I looked, and saw a large, long-legged bird perched on the roof of Mr. and Mrs. McGinity's tower bedroom. Then I turned to Mamie, and said: "What d'you suppose it is?"
Mamie chuckled, and when she chuckled, every part of her body seemed to synchronize. "Why, man alive!" she said; "dat's a stork. Dat's certainly a good omen for our sweet Patricia, only it done come a little ahead of time."
"It looks like a crane," I ventured.
"Nosah, nosah!" Mamie countered. "No crane ain't nevah roostin' up dat high, Marse Livingston."
The strange bird flew away, and Mamie, still chuckling, returned to her work.
The true significance of the visit of that long-legged, foretokening bird that had perched itself on the tower roof of Pat's bedroom did not come to me until that evening, as I stood on the terrace, enjoying my after-dinner cigar. At first, I had regarded Mamie's prophetic suggestion with only startled incredulity. Now, after having talked the matter over with Jane, the thunder of the coming event seemed to crack in my brain.
Pat's going to have a baby! My heart was overfilled with joy. I looked proudly at the old castle that her child would some day own. Moved by my deep happiness, I gazed up at the beautiful, star-studded night sky. My gaze rested upon Mars, sparkling like a Burma ruby, and it occurred to me that what was going to happen to Pat, viewed scientifically, was more wonderful by far than a radio message or even a rocket from Mars. And yet these little physical and spiritual manifestations of a tiny soul being planted in a woman's body do not matter; they have become too commonplace.