movements, and the rise and fall of it for your breathing, and the lap
of it against the boat for your kisses. Oh, child, look up!..."

She looked up....

"What's your name?"

"Helen."

"I can't hear you."

"Helen. Say it."

"I'm trying to."

"I can't hear YOU now. And I want to hear your voice say my name. Oh,
my boy, do say it, so that I can remember it when you're away."

"I can't say it, child. Why didn't you tell me your name?"

"What is yours?"

"I'm trying to tell you."

"Please--please!"

"I'm trying with all my might. Listen with all yours."

"I am listening. I can't hear anything. Yet I'm listening so hard that
it hurts. I want to say your name over and over and over to myself when
you're away. CAN'T you say it louder?"

"No, it's no good."

"Oh, why didn't you tell me, boy?"

"Oh, child, why didn't you tell me?"

"Is my bread sweet to you?"

"The sweetest I ever ate. I ate it slowly, and took each bit from your
hand. I kept one crust."

"And my corn."

"Oh, your corn! that is everlasting. You have sown your seed. I have
eaten a grain, and it bore its harvest. One by one I shall eat them,
and every grain will bear its full harvest. You have replenished the
unknown earth with fields of golden corn, and set me walking there for
ever."

"And you have thrown golden light upon strange waters, and set me
floating there for ever. Oh, you on my earth and I on your ocean, how
shall we meet?"

"Your corn is my waters, my waters are your corn. They move on one
wave. Oh, child, we are borne on it together, for ever."

"But how you teased me!"

"I couldn't help it."

"You and your boats and your duckponds."

"It was such fun. You were so serious. It was so easy to tease you."

"Why did you put your hand over your mouth?"

"To keep myself from--"

"Laughing at me?"

"Kissing you. You looked so sorry because sailors only sail round
duckponds, when you thought they always sailed out by the West and home
by the East. You believed the duckponds."

"I didn't really."

"For a moment!"

"I felt so stupid."

"You blushed."

"Oh, did I?"

"A very little. Like the inside of a shell. I'd always tease you to
make you blush like that. Don't you ever smile or laugh, child?"

"You might teach me to. I haven't had the sort of life that makes one
smile and laugh. Oh, but I could. I could smile and laugh for you if
you wished. I could do anything you wanted. I could be anything you