He wrapped the white robe around her and clasped her tenderly as behooved a lover, yet with arms that she knew could have crushed her had they willed.

The minutes slipped away, and still he held her to his heart, the reality far surpassing his dream; for he knew that he was awake, and he realized this as the supreme hour that comes to the strongman who knows his love requited.
When the first banner of red light arose above Medicine Woods and Singing Water the cocks on the hillside announced the dawn.

As the gold faded to gray, a burst of bubbling notes swelled from a branch almost over their heads where stood a bark-enclosed little house.
"Ruth, do you hear that ?" asked the Harvester softly.
"Yes," she answered, "and I see it.

A wonderful bird, with Heaven's deepest blue on its back and a breast like a russet autumn leaf, came straight up the lake from the south, and before it touched the limb that song seemed to gush from its throat." "And for that reason, the greatest nature lover who ever lived says that it 'deserves preeminence.' It always settles from its long voyage through the air in an ecstasy of melody.

Do you know what it is, Ruth ?" The Girl laid a hand on his cheek and turned his eyes from the bird to her face as she answered, "Yes, Harvester-man, I know.