ound
Mary seated on the rock where she had been the day that he had come to
say farewell before he went to battle with the millions. Now as then, she
was gazing far out over that sea of singing, quivering light, and the
crunch of his footsteps awakened her from her revery.

But how differently she looked around! Her breaths were coming in a happy
storm, her face crimsoning, her nostrils playing in trembling dilation.
In her eyes he saw open gates and a long vista of a fair highway in a
glorious land; and the splendor of her was something near and yielding.
He sank down beside her. Her hands stole into his; her head dropped on
his shoulder; and he felt a warm and palpitating union with the very
breath of her life.

"What do I see!" cried the Eternal Painter. "Two human beings who have
climbed up as near heaven as they could and seem as happy as if they had
reached it!"

"We have reached it!" Jack called back. "And we like it, you
hoary-bearded, Olympian impersonality!"

Thus they watched the sun go down, gilding the foliage of their
Little Rivers, seeing their future in the fulness and richness of the
life of their choice, which should spread the oasis the length of
that valley, and knowing that any excursions to the world over the
pass would only sink their roots deeper in the soil of the valley
that had given them life.

"Jack, oh, Jack! How I did fight against the thing that was born in me
that morning in the _arroyo_! I was in fear of it and of myself. In fear
of it I ran from you that day you climbed down to the pine. But I
shan't run again--not so far but that I can be sure you can catch me.
Jack, oh, Jack! And this is the hand that saved you from Leddy--the
right hand! I think I shall always like it better than the left hand!
And, Jack, there is a little touch of gray on the temples"--Mary was
running her fingers very, very gently over the wound--"which I like. But
we shall be so happy that it will be centuries before the rest of your
hair is gray! Jack, oh, Jack!"

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Over the Pass, by Frederick Palmer

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OVER THE PASS ***

***** This file should be named 10932.txt or 10932.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/9/3/10932/

Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

Updated editions will replace the