They, too, never raised their eyes to the blue sky outside, nor even to the crimson roses that peeped in at the window.

They seemed rather to be looking always for dirt, yet not pleased when they found it--especially if it had been tracked in on the heel of a small boy's shoe! More extraordinary than all this to David, however, was the fact that these people regarded HIM, not themselves, as being strange.

As if it were not the most natural thing in the world to live with one's father in one's home on the mountain-top, and spend one's days trailing through the forest paths, or lying with a book beside some babbling little stream! As if it were not equally natural to take one's violin with one at times, and learn to catch upon the quivering strings the whisper of the winds through the trees! Even in winter, when the clouds themselves came down from the sky and covered the earth with their soft whiteness,--even then the forest was beautiful; and the song of the brook under its icy coat carried a charm and mystery that were quite wanting in the chattering freedom of summer.

Surely there was nothing strange in all this, and yet these people seemed to think there was!.