have made the same remark if it had not been so
+fanciful.
+
+And though men thought her sad and lonely, there was joy to her in the
+hum of the bees and the song of the birds and the rustling of the
+leaves. The butterflies and the flowers and the brooks were her friends.
+
+"What a strange child," people said when they heard her talking to these
+friends. They did not know of the stories her friends told her, stories
+which reminded her of a wonderful garden of delight where men did not
+ever stare and stare in gaping wonder because a little child talked with
+the fairies that live in all things beautiful, clothed in robes of
+sunlight and rainbow hues.
+
+They would have taken her away from these friends but for one old man,
+her grandfather, who said:
+
+"The child will be better for the fresh air. Let her live while she
+may."
+
+So it was that she played and talked with the flowers and sang to the
+brooks and listened to the stories of the forest trees that whispered
+among themselves. None dared take her away.
+
+One day she had been for a long ramble by a mighty river, and the sun
+had sunk to the westward on its journey; but she turned not to the place
+she called her home. Tired and worn out with her play, she lay on a rock
+and slept.
+
+In her sleep it seemed that a touch upon her forehead awakened in her a
+vision of things she once had known, but had now almost forgotten. There
+was the king's garden and the palace, and the other wonderful buildings,
+tall and stately--mighty buildings which seemed to speak of mighty
+builders, noble thoughts and great men's deeds. Some were even more
+stately, some more humble, than the palace. But in all there was a sense
+of grander, nobler life than the life those knew who were with her now,
+and who, laughing, called her a dreamer.
+
+And she heard a voice repeating, "I will return! I will! I will!"
+
+Again she smiled as she recognized the voice. A feeling of intense
+happiness and content came to her and she--awoke. More than ever it
+seemed as if that other were the real life, and this a heavy dream.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                                   V
+
+
+The twilight glow still lingered in the west and the evening breeze
+called her to thoughts of home.
+
+But she had learned wisdom, and when they asked her where she had been,
+Eline said she had fallen asleep in the sunshine on a rock by the great
+river. Which was true.
+
+Of her dream she said nothing to any except to the old man who alone
+seemed to understand her a little. He did not laugh, but looked with
+thoughtful eyes intent, into the distance, away to the starlit sky, and
+it seemed to her that he also was trying to remember a forgotten dream
+of life. And seeing this she put her hand in his trustingly, and they
+two knew well each other's thoughts though never a word was spoken.
+
+It seemed to the old man that the child was leading him along a familiar
+road to a home forgotten--after many weary days of wandering.
+
+"There are some things the heart can say that words can never tell," he
+said to himself when she was gone. "I think we understand one another."
+
+As time passed by Eline came to know more and more of that other life
+and she longed to tell these things to the people who struggled and
+surged in hot strife to win the things of the world they knew, never
+thinking that there was a happier, purer, brighter world. Some thought
+they knew of such a one; but all except a few made it seem like the one
+in which they lived--only they made it a little more bright by day, a
+little more dark by night, and with a little more success in the strife
+for the things that change and pass away. These she would tell of the
+nobler life she knew, but they listened not at all.
+
+In due time Eline was sent to school to learn. But her teachers found
+little that she did not quickly understand. For one thing she remembered
+now plainly, how in the garden of delight everything that was done was
+well done--were it the telling of a story or the singing of a song or the
+watering of the flowers that grew in that fair land. All was done with a
+wonderful thoroughness, and Eline now felt that she must do all things
+in that way or leave them quite alone. But often they would teach Eline
+things about which she seemed to care little and to understand as one in
+a dream. Then they would call her attention to the work only to find
+that she was learning to understand a great deal more than they
+themselves could tell. It was so with numbers. When they asked her what
+the numbers were by name, she not only named them all but told them why
+they were so named and what each meant. And so with music. With every
+chord she seemed to see harmonies of color, like beautiful pictures too
+glorious to paint. And when she said that life itself to her was music,
+Eline's teachers did not understand.
