and big seed of the corn:--before that time the
seeds of the corn were little seeds. When the child was born, strange
things happened, and the eagles fly high above till the sky was alive
with wings. The boy was very poor, and so much a boy of dreams that he
was the one to be laughed at for the visions. But great wise thoughts
grew out of his mountain dreams, and he was so great a wizard that the
old men chose him for Po-Ahtun-ho, which means Ruler of Things from
the Beginning. And the dreamer who had been born of the maid and the
pinyon tree was the Ruler. He governed even the boiling water from the
heart of the hills, and taught the people that the sickness was washed
away by it. His wisdom was beyond earth wisdom, and his visions were
true. The land of that people became a great land, and they had many
blue stones and shells. Then it was that they became proud. One day
the god came as a stranger to their village:--a poor stranger, and
they were not kind to him! The proud hearts had grown to be hard
hearts, and only fine strangers would they talk with. He went away
from that people then. He said hard words to them and went away. He
went to the South to live in a great home in the sea. When he comes
back they do not know, but some day he comes back,--or some night! He
said he would come back to the land when the stars mark the time when
they repent, and one night in seven the fire is lit on the hills by
the villages, that the earth-born god, Po-se-yemo, may see it if he
should come, and may see that his people are faithful and are waiting
for him to come.

"Because of the day when the god came, and they turned him away for
that his robe was poor, and his feet were bare;--because of that day,
no poor person is turned hungry from the door of that people. And the
old men say this is because the god may come any day from the South,
and may come again as a poor man.

"And this was told to us by the Te-hua men when we went for seed corn
in that starving time, and were not sent away empty. _Aliksai!_"

The men drew long breaths of awe and approval when the story was
ended. The old man who had found the girl knew that the girl had found
friends.

But the mysterious coincidence of her coming as the rain came--and
from the south--and the fair child!

Again the man who had been a prisoner with the Apaches was asked to
tell of the coming of the white gods in the south where the Mexic
people lived. He knew but little. No Apa