Once another child came to walk with them. This child was very little, and it walked between his two tall sons, and they held it by the hands and guided its stumbling and uncertain steps.
This child laughed easily, and when it laughed, they laughed with it, because they could not help themselves.
In his dream, Barnard forgot for a moment The Threat which drifted above them, and he began to sing, and Anne sang with him. And the three boys, his sons, laughed as he and Anne sang. Their voices were like peals of music.
Then something brushed Barnard’s cheek, and before he could stir, The Threat had engulfed them all. It crushed down upon them, stifling and smothering and blinding them.
He fumbled desperately through this Cloud, seeking the others. He found Anne, and they clung together, and groped about....
“Here is Dick,” she called, and laid the hand of his eldest son in his; and a moment later he felt a straight, youthful shoulder, and when he peered through the mists, he saw that he had found Charles, the second son, and he called to Anne, as she had called to him:
“Here is Charles!”
They were glad at that; and they went more hopefully at their task of finding the little child; but while they were still searching, the Cloud lifted, and they saw that the little boy was gone.
VIII
Barnard, in his dream, began to feel old; and he began to feel lonely.