+
+One said: "She has learned these things before in another life."
+
+Another declared: "She sees the heart of things where we see only the
+outer covering. She sees the soul, we the body."
+
+Perhaps they both were right.
+
+But many gave other reasons for these things and all of them were
+gravely discussed. But curiously enough, the two who gave the reasons I
+have told, were laughed at and told that such things could not be. So
+they said little about their thoughts because, like all those who are
+sure that they know the truth, they could afford to wait until their
+words were proved to be right.
+
+
+
+
+                                  VI
+
+
+At first Eline longed to tell the world of better things. She would
+gladly have told the world of the glorious masonry of those noble cities
+which she saw in her visions--cities where men and women moved like gods;
+where sorrow and want and selfishness seemed to be unknown. She longed
+to tell them of the harmonies which came to her of music which might
+stir a dead world to life, thrilling all nature into blossoms and fruits
+in abundance, as the music of a waterfall seems to send life into the
+flowers which grow beside. She would have told them of the colors with
+which nature loves to paint the sky, the mountains and valleys, sea and
+land, when all is ready for the master's work. For nature paints
+wherever the canvas is prepared to receive the picture, and she asks no
+price for her work. Eline knew of times in the past--times that will come
+again--when man did not ever strive to be rich regardless of his poorer
+brothers, but each worked as he was able, all working for the whole
+world's good. And she would have told them how in those times man did
+not earn his living by toil unending, by ceaseless pain and sorrow, but
+that nature helped him as he helped her, and the earth brought out her
+stores of rich fruits for the welfare of her upgrown sons, well knowing
+that they in turn with loving service would seek to make nobler and
+better that which nature gave to them in charge, birds and beasts,
+flowers and trees, plants and stones and all that lives--which is
+everything.
+
+Eline saw how the desire to possess more than enough, for the selfish
+pleasure of saying, "It is mine!"--how the growth of selfishness in the
+world; the love of killing nature's younger sons for food and pleasure
+increased; how the love of ease and forgetfulness of others and of duty
+to mother nature--how all these things had chilled the warmth of the one
+great life that is in all things, and crippled the mother's efforts to
+help her wayward sons.
+
+Others had told these things; others had striven to show the glorious
+light of life that shines behind the cold mist of sin and sorrow which
+has been cast like a veil over the earth; but all had been rejected.
+Some were ill-received; some were stoned; some were killed.
+
+"How can I raise this humanity which like a great orphan has cut itself
+off from its mother and now lies ignorant of the happiness that awaits
+its coming?" thought Eline. "I have returned to tell them of the way,
+and they will not hear. Others have returned as far as they might and
+have been rejected. Others still have boldly plunged deeper yet in the
+hot sea of human life and have been lost in its poisonous fumes. Even
+so, I will again return, yet lower, if by chance there be a few who will
+not reject my message."
+
+
+
+
+                                  VII
+
+
+So Eline hid in her heart the things she knew and the things she would
+have told, as she had hidden in her soul at the river of forgetfulness
+the memory of the king's garden of delight. And she took her way into
+the world with messages of love and of hope, such simple messages as the
+children understood, better sometimes than their elders. She told the
+children many beautiful fairy stories and they listened eagerly. They
+did not know that these were the stories which she had told to the
+learned ones of the earth and which were really true, though they had
+not believed.
+
+The children listened, and they said: "It is beautiful. Some day we will
+seek out such a beautiful world as that of which the stories tell."
+
+[Illustration: SHE TOLD THE CHILDREN STORIES]
+
+There were houses, too, which they built--little toy houses with toy
+bricks. But Eline showed them how to shape the bricks and how to make
+each brick fit in its proper place so that never a one should lose its
+worth. And Eline showed the children how that behind the building of
+beautiful mansions there was the beautiful thought that made the masonry
+so noble a work, though it were only toy masonry. And the children
+understood.
