He was weary after his day's work--too
weary to eat. He put the plate down on the floor for Doss, who licked it
clean, and then went back to his corner. After a time the master threw
himself across the foot of the bed without undressing, and fell asleep
there. He slept so long that the candle burnt itself out, and the room was
in darkness. But he dreamed a lovely dream as he lay there.
In his dream, to his right rose high mountains, their tops crowned with
snow, their sides clothed with bush and bathed in the sunshine. At their
feet was the sea, blue and breezy, bluer than any earthly sea, like the sea
he had dreamed of in his boyhood. In the narrow forest that ran between
the mountains and the sea the air was rich that the scent of the honey-
creeper that hung from dark green bushes, and through the velvety grass
little streams ran purling down into the sea.
He sat on a high square rock among the bushes, and Lyndall sat by him and
sang to him. She was only a small child, with a blue pinafore, and a
grave, grave, little face. He was looking up at the mountains, then
suddenly when he looked round she was gone. He slipped down from his rock,
and went to look for her, but he found only her little footmarks; he found
them on the bright green grass, and in the moist sand, and there where the
little streams ran purling down into the sea.
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