“The Blue Bird has called me; I am off to follow its trail. I can never forget your kindness or your home. Thank you always.
“David.”
THE NEXT NIGHT THE MOON SHONE
BRIGHTLY. DAVID HAD JUST
CRAWLED INTO BED
CHAPTER VI
THE PALACE OF THE BRONZE KING
AND what, during all this time, was happening to Ruth? We have left her a long time, and our thoughts naturally wander back to her, for we can no more forget her than David can.
The old Cobbler and his wife treated her very harshly after David left. They made her work twice as hard, for in a way they held her responsible for his disappearance. She grew very, very unhappy; for she was very lonely, and she longed to know what had become of her dear friend and playmate. One day—it must have been at least a year from the time David left her, and it may have been several years; it seemed so to her, anyway—she knew that the same season had come round again, for the forget-me-nots in the meadow were in bloom, and the air was filled with the soft light and gentle fragrance that she had always remembered as belonging to that last sad, beautiful day that they had spent together. She had left her work unfinished and had wandered through the fields and meadows to the hillside where they had rested and David had shown her the Blue Bird.
She sat down on the soft grass. A bunch of forget-me-nots that she had gathered in the meadow drooped and faded in the heat of her hand. But even as they faded and their frail breath went from them, their odour filled the air; and as Ruth closed her eyes in thought, it seemed to her that David must be near.