+
+In their games they had done each his best and they did well. But Eline
+showed them games in which they all acted together, even the little ones
+helping and sharing. It was wonderful to them that they had not thought
+of this before, because now they found that they could do more than ever
+they had done when each worked alone and for himself.
+
+Near the city where they dwelt was a vast plain full of great boulders,
+which they could have made into a great park and a beautiful garden; but
+the people of the city cared not for such things and would not help
+them. By themselves they knew not how to move the rocks. So it remained
+a waste of wild growth, except in those places where the children had
+moved one by one, and with great difficulty, the smaller stones.
+
+Now Eline bid them take a strong rope. "For," said she, "we will clear
+that plain, and it shall be for a dwelling and a garden for all." She
+was thinking of the king's garden.
+
+The children looked at her in astonishment as though they wondered if
+she meant the thing she said.
+
+"We have no rope," they said, "and none will give us any."
+
+"There is your rope," said Eline, pointing out the overgrown plain,
+where, amid the rocks in the great patches from which they had slowly
+and painfully drawn the smaller stones, grew masses of pale blue
+flowers, beautiful, delicate little blossoms, like wind-flowers.
+
+Again the children looked at her, questioningly; not as the people at
+first had done, but trustingly, though they knew not what she would have
+them do, but sought to learn her wishes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+So at her bidding they gathered all the ripened stalks of the little
+flowers and laid them out in the sun as she directed.
+
+Almost it seemed a pity to destroy the plants. One little worker asked
+Eline of this matter for he loved the flowers and was sorry to see them
+gathered and dried.
+
+"Does it not hurt the flowers to pluck them?" he asked. "Some say that
+you can talk with them as with all living things, and you can tell if
+the flowers do not suffer in the gathering, although they are old and
+ripe."
+
+His was a loving heart and Eline saw that he asked this out of no mere
+curiosity. Gently she touched his forehead with her finger.
+
+"Look!" she said. "Look and listen, for I have opened the seeing eye to
+you."
+
+
+
+
+                                 VIII
+
+
+And the boy looked around in wonderment, amazed, and saw that the whole
+great plain was full of teeming life which he had not before seen.
+Fairies and elves peeped from every flower, gnomes and earthmen worked
+and played and danced among the boulders. And where before was silence
+but for the rustling of the leaves in the breeze, there rose a murmur of
+many voices, like the humming of bees in the sunshine. The boy listened
+and at once he knew what the flowers were whispering.
+
+"There is a saying that the flax-people are being used for a mighty
+work," said one little blue fairy to another.
+
+"I heard a bee spreading the news," said another. "All the flax-people
+are asked to give their dresses to help in clearing the plain for a
+palace and a garden where kings may dwell--not kings of earth and of
+little cities, but kings of wisdom whom nature loves to obey, and we
+among her children."
+
+"Body after body have I grown," said the other. "I have struggled and
+striven to grow useful in this glorious brotherhood of nature, and my
+only success seems to be that I have a pretty head. It is good to be
+beautiful, perhaps, but I have always thought that I would sacrifice my
+beauty for a chance of sharing in noble deeds."
+
+A butterfly that had stopped to listen now spoke to her:
+
+"You have waited and now you will have your reward. For surely your
+body will be taken to help in the work that is going forward. The
+flax-people have indeed lived to good purpose."
+
+"They certainly do not seem afraid to die," said the boy to himself.
+
+And as if in answer to his whispered thought the little flax-fairy said:
+
+"Of course we are not afraid! I have been told that there are giants of
+men who really think that when they leave their worn-out stalks--bodies
+they call them--behind, they live no more, or at least are not sure what
+becomes of themselves. But it cannot be true--it must be a fairy story!"
+laughed the little elf. "They must know, as we know, that all things
+sleep awhile and then take new bodies like dresses woven while they
+worked in their last awaking which men call life. And then one day we
+know that we shall have woven dresses so fine that we shall be free to
+leave them as the butterfly leaves his dull-hued robes and spreads his
+bright wings for flight into the grand unknown which we all long to
+know."
