ing the song, when
Israel was out of hearing; and the joy Naomi found in it, and the simple
silent arts she used, being mute and blind, to show her pleasure while
it lasted, and to ask for it again when it was done, were very sweet and
touching.

And so it came about at last, that even as the human mother loves
that child most among many children that most is helpless, so the
earth-mother of Naomi made her ears more keen because her eyes were
blind. Thus she seemed to hear many things that are unheard by the rest
of the human family. It is only a dim echo of the outer world that the
ears of men are allowed to hear, just as it is only a dim shadow of the
outer world that the eyes of men are allowed to see; but the ears of
Naomi seemed to hear all.

There is one hearing of men, and another hearing of the beasts, and a
third of the birds, and one hearing differs from another in keenness
even as one sight differs from another in strength. And all the earth
is full of voices, and everything that moves upon the face of it has its
sound; but the bird hears that which is unheard of the beast, and the
beast hears that which is unheard of men. But Naomi appeared to hear all
that is heard of each.

Listening hour after hour, listening always, listening only, with
nothing that she could do but listen, nothing moved on the ground but
she dropped her face, and nothing flew in the sky but she lifted her
eyes. And whereas before the coming of her great gift her face had been
all feeling, and she seemed to feel the sunset, and to feel the sky, and
to feel the thunder and the light, now her face was all hearing, and
her whole body seemed to hear, for she was like a living soul floating
always in a sea of sound.

Thus, day after day, she was busy in her silence and in her darkness,
building up notions of man and of the world by the new gift with which
God had gifted her; but what strange thing the earth was to her then,
what the sun was with its warmth, and what the sea was with its roar,
and what the face of man was, and the eyes of woman, none could know,
and neither could she tell, for her soul was not linked to other
souls--soul to soul, in the chains of speech.

And for all that she could not answer; yet Israel did not forget that,
beside the sounds of earth and sky, Naomi was hearing words, and that
words had wings, and were alive, and, for good or ill, made their mark
on the soul that listened to them. So he continued to read