“So we have understood,” said David, “and we wish to find it.”
“How came you here?” repeated their companion. “Did you come by yourselves, alone?”
David smiled. “We came alone,” he answered, “but not by ourselves, for we were guided and led here. Years ago I saw a Blue Bird and heard it sing. Once seeing and hearing it, I had to follow it. It led me to Ruth. Then, one day, it sang for us again. Its message was very clear, and again I had to follow it. I left Ruth; it led me to her a second time, for she was in trouble and needed me. We had thought that I could cut the trail here to the Garden and then return for her. But it could not be: we found that we must seek it together.”
“But the Blue Bird never comes to the borders of the Garden: he only remains within it,” said the stranger. “You must have come to this point alone.”
“No, no!” said David and Ruth in one voice. “The Wingèd Horse brought us here!”
As they conversed, the country through which they journeyed grew more and more beautiful. Its wonders unfolded before their eyes as they talked together.
“One never does anything alone,” said David. “I mean, of one’s own power. One is always guided, led, or helped. Only when one cannot clearly see or understand does one make the mistake of thinking of one’s power as coming from one’s self.”
As he spoke they passed through a series of lovely groves—first, trees of heavy wood such as cedar, oak, pine, and chestnut; then fruit trees, apple, orange, pear; then nut trees of varied kinds. As they walked on they noticed that the series of groves grew in such a pattern as to form a spiral of huge dimensions, toward the center of which they were now journeying. Soon they beheld such scenes as neither David nor Ruth had ever imagined or pictured. Here and there were charming and lovely little houses built in the midst of beautiful groves, each house surrounded by a garden filled with sweet-scented flowers. The delicious fragrance reminded David of the odours he had caught that first day when he had entered the Country that lay just the other side of the little door in the tree trunk, only now it was much stronger, sweeter, and nearer. Here were also olive trees, sweet-scented shrubs, and rose trees.
“You will find your house in time,” said the stranger. “For it is in the Garden somewhere.”
“Our house!” said Ruth. “How beautiful that will be.”