+
+"But _how_ do you know that these things are so?" asked the boy.
+
+"How do I know that I am alive?" answered the flax-fairy in a murmur.
+Fainter grew the voices and the vision faded from the boy's sight.
+
+He knew not how long it was he stayed there, but after awhile he awoke
+with a start to find that Eline was no longer with him, and that he had
+slept among the flax in the sunshine.
+
+
+
+
+                                  IX
+
+
+"It must have been a dream!" he said. But he did not believe it was a
+dream--for all his words. And really the flowers seemed to him to bear a
+new life after that wonderful vision which came to him when Eline gave
+him for an hour the seeing eye.
+
+Working with the others joyfully and happily without a moment's pause or
+one thought of failure, they saw quickly growing an immense heap of
+beautiful fine white thread. The children had helped the flax to grow
+and now in turn it aided them to clear more ground.
+
+For in no long time all was finished and before them they had a mighty
+rope growing greater every day under their Leader's eye.
+
+One strange thing there was about the rope. For there were golden
+threads interwoven which the children did not remember having seen among
+the flax. And they wondered.
+
+But Eline only said "It is golden flax."
+
+Whatever it was, it shone brightly in the sun until it looked like a ray
+of real sunlight in the rope.
+
+[Illustration: MAKING ROPE]
+
+One little child said:
+
+"It looks like a brother to the sun!"
+
+"Perhaps it is," said Eline, and smiled.
+
+The work grew apace. And the play grew apace, because the children
+scarcely knew which was work and which was play. They seemed to have
+found something better than both. Stone after stone, rock after rock,
+was encircled with the cord and triumphantly drawn by that merry army of
+children to the edge of the plain. Clearer and clearer grew the space.
+Where before the stones had been, little pools of water formed, while
+round them grew masses of beautiful flowers, among which was a new crop
+of the little blue flax, stronger and better grown than any that had
+been there before. Gradually there grew up a great wall of rock around
+the plain where the boulders were drawn by the children, for each was
+taken to its nearest boundary, as Eline told them this would be the
+simplest way to clear the plain.
+
+Some mighty rocks yet remained in the center of the plain but the
+children had so seen the wisdom of their Leader that they doubted not
+that these too would be removed without difficulty, although how this
+was to be done they could not tell.
+
+And as the work was nearing an end they did as their Leader bid them in
+perfect trust. Actually they put their ropes around a rock which some
+said was like a small mountain. They pulled with a will, but the rock
+moved not.
+
+Still they pulled willingly and with all their might, for now they had
+grown strong until they scarcely knew their own powers.
+
+From the great city, from the mountains, and from the country round
+about, came sightseers and inquirers. At first they only laughed and
+talked, and helped not at all. But among them came men of strange
+countenance, strong men, wise in looks, men of kingly bearing.
+
+[Illustration: CLEARING THE PLAIN]
+
+These said: "It is not right that these children should work for ever
+alone."
+
+And they too, with strong grip of a strange sort, laid hold of the
+golden ropes, seeing which, the idlers too came and helped until with a
+mighty song of joy the children saw the great rock move, slowly at
+first, then faster, faster, until with a run they had placed it in a far
+corner of the great plain, standing like a sentinel to the North.
+
+
+
+
+                                   X
+
+
+Another and yet others followed. East and South and West the unhewn
+boulders stood like guardians of the plain. A circle of twelve yet
+remained in the center, like giant pillars supporting the sky. But these
+Eline said should stand, as also some smaller ones which were placed
+across their tops like great beams resting upon a doorway. How this was
+done I cannot say; but there is a saying in the city that, in the night
+before they were found placed high above the giant circle, the sound of
+a great and joyous song, a hymn of power, was heard like the tones of a
+great bell shaking the houses with its vibrations and putting men in
+fear of the destruction of their city. But at sunset the children had
+not returned from the plain, so that they were not in the city when this
+happened. And not until the sunrise did the people flock to the doors
+and windows for a glimpse of the joyous army that marched in their
+streets. Led by the men of kingly bearing the children marched, singing
+a song of triumph, with such shining glory in their faces that all the
+people marveled.
