IN QUEST OF RAVENS 63 



his testimony afterward), and yet I had been 

 out of doors almost constantly for more than 

 two weeks, and so far had not obtained the 

 first glimpse of a large, wide-ranging, high- 

 flying bird which this boy — who lived a few 

 miles out of the village, it is true — saw 

 nearly every day. Verily, as the unsuccess- 

 ful man's text has it (and a comfortable text 

 it is), "the race is not to the swift, . . . 

 nor yet favour to men of skill ; but time and 

 chance happeneth to them all." 



I speak unadvisedly. I had seen ravens ; 

 I had seen them here at Highlands. But it 

 was in a dream of the night. There were 

 two, and they were "flying over," — yes, 

 and calling as they flew. One of them was 

 partly white, an albinistic peculiarity at 

 which I do not remember to have felt the 

 least surprise. But indeed, if I may trust 

 my own experience, nothing surprises us in 

 dreamland. There, as in fairyland, every- 

 thing is natural. Perhaps the same will be 

 true in a world after this. 



Meantime, if my eyes were holden from 

 some things, I saw many others as I traveled 

 hither and thither, now to a mountain top, 

 now down one of the roads into the warm 



