wondering how Mr. Cassilis came to be aware
of his own impending departure. And so, at last, he came to the
rick-yard,--full of increasing doubt and misgivings.

CHAPTER XXVI

_How the money moon rose_

Evening had deepened into night,--a night of ineffable calm, a night of
an all pervading quietude. A horse snorted in the stable nearby, a dog
barked in the distance, but these sounds served only to render the
silence the more profound, by contrast. It was, indeed, a night wherein
pixies, and elves, and goblins, and fairies might weave their magic
spells, a night wherein tired humanity dreamed those dreams that seem so
hopelessly impossible by day.

And, over all, the moon rose high, and higher, in solemn majesty,
filling the world with her pale loveliness, and brooding over it like
the gentle goddess she is. Even the distant dog seemed to feel something
of all this, for, after a futile bark or two, he gave it up altogether,
and was heard no more.

And Bellew, gazing up at Luna's pale serenity, smiled and nodded,--as
much as to say, "You'll do!" and so stood leaning upon his spade
listening to:

"That deep hush which seems a sigh
Breathed by Earth to listening sky."

Now, all at once, upon this quietude there rose a voice up-raised in
fervent supplication; wherefore, treading very softly, Bellew came, and
peeping round the hay-rick, beheld Small Porges upon his knees. He was
equipped for travel and the perils of the road, for beside him lay a
stick, and tied to this stick was a bundle that bulged with his most
cherished possessions. His cheeks were wet with great tears that
glistened in the moon-beams, but he wept with eyes tight shut, and with
his small hands clasped close together, and thus he spoke,--albeit much
shaken, and hindered by sobs:

"I s'pose you think I bother you an awful lot, dear Lord,--an' so I do,
but you haven't sent the Money Moon yet, you see, an' now my Auntie
Anthea's got to leave Dapplemere--if I don't find the fortune for her
soon. I know I'm crying a lot, an' real men don't cry,--but it's only
'cause I'm awful--lonely an' disappointed,--an' nobody can see me, so it
doesn't matter. But, dear Lord, I've looked an' looked everywhere, an' I
haven't found a single sovereign yet,--an' I've prayed to you, an'
prayed to you for the Money Moon an'--it's never come. So now, dear
Lord, I'm going to Africa, an' I want you to please take care of my
Auntie Anthea till I come back. Someti