childhood in the log cottage where he was born, and was
dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many things, assisting her
much with his little hands, and more with his loving heart. In this
manner, from a happy yet thoughtful child, he grew to be a mild, quiet,
modest boy, sun-browned with labor in the fields, but with more
intelligence in his face than is seen in many lads who have been taught
at famous schools. Yet Ernest had had no teacher, save only that the
Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil of the day was over,
he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to imagine that those vast
features recognized him, and gave him a smile of kindness and
encouragement in response to his own look of [v]veneration. We must not
take upon us to affirm that this was a mistake, although the Face may
have looked no more kindly at Ernest than at all the world besides. For
the secret was that the boy's tender simplicity [v]discerned what other
people could not see; and thus the love, which was meant for all, became
his alone.

II

About this time, there went a rumor throughout the valley that the great
man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a resemblance to the
Great Stone Face, had appeared at last. It seems that, many years
before, a young man had left the valley and settled at a distant
seaport, where, after getting together a little money, he had set up as
a shopkeeper. His name--but I could never learn whether it was his real
one, or a nickname that had grown out of his habits and success in
life--was Gathergold.

It might be said of him, as of [v]Midas in the fable, that whatever he
touched with his finger immediately glistened, and grew yellow, and was
changed at once into coin. And when Mr. Gathergold had become so rich
that it would have taken him a hundred years only to count his wealth,
he bethought himself of his native valley, and resolved to go back
thither, and end his days where he was born. With this purpose in view,
he sent a skillful architect to build him such a palace as should be fit
for a man of his vast wealth to live in.

As I have said above, it had already been rumored in the valley that Mr.
Gathergold had turned out to be the person so long and vainly looked
for, and that his visage was the perfect and undeniable likeness of the
Great Stone Face. People were the more ready to believe that this must
needs be the fact when they beheld the splendid edifice that rose, as i