FOR THE LOVE OF THE SUN 153 
So the poor Hermit Humming-bird went about 
through the world, asking all the beautiful things in 
it for some of their beauty, and not one that he asked 
refused him, for the love of his father the sun. He 
begged of the clouds at sunset, when they were all 
crimson lake, and at sunrise, when they were all topaz 
and amber, and all three of these lovely colours fell 
upon his throat and struggled for the mastery, like 
the green and blue on the breast of that other Hum- 
ming-bird that I have told you about. Then he 
begged of the bluest stars in the sky, and just on the 
outer edge of his now lovely throat, on the edge of 
that shining gorget, there fell such a blue as made 
one feel in heaven only to look at it. After that he 
begged of the sea that the sun was shining on in the 
morning, and now his head was of the loveliest pale 
sea-green, and then, again, he begged of it a little 
later in the day, and his back became a darker green, 
almost, if not quite, as lovely as the lovely one on his 
head. Thus he went about the world, begging and 
asking, and he did not forget either the jewels, or the 
flowers, or the colours that live in the rainbow. And 
at the end of the day this Humming-bird that had 
been all brown, and that his brothers had called a 
hermit, was one of the loveliest of all the Humming- 
birds, and his English name (we won’t trouble about 
the Latin one) was the All-glorious Humming-Bird., 
