Laughing, they pushed off, and, soon lapsing into silence, slid away down the dancing rapids, under an ever dimmer sunshine, as the smoke grew more and more dense. Now and then Lyndsay saw something to remember in wood or water, and made brief note of it. He had a mind some day to make a small book about word-sketching. Probably he would never do it; but it is pleasant to pet our little enterprises, until, maturing in thought, they get too large for the mother-lap.
Rose watched the amber waters, and then, furtively, the Island Camp, where was noontide quiet, and no man in sight.
The two canoes were held together as they ran down-stream, and only now and then a guiding paddle was used.
“You have had a nice little nap,” said Lyndsay.
“I have,” said Anne. “I am the only person I know who will admit to having slept in daylight. I slept little last night, and—isn’t it droll?—I took just now into my sleep a queer little bit of the Orient. I think it is rare to carry one’s thoughts with one unbroken into the land of dreams. But I did, and I went on dreaming of it.”
“What was it, aunty?”
“Only some stuff out of the ‘Legenda Aureata.’ It would not interest you.”
“Anne!” “Aunty!” they cried. “It used to be El Din Attar, and Hafiz. Now it is the ‘Talmud’ or the ‘Golden Legends.’ You are a horrid humbug,” added Lyndsay.
“You are a dear, sweet, altogether nice humbug,” said Rose. “What was it?”
“Then listen, children. When Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden, they could get no sleep, because of their tears—for when tears part the lids what man may slumber? Therefore all night long they complained. After awhile the birds flew up to heaven and said, ‘We have done no wrong, neither have we eaten of the tree, nor do we know good from evil. Yet these two keep us awake with their cries.’ Then the Christ came down to help them, and, coming to Adam, said, ‘What is there thou wilt give God for sleep?’ And Adam said, ‘We have but one thing left us: we will give love.’ And the Christ said, ‘It is enough. Forasmuch as even the kings of the earth receive no gift without returning a better, therefore for thy love thou shalt have God’s larger love and also sleep.’ So the man and the woman slept, and the birds had rest. And it was said later, ‘He giveth his beloved sleep.’”