THE LAST VIGIL For a while Leonard sat by the body of his brother.

The daylight grew and gathered about him, the round ball of the sun appeared above the mountains.
The storm was gone.

Were it not for some broken fragments of the vanished hut, it would have been difficult to know even that it had been.

Insects began to chirrup, lizards ran from the crevices of the rocks, yonder the rain-washed bud of a mountain lily opened before his eyes.

Still Leonard sat on, his face stony with grief, till at length a shadow fell upon him from above.