village to get some toys."

Before leaving the house, he went down to the cellar to see if the
furnace was all right. He was amazed to see how naturally and cheerfully
he had slipped back into the old sense of responsibility. Where was the
illusory freedom he had dreamed of? Even the epiphany on the hilltop now
seemed a distant miracle. That fearful happiness might never come again.
And yet here, among the familiar difficult minutiae of home, what a
lightness he felt. A great phrase from the prayer-book came to his
mind--"Whose service is perfect freedom."

Ah, he said to himself, it is all very well to wear a crown of thorns,
and indeed every sensitive creature carries one in secret. But there are
times when it ought to be worn cocked over one ear.

He opened the furnace door. A bright glow filled the fire-box: he could
hear a stir and singing in the boiler, and the rustle of warm pipes that
chuckled quietly through winter nights of storm. Over the coals hovered
a magic evasive flicker, the very soul of fire. It was a Pentecostal
flame, perfect and heavenly in tint, the essence of pure colour, a clear
immortal blue.

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's Where the Blue Begins, by Christopher Morley

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