Indescribably these qualities
proclaimed themselves. It was a man.
"They've seen me twice," he mentioned to the dipping swallows. "This
is my third appearance. They'll recognise me without a word. The Day
has come."
He stood a moment, shaking the extras of the night from hair and
clothing, then laughed with a sound like running water as the birds
swooped down and carried the straws and twigs away with a great
business of wings. Next, glancing up at the open windows of the house,
he started forward with a light but steady step. "They will not be
surprised," he said, "for they have always believed in me. They knew
that some day I should come, and in the twinkling of an eye!" He
paused and chuckled in his beard. "I'm not _the_ one thing they're
expecting, but I'm next door to it, and I can show them how to look at
any rate."
And he began softly humming the words of a little song he had
evidently made up himself, and therefore liked immensely. He neared
the walls; the sunrise tipped a happy, glorious face; he disappeared
from view as though he had melted through the old grey stone. And a
flight of swallows, driven by the fresh dawn wind, passed high
overhead across the heavens, leading the night away.
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