+
+Tired they were, and slept; but when in the late noontide the people
+asked them what had happened, all seemed like the forgotten glory of a
+dream. They could remember little except that they were filled with the
+joy of wonderful things which no tongue could tell.
+
+The work had not taken one day, or two, but many days. Months and even
+years had passed since the children played together in the sunshine.
+Strong and sturdy lads and lasses were they now. A beautiful temple had
+arisen within the giant circle, and all around it was a garden of beauty
+like no garden which they had seen.
+
+But when Eline looked amid the rare flowers and found a little purple
+star with heart of gold, she knew that it was a flower from the king's
+garden, and she was glad that it could grow where all was rock before.
+There were great purple pansies, too, like thoughts from the palace in
+which Eline had lived.
+
+Now it was that the children came to the temple to learn of Eline, and
+she taught them the wonderful truths which she knew; to them she told
+the wonderful things that have been and the more wonderful things that
+may be, if men will only try to bring them about.
+
+She taught them things so simple that they often wondered why they had
+not already known them without the telling. They did not know that there
+was a good reason why it should be so. Eline taught them, too, how by
+all working together for the welfare and progress of all, there is no
+task we may not overcome.
+
+"We know it," said the children, remembering the waste of rocks in the
+plain where now the garden stood and the temple.
+
+"Each by himself can do much, but all working together can move the
+world," she said. "Now I will tell you a strange thing, which is yet
+true. For we are not at all separate from any other thing in the world,
+but the same nature is in us as in them--in the rocks and the flowers, in
+the forests and streams, in city and mountain, in air and fire and
+water, just as the rocks and this temple are of the same stone,
+although they differ in shape. And if we only will, we can make all our
+rocks into beautiful, glorious temples.
+
+"When the world of men has learned this lesson the earth itself will
+become a mighty temple, that the wise teachers of old, whom men call
+gods, may come to us again and live with us in peace for evermore.
+
+"And it shall be known that music is life, for in music is harmony, and
+by harmony all things live, each note in its own place, doing its
+perfect work, be it great or small. For this too is a brotherhood of
+harmony."
+
+Because in those days the people listened to the teachings from the
+temple and to the great ones who came to dwell therein when it was
+finished, and who taught the seekers after truth, through their
+messenger Eline, there were happiness and joy and peace in all the land.
+Men became nobler as they thought of nobler things than had hitherto
+been their custom.
+
+Seeing the beauty of the temple and the mighty work that comes of
+aiding nature, working in unity and harmony, they also built their
+houses to be like the temple. Stone they used for brick, beautiful they
+built them within and without, and they labored to make their dwellings
+fit temples for the gods. For it was said among them that sometimes
+strangers would visit their city, and seeking entrance, would dwell with
+them awhile where they found a welcome. And it was noticed that always
+they came to such dwellings as those where the beauty and harmony of the
+building showed beauty and harmony within. And when they left the house,
+always there seemed to remain a memory of their presence as a ray of
+light at sunset leaves a memory of joyous days and a sense of hope for
+brighter days yet to come.
+
+When this thing happened the neighbors would gather together and it was
+said:
+
+"The Master has built the house."
+
+Then the great beam which rested on the pillars of the doors was lifted
+and where it had stood was built an arch of stone. And last of all was
+dropped in place the keystone which held the arch, and there was great
+rejoicing, for the people said: "The house is finished." Some there were
+who would have lifted the beam and built the arch, but unless the Master
+had been in the house, always some accident would occur and the house be
+destroyed.
+
+In the center of the arch was placed a great light which was ever kept
+burning, for it was fed with oil of gold which never burns away, but
+whose smoke ever turns to oil again. Each light was like the greater
+light which ever shone from the dome of the temple, a light to lighten
+all around, such light as it was said went out to the world from the
+temple itself in the knowledge of the laws of life and of all things
+good and great and beautiful. Never was the light to be put out, lest
+harm should come. Day and night it was held a sacred duty to guard the
+light.
