The Brook Kerith | Page 3

of everybody.
Dan said: if that be so, let him tell thee his dream. But Joseph hung his
head and pushed his plate away; and seeing him so morose they left
him to his sulks and fell to talking of dreams that had come true. Joseph
had never heard them speak of anything so interesting before, and
though he suspected that they were making fun of him he could not do
else than listen, till becoming convinced suddenly that they were
talking in good earnest without intention of fooling him he began to
regret that he had said he had forgotten his dream, and rapped out: he
was the prophet Samuel. Now what are you saying, Joseph? his father
asked. Joseph would not say any more, but it pleased him to observe
that neither his father nor his granny laughed at his admission, and

seeing how interested they were in his dream he said: if you want to
know all, Samuel said he had heard me say that I'd like to be a prophet.
That was why he came back from the dead. But, Father, is it true that
we are his descendants? He said that I was.
A most extraordinary dream, his father answered, for it has always been
held in the family that we are descended from him. Do you really mean,
Joseph, that the old man you saw in your dream told you he was
Samuel and that you were his descendant? How should I have known if
he hadn't told me? Joseph looked from one to the other and wondered
why they had kept the secret of his ancestor from him. You laughed at
me yesterday, Granny, when I said I'd like to be a prophet. Now what
do you say? Answer me that. And he continued to look from one to the
other for an answer. But neither had the wit to find an answer, so
amazed were they at the news that the prophet Samuel had visited
Joseph in a dream; and satisfied at the impression he had made and a
little frightened by their silence Joseph stole out of the room, leaving
his parents to place whatever interpretation they pleased on his dream.
Nor did he care whether they believed he had spoken the truth. He was
more concerned with himself than with them, and conscious that
something of great importance had happened to him he ascended the
stairs, pausing at every step uncertain if he should return to ask for the
whole of the story of Saul's anointment. It seemed to him to lack
courtesy to return to the room in which he had seen the prophet, till he
knew these things. But he could not return to ask questions: later he
would learn what had happened to Samuel and Saul, and he entered the
room, henceforth to him a sacred room, and stood looking through it,
having all the circumstances of his dream well in mind: he was lying on
his left side when Samuel had risen up before him, and it was there,
upon that spot, in that space he had seen Samuel. His ancestor had
seemed to fade away from the waist downwards, but his face was
extraordinarily clear in the darkness, and Joseph tried to recall it. But
he could only remember it as a face that a spirit might wear, for it was
not made up of flesh but of some glowing matter or stuff, such as
glow-worms are made of; nor could he call it ugly or beautiful, for it
was not of this world. He had drawn the bed-clothes over his head,
but--impelled he knew not why, for he was nearly dead with fright--he

had poked his head out to see if the face was still there. The lips did not
move, but he had heard a voice. The tones were not like any heard
before, but he had listened to them all the same, and if he had not lost
his wits again in an excess of fear he would have put questions to
Samuel: he would have put questions if his tongue had not been tied
back somewhere in the roof of his mouth. But the next time he would
not be frightened and pull the bed-clothes over his head.
And convinced of his own courage he lay night after night thinking of
all the great things he would ask the old man and of the benefit he
would derive from his teaching. But Samuel did not appear again,
perhaps because the nights were so dark. Joseph was told the moon
would become full again, but sleep closed his eyes when he should
have been waking, and in the morning he was full of fear that perhaps
Samuel had come and gone away disappointed at