Saint Guido 



lying is the fourth of them, and he is quite young, 

 though he is so big. 



"A jay sowed the acorn from which he grew up; 

 the jay was in the oak with one branch, and some 

 one frightened him, and as he flew he dropped the 

 acorn which he had in his bill just there, and now 

 you are lying in the shadow of the tree. So you 

 see, it is a very long time ago, when the blackbirds 

 came and whistled up in those oaks I was thinking 

 of, and that was why I was not very happy." 



" But you have heard the blackbirds whistling ever 

 since? " said Guido; " and there was such a big 

 black one up in our cherry tree this morning, and I 

 shot my arrow at him and very nearly hit him. 

 Besides, there is a blackbird whistling now you 

 listen. There, he's somewhere in the copse. Why 

 can't you listen to him, and be happy now? " 



" I will be happy, dear, as you are here, but still it 

 is a long, long time, and then I think, after I am dead, 

 and there is more wheat in my place, the blackbirds 

 will go on whistling for another thousand years after 

 me. For of course I did not hear them all that time 

 ago myself, dear, but the wheat which was before me 

 heard them and told me. They told me, too, and I 

 know it is true, that the cuckoo came and called all 

 day till the moon shone at night, and began again in 

 the morning before the dew had sparkled in the sun- 

 rise. The dew dries very soon on wheat, Guido dear, 

 because wheat is so dry; first the sunrise makes the 

 tips of the wheat ever so faintly rosy, then it grows 

 yellow, then as the heat increases it becomes white at 

 noon, and golden in the afternoon, and white again 

 under the moonlight. Besides which wide shadows 

 come over from the clouds, and a wind always follows 

 the shadow and waves us, and every time we sway to 



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