er. And it seemed only a moment they were there, until they heard
the voice of Li Po in the garden.

"Are you there, Golden Bells? Are you there at all, at all? For two
hours I've been hunting and couldn't get sight or sign of you. I have
the new song, Golden Bells. For a long time I was dumb, but a little
while ago the power came to me, and I have the new song, Golden Bells,
the marrying song..."

CHAPTER XX

"Thus far," said Malachi of the Long Glen, "the story of Marco Polo."

"That is a warm story, Malachi of the Glen, a warm and colored story,
and great life to it, and Golden Bells is as alive to me as herself
there by the fire, and I can see Marco Polo as plain as I can see my
cousin Randall, and he playing with dogs..."

"If they weren't real and live and warm, what would a story be, Brian
Oge, but a jumble of dead words? A house with nobody in it, the
poorest thing in the world."

"But Marco Polo came back to Venice, Malachi, and fought in the
sea-wars."

"There's more to tell, Brian Oge. But sometimes I wonder shouldn't the
best part of the story be kept to yourself. The people aren't as wise
as they used to be, brown lad. The end of a story now is a bit of
kissing and courting and the kettle boiling to be making tea.

"But the older ones were wiser, Brian Donn. They knew that the rhythm
of life is long and swinging, and that time doesn't stop short as a
clock. Sure, what is a kiss from the finest of women but a pleasant
thing, like a long putt sunk, or the first salmon of the year caught
like a trout, or the ball through the goal before the whistle blows?
And there's many a well-filled belly over a hungry soul.

"But a story is how destiny is interwoven, the fine and gallant and the
tragic points of life. And you mustn't look at them with the eyes of
the body, but you must feel with the antennae of your being. Now, if
you were to look at the Lord Jesus with physical eyes, what would it be
but a kindly, crazy man and He coming to a hard and bitter end? Look
at it simply, and what was the story of Troy but a dirty row over a
woman?

"But often times the stories with endings that grocer's daughters do
not be liking are the stories that are worth while. And the worth
while stories do be lasting. Never clip a story half-ways because
Widow Robinson doesn't like to have her mind disturbed, and she warming
her breadth at the fire. The Widow Robinson may have a white coin to
buy a book wi