island.
He knew that the priest had spoken the truth, but he loved his
solitary life, and the silence of the cave, the free air and the sun,
and the lonely current of his own thoughts. The sun went slowly down
over the waters in a great splendour of light and colour, so that the
clouds in the sky seemed like purple islands floating in a golden sea;
David sitting in his cave thought with a kind of terror of the small
and close houses of the village, the sound of feet, and talk of men
and women. At last he fell asleep; and in his sleep he dreamed that he
was in a great garden. He looked about him with pleasure, and he
presently saw a gardener moving about at his work. He went in that
direction, and he saw that the man, who was old and had a very wise
and tender face, was setting out some young trees in a piece of
ground. He planted them carefully with deft hands, and he smiled to
himself as he worked, as though he was full of joyful thoughts. David
wished in his heart to go and speak with him, but something held him
back. Presently the gardener went away, and while he was absent,
another man, of a secret aspect, came swiftly into the place, peering
about him. His glance passed David by, and David knew that he was in
some way unseen. The man looked all about him in a furtive haste, and
then plucked up one of the trees, which seemed to David to be already
growing and shooting out small leaves and buds. The man smoothed down
the ground where he drew it out, and then went very quickly away.
David would have wished to stop him, but he could not. Then the old
gardener came back, and looked long at the place whence the tree had
been drawn. Then he sighed to himself, and cast a swift look in the
direction in which the man had fled. He had brought other trees with
him, but he did not plant one in the empty space, but left it bare.
Then David felt that he must follow the other, and so he did. He found
him very speedily, but it was outside the garden, in a rough place,
where thorny bushes and wild plants grew thickly. The other had
cleared a little space among them, and here he set the tree; but he
planted it ill and hastily, as though he was afraid of being
disturbed; and then he departed secretly. David stood and watched the
tree a little. It seemed at first to begin to grow again as it had
done before, but presently something ailed it and it drooped. Then
David saw the thorny bushes near it begin to stretch out their arms
about i