DAYS 167 



or something, hundreds of years ago, 

 and that we were growing in these fields 

 side by side." 



"And do you think that everybody 

 was something else a long time ago ?" 

 she asked, getting interested. 



" Yes, all those people who really love 

 each other must have been doing so 

 since the beginning of the world, only 

 they didn't always know it," he said. 



" And are all these flowers and birds 

 going to be somebody one day, do you 

 think?" 



"I'm sure they are, and many of them 

 have been people before, especially all 

 those which grow close together and 

 blossom at the same time. When a per- 

 son dies, or even goes away from the place 

 he loves, his spirit comes back again to 

 the old fields and lives again as one of the 

 flowers or the birds he liked the best." 



"That is a sweet idea," she said. . . . 

 " I'd rather be a bird than a flower, be- 



