The people began to cheer Dennis.
“The true heart knows its own. Washington’s heart does.
“You may laugh, but I have met a prophet. The gold lace on him does not spoil his heart. He comes out of the past, he is going into the future; he loves everybody, and everybody that meets him loves him. Laugh if you will, but Dennis O’Hay has seen a prophet, and you will see what is in his heart some day.
“He has a motto. What is his motto, do you ask? Ovan-saan-tarche!—Ovan without a stain. That is the motto of the soldiers of the place where he was born. That place is like this place, I mind me. He says: ‘America will be free when she shall hear the bugles of Ovan.’”
“What is his name?” asked the esquire.
“His name? Bother me if I can remember it now. It is the same as the boy said. But you will come to know it some day, now heed you this word in the cedars. Lafayette—yes, Lafayette—that is his name. It is written in the stars, but bother me, it flies away from me now like a bird from a wicker-cage. But, but, hear me, ye good folks all, receive it, Governor, believe it, esquire—that young man’s heart holds the secret of America. There are helpers invisible in this world, and the heavens elect men for their work, not from any outward appearance, but from the heart. This is the way God elected David of old.”
A blue jay had been listening on a long cedar bough stretched out like an arm.
She archly turned her head, raised her crown and gave a trumpet-call, and flew over the people.