+
+When that light shone there was peace and plenty in the land, for
+fellowship made life joyful. Some called that glorious time the Golden
+Age; some there are even now among us who will to bring that golden age
+again to earth as then, through brotherhood and the joy of life, that
+misery shall not always be among us, nor poverty, sorrow, and pain.
+
+
+
+
+                                  XI
+
+
+But there came a day when messengers from far off lands came over sea a
+great journey to the temple. And to Eline they told the despair and want
+and the madness of unbrotherliness that men knew in the countries whence
+they came, countries where the light shone no longer. Of wars and of
+famines they spoke, of poverty, oppression, and crime.
+
+[Illustration: "GUARD WELL THE TEMPLE"]
+
+Eline's great compassion could not be silent to appeal. "From these
+things, I say Humanity SHALL be saved!" said she. "I have a duty here,
+but there are guardians in the Temple, and the call comes loud to me
+from the world beyond. I will go!"
+
+Those messengers heard with joy of the success of their journey, for
+they had traveled far and had overcome many trials and difficulties by
+the way. And all the time they had hoped in perfect faith that they
+would return with some encouragement to the country whence they came.
+And doubtless it was because of the grand faith they showed that Eline
+herself answered their call.
+
+"Guard well the temple while I am away," Eline charged her people. "I
+must travel far, but in no long time I will return!--I will return! Be
+watchful, therefore, that the light be burning, that the oil fade not.
+None can tell the time of the coming, whether it be by night or day.
+With your lives must you guard the light!"
+
+She spoke somewhat sadly as it seemed to them, and they supposed she
+thought of the great misery and need of those she went to succor in
+their distress.
+
+And they answered the more eagerly:
+
+"We will! We will!"
+
+For the first time since it had been built the temple was left without
+its head--a sacred trust indeed.
+
+They thought they knew themselves; they thought they knew the evil in
+their natures, and the good, did those temple watchers.
+
+And in their surety of knowing they grew careless, so that in no long
+time they lost their caution. Some there were who were faithless, and
+these began to tell them of their great success; how they had built the
+temple; how their industry and labor had succeeded; how well they had
+learned to know themselves. Gently they suggested these things, gently
+these sayings took root, almost unperceived.
+
+"Our temple which we have built is very mighty. It can never fall," they
+said.
+
+Some few there were who would have spoken for Eline, but they were timid
+and afraid of those who talked so boastfully. Wherefore they were
+silent. It is true that one or two attempted to recall the noble deeds
+of the absent one, and to point out that she had really built the
+temple; they had supplied only the labor; yet the fruits of it were
+theirs and the world's.
+
+"True," said the wicked and faithless ones, "she had a great mind for
+building; but she made mistakes. She herself said so. We have learned by
+those mistakes and we know. She would have made the temple teachings too
+common altogether. Why, she actually began to turn into a teacher of
+virtues of which the world is weary, instead of building as at first.
+She had taught all she knew, but we can teach greater things, and better
+things; we can teach the world twenty different styles of building in
+metals, wood, stone, and marble; of ornaments and decorations enough to
+last for a century. Thus we honor her; thus we carry on her work and
+make it grow--although she made mistakes."
+
+"Indeed she did make mistakes," said one, "and the greatest mistake of
+all was when she chose such faithless craftsmen for the temple work.
+Shame on you!"
+
+"O faithful one!" said they. "Such faith deserves a great reward. To you
+we will entrust the duty of finding her. We will give you all you need
+for the voyage--a ship and provisions enough for a year!"
+
+[Illustration: ADRIFT ON THE SEA]
+
+
+
+
+                                  XII
+
+
+So those treacherous ones cast adrift on the ocean the one who remained
+faithful. And those others who would have spoken out for their absent
+Teacher were silenced against their own better natures. For those wicked
+ones had been great among them, and they were afraid.
