i was not as
he was, that Nature had not given her eyes to see as he saw, and ears to
hear as he heard, and a tongue to speak as he spoke, Nature herself had
overstepped the barriers that divided her from him. He found that Naomi
had come to understand him, whatever in his little way he did, and
almost whatever in his little way he said. So he played with her as he
would have played with any other playmate, laughing with her, calling
to her, and going through his foolish little boyish antics before her.
Nevertheless, by some mysterious knowledge of Nature's own teaching, he
seemed to realise that it was his duty to take care of her. And when the
spirit and the mischief in his little manly heart would prompt him to
steal out of the house, and adventure into the streets with Naomi by his
side, he would be found in the thick of the throng perhaps at the heels
of the mules and asses, with Naomi's hand locked in his hand, trying to
push the great creatures of the crowd from before her, and crying in his
brave little treble, "Arrah!" "Ar-rah!" "Ar-r-rah!"

As for Naomi, the coming of little black Ali was a wild delight to her.
Whatever Ali did, that would she do also. If he ran she would run; if he
sat she would sit; and meanwhile she would laugh with a heart of glee,
though she heard not what he said, and saw not what he did, and knew not
what he meant. At the time of the harvest, when Ruth took them out into
the fields, she would ride on Ali's back, and snatch at the ears of
barley and leap in her seat and laugh, yet nothing would she see of the
yellow corn, and nothing would she hear of the song of the reapers, and
nothing would she know of the cries of Ali, who shouted to her while
he ran, forgetting in his playing that she heard him not. And at night,
when Ruth put them to bed in their little chamber, and Ali knelt with
his face towards Jerusalem, Naomi would kneel beside him with a reverent
air, and all her laughter would be gone. Then, as he prayed his prayer,
her little lips would move as if she were praying too, and her little
hands would be clasped together, and her little eyes would be upraised.

"God bless father, and mother, and Naomi, and everybody," the black boy
would say.

And the little maid would touch his hands and hi throat, and pass her
fingers over his face from his eyelids to his lips, and then do as he
did, and in her silence seem to echo him.

Pretty and piteous sights! Who could look on them with