as he passed through the
village to his own dwelling. Other maids greeted him, and followed him
with kindly eyes. By all women Tahn-te was told in many ways that the
wearer of the white robe need not live in a lonely house!

Yet he was not lonely, and when the marvels of the inviting eyes
turned towards him, he was always conscious of an ideal presence as if
the god-maid of the mesa had stepped between, and made harmless the
sorcery of the village daughters by which he might otherwise have been
enveloped.

Once, when he had confessed as much to the ancient Ruler who had been
his guide and guardian, the old man had voiced approval and
interpreted clearly for him the dream presence which was as a gift of
the gods, and clearly marked him for other loves than that of an earth
maid.

"But--if the dreams came like a maid also--but a maid so fine that it
was as a star--or a flower--or a prayer made human--then--"

"It is like that?" asked the old man, and the boy answered:

"Sometimes it seems like that--but not when I awake. Only in my sleep
does she come close, yet that dream has kept guard for me many days
until the others laugh and say I have no eyes to see a woman, I do
see--but--"

"That is well--it is best of all!" said K[=a]-ye-fah, the Ruler. "If
my own child had come back to me I might not have said it is well. My
heart would have wanted to see your children and the children of
K[=a]-ye-povi--I dreamed of that through many harvests--but it is over
now. She did not live. The trader of robes from the Yutah brought that
word, and it is better that way. I was dying because my daughter would
be slave to Navahu men--and when word comes that she died as a little
child, then the sun is shining for me again, and I live again. But
always when I think that the little child could be a woman, then it is
good to think that your children could be her children. Since it is
so--so let it be! The dream maid of the spirit flower, and of the
star, can be my K[=a]-ye-povi, and you will have the mate no other
earth eyes can ever see, and your nights and your days will not be
lonely. Also it will be that your prayers be double strong."

From that day of talk, the dream maid of Tahn-te had been a more
tangible presence--never a woman--never quite that, but in the smile
of certain children he caught swift glimpse of her face and then music
rang in the rustle of the corn or the rush of the river. When the
dream vision was beyond all