THE LEADER
IV
He was a ragged-looking being, yet his loose, untidy clothing became
him so well that his appearance seemed almost neat--it was certainly
natural: he was dressed in the day, the garden, the open air. Judy and
Tim ran up fearlessly and began fingering the bits of stuff that clung
to him from the fields and ditches. In his beard were some stray rose
leaves and the feather of a little bird. The children had an air of
sheltering against a tree trunk--woodland creatures--mice or squirrels
chattering among the roots, or birds flown in to settle on a hedge.
They were not one whit afraid. For nothing surprised them on this
marvellous morning; everything that happened they--accepted.
"He's shining underneath," Judy whispered in Tim's ear, cocking her
head sideways so that she could catch her brother's eye and at the
same time feel the great comfort of the new arrival against her cheek.
"And awfully strong," was the admiring reply.
"So soft, too," she declared--though whether of mind or body was not
itemized--"like feathers."
"And smells delicious," affirmed Tim, "like hay and rabbits."
Each child picked out the quality the heart desired and approved;
almost, it seemed, each felt him differently.
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