The stranger stood in amaze and gazed on the scene before him.
While he looked women came from the cabins and passed blithely about at
evening tasks, and one went to the lake with a vessel for water. He
could see its gleam in the reflection of the gorgeous light.
Thin and high came the sound of a voice singing, the ring of an axe
somewhere in the wood beyond the cabins, and peace ineffable seemed to
lie upon this blessed place. Here truly was Arcadia.
Long he stood in the fringe of the forest and looked eagerly among the
distant figures for one, taller than all the rest, clad in plain dark
garments, whose regal head should catch the dying glow, but strain as
he might, he saw no familiar form, could not detect the free and
swinging step.
Now that the goal of his hope was so near, within the very grasp of his
hand, a strange timidity fell upon him, and he shrank from crossing the
open field.
Rather would he follow the circling wood and come out at the upper end
by the lake, going down along the shore to the cabins.
Keeping well within the trees, giants of the wild nursed in this cradle
of sun and water, he bore to the north and ever his eager eyes peered
between the bolls at the distant habitat.
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