of the oldest tale of all and the garden from which we came.
But there was something in it yet more subtle; which there must
be in the impression of any earthly paradise. It is vital to such
a dream that things familiar should be mixed with things fantastic;
as when an actual dream is filled with the faces of old friends.
Sparrows, which seem to be the same all over the world, were darting
hither and thither among the flowers; and I had the fancy that they
were the souls of the town-sparrows of London and the smoky cities,
and now gone wherever the good sparrows go. And a little way
up the road before me, on the hill between the cactus hedges,
I saw a grey donkey trotting; and I could almost have sworn that it
was the donkey I had left at home.

He was trotting on ahead of me, and the outline of his erect
and elfish