"I think," he stated shyly, "I think--he's--hiding."
Nothing more wonderful ever fell from grown-up lips. They had heard it
said before--but only said. Now they realised it.
"Hiding!" They stood up; they could see further that way. But they
waited for more detail before showing their last approval.
"Out here," he added.
They were not quite sure. They expected a disclosure more out of the
ordinary. It _might_ be true, but--
"Hide-and-seek?" they repeated doubtfully. "But that's just a game."
They were unsettled in their minds.
"Not _that_ kind," he replied significantly. "I mean the kind the rain
plays with the wind and leaves, the stream with the stones and roots
along its bank, the rivers with the sea. That's the kind of hide-and-
seek I mean!"
He chose instinctively watery symbols. And his tone conveyed something
so splendid and mysterious that it was impossible to doubt or hesitate
a moment longer.
"Oh," they exclaimed. "It never ends, you mean?"
"Goes on for ever and ever," he murmured. "The moment the river finds
the sea it disappears and the sea begins to look. The wind never
really finds the clouds, and the sun and the stars--"
"_We_ know!" they shouted, cutting his explanations short.
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