Parables of a Province | Page 9

speaking, Gustave and the priest entered on them; and
Fanchon crying out for joy, said:
"Kiss thy child--thy little Gustave, my husband." Then, to the priest:
"Last night I saw the White Omen, mon pere; and one could not die,
nor let the child die, without a blessing. But we shall both live now."
The priest blessed all, and long time he talked with the wife of the lost
Michel. When he rose to go to bed she said to him: "The journey has
been too long, mon pere. Your face is pale and you tremble. Youth has

no patience. Gustave hurried you."
"Gustave yearned for thy Fanchon and the child. The White Omen
made him afraid."
"But the journey was too much. It is a hard, a bitter trail."
"I have come gladly as I went once with thy Michel. But, as thou sayest,
I am tired--at my heart. I will get to my rest."
Near dawn Gustave started from the bed where he sat watching, for he
saw the White Omen over against the shrine, and then a voice said, as it
were out of a great distance:
"Even me also, O my father!"
With awed footsteps, going to see, he found that a man had passed out
upon that trail by which no hunter from life can set a mark to guide a
comrade; leaving behind the bones and flesh which God set up, too
heavy to carry on so long a journey.

THE SOJOURNERS
"My father, shall we soon be there?"
The man stopped, and shading his eyes with his hand, looked long
before him into the silver haze. They were on the southern bank of a
wide valley, flanked by deep hills looking wise as grey-headed youth, a
legion of close comrades, showing no gap in their ranks. They seemed
to breathe; to sit, looking down into the valley, with heads dropped on
their breasts, and deep overshadowed eyes, that never changed, in mist
or snow, or sun, or any kind of weather: dark brooding lights that knew
the secrets of the world, watchful yet kind. Races, ardent with longing,
had come and gone through the valley, had passed the shining porches
in the North on the way to the quiet country; and they had never come
again, though shadows flitted back and forth when the mists came
down: visiting spirits, hungering on the old trail for some that had
dropped by the way. As the ages passed, fewer and fewer travelled
through the valley-no longer a people or a race, but twos and threes,
and sometimes a small company, like soldiers of a battered guard, and
oftener still solitary pilgrims, broken with much travel and bowed with
loneliness. But they always cried out with joy when they beheld far off
in the North, at the end of the long trail, this range of grey and violet
hills break into golden gaps with scarlet walls, and rivers of water ride
through them pleasantly. Then they hurried on to the opal haze that

hung at the end of the valley--and who heard ever of any that wished to
leave the Scarlet Hills and the quiet country beyond!
The boy repeated his question: "My father, shall we soon be there?"
The man withdrew his hand from over his eyes, and a strange smile
came to his lips.
"My son," he answered, "canst thou not see? Yonder, through the
gentle mist, are the Scarlet Hills. Our journey is near done."
The boy lifted his head and looked. "I can see nothing but the mist, my
father--not the Scarlet Hills. I am tired, I would sleep."
"Thou shalt sleep soon. The wise men told us of the Delightful Chateau
at the gateway of the hills. Courage, my son! If I gave thee the golden
balls to toss, would it cheer thee?"
"My father, I care not for the golden balls; but if I had horse and sword
and a thousand men, I would take a city."
The man laid his hand upon the boy's shoulder.
"If I, my son," he said, "had a horse and sword and a thousand men, I
would build a city."
"Why dost thou not fly thy falcon, or write thy thoughts upon the sand,
as thou didst yesterday, my father?"
The man loosed the falcon from his wrist, and watched it fly away.
"My son, I care not for the falcon, nor any more for writing on the
sands."
"My father, if thou didst build a city, I would not tear it down, but I
would keep it with my thousand men.
"Thou hast well said, my son." And the man stooped and kissed the lad
on the forehead.
And so they travelled on in silence for a long time, and slowly they
came to