that."

Slight as he was, wasted by the years, his was a figure of unmistakable
dignity as he thanked them, gravely and earnestly, for their kindness in
Ben's behalf. Soon after he and his young charge went out together.




III

There was a great house-cleaning in the dome of the heavens one
memorable night that flashed like a jewel from the murky desolation of a
rainy spring. The little winds came in troops, some from the sea, some
with loads of balsam from the great forests of the Olympic Peninsula,
and some, quite tired out, from the stretching sage plains to the east,
and they swept the sky of clouds as a housekeeper sweeps the ceiling of
cobwebs. Not a wisp, not one trailing streamer remained.

The Seattle citizenry, for the first time in some weeks, recalled the
existence of the stars. These emerged in legions and armies, all the way
from the finest diamond dust to great, white spheres that seemed near
enough to reach up and touch. Little forgotten stars that had hidden
away since Heaven knows when in the deepest recesses of the skies came
out to join in the celebration. Aged men, half blind, beheld so many
that they thought their sight was returning to them, and youths saw
whole constellations that they had never beheld before. They continued
their high revels until a magnificent moon rose in the east, too big and
too bright to compete with.