nd the woman in
her green dress and her loose black hair--and hearing, too, the soft,
low, continuous murmur of the yellow bees.

For hours he lay there in that drowsy condition, his mother keeping
watch over him, and when it passed off, and he got up again, his
temper appeared changed: he was more gentle and affectionate with
his mother, and obeyed her every wish. And when in his rambles on
the hill he found a snake lying in the sun he would steal softly
near it and watch it steadily for a long time, half wishing to taste
that strange purple honey again, so that he might lie again in the
sun, feeling what the snake feels. But there were more wonderful
things yet for Martin to see and know in the hills, so that in a
little while he ceased to have that desire.

CHAPTER XV

MARTIN'S EYES ARE OPENED

[Illustration: ]

One morning when they went up into a wild rocky place very high up
on the hillside a number of big birds were seen coming over the
mountain at a great height in the air, travelling in a northerly
direction. They were big hawks almost as big as eagles, with very
broad rounded wings, and instead of travelling straight like other
birds they moved in wide circles, so that they progressed very slowly.

They sat down on a stone to watch the birds, and whenever one flying
lower than the others came pretty near them Martin gazed delightedly
at it, and wished it would come still nearer so that he might see it
better. Then the woman stood up on the stone, and, gazing skywards
and throwing up her arms, she uttered a long call, and the birds
began to come lower and lower down, still sweeping round in wide
circles, and by and by one came quite down and pitched on a stone a
few yards from them. Then another came and lighted on another stone,
then another, and others followed, until they were all round him in
scores, sitting on the rocks, great brown birds with black bars on
their wings and tails, and buff-coloured breasts with rust-red spots
and stripes. It was a wonderful sight, those eagle-like hawks, with
their blue hooked beaks and deep-set dark piercing eyes, sitting in
numbers on the rocks, and others and still others dropping down from
the sky to increase the gathering.

Then the woman sat down by Martin's side, and after a while one of
the hawks spread his great wings and rose up into the air to resume
his flight. After an interval of a minute or so another rose, then
another, but it was an hour b