+
+It was thought that in no long time the winds and the waves would
+destroy the little ship with its lonely voyager; yet with stout heart,
+knowing that he might not return alone, he held on fearless and
+determined. Sometimes it seems that those who so follow the voice of
+their inner wisdom in dauntless courage are helped by nature, as though
+she ever loves such brave hearts. I have heard the story told how the
+great Columbus who found a new world was beset by his followers to
+return. How nature sent him messages that he was nearing land--birds and
+driftwood, branches of trees and floating weed. He read the message
+with the eyes of one who loves all nature well, and promised sight of
+land to his men in three days, a promise that was fulfilled.
+
+So it was that the little ship with the one who remained faithful did a
+greater work than ever those desired who sent it.
+
+Slowly, slowly, in the Temple, it came about that the guardians forgot
+their duty, forgot that they were there to guard the temple in sacred
+trust for humanity; and as the wicked ones among them wished, they
+busied themselves about many things; but not the one thing needful, the
+welfare and the progress of mankind.
+
+How can the tale be told? A tale that is new, yet old--old beyond count
+of years.
+
+For the enemies of the world, with whom those wicked ones were leagued,
+came suddenly by night, when the sacred lamp which sent rays of hope
+over the great ocean was allowed to flicker and to go out. And those
+enemies destroyed the temple so that scarcely one stone remained upon
+another. And with it were destroyed those weak ones who failed in their
+trust. All perished and with them perished for a time the Light of the
+World.
+
+
+
+
+                                 XIII
+
+
+It is said, how truly I know not, that beneath the foundation pillars of
+the temple was wisely prepared by Eline a vault, a vast cave wherein
+were hidden the most sacred records of the temple and the sacred secret
+name which they had forgotten.
+
+To her over the sea came the knowledge of the faithless guard, and in
+her agony she called upon that sacred name if by chance the temple
+should be saved.
+
+In days of old men knew that there is a power in words, a power now
+forgotten. Stories there are which tell of city walls falling at a
+trumpet blast, of cities rising as if by magic at a word, of mighty
+doors thrown open, of nature spellbound by a song, of mighty names the
+jinns and genii of the desert obey.
+
+And this sacred name was such a one as these; for with its whispering a
+mighty thrill passed out over the world and the foundations of the sea
+were shaken. Vast continents were destroyed, and men said the world was
+at an end. Terrible was the time, but Eline knew that it was better so;
+for the remnant of the living might one day restore the ancient glory of
+that land. But had it been that the land remained, those wicked ones
+would have lived and worked to destroy the whole world so that not even
+a remnant should be left in the bosom of the waters to re-people the
+earth.
+
+After many days, tossed and beaten by the waves, the little ship with
+the outcast faithful one came drifting to the land where Eline was.
+
+The winds and the sea conspired, as it seemed, to urge the ship on her
+voyage, and the dwellers of the ocean pointed the way, watchful ever and
+untiring in their duty. Small as it was, and ill-found, Eline chose this
+ship for her return, and once again she came to the place where the
+temple had stood--she and that faithful one.
+
+She gazed on the ruins of that sacred spot and sadly looked at the tops
+of the mighty pillars just rising above the waves of the sea which at
+times filled the arches in between so that no man might pass beneath.
+
+Unseen guards there were, Eline knew, guards who would keep that spot
+free for future generations of a world to come. Water-nymphs,
+sea-sprites, and earth-goblins, undines, gnomes, and sylphs dwelt there
+as sentinels of a sacred trust, and Eline was content to go.
+
+"For," she said, "the secret vault of the sacred name yet stands intact
+until these same faithless ones shall come again, purified by many
+wanderings and trials, and shall again guard that new-old temple with
+me. That time they shall not fail!"
+
+And a ray of glorious hope shone in her face as she left the ruined
+temple.
+
+"I will return!" she said. "I will return!"
+
+[Illustration: "I WILL RETURN"]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strange Little Girl, by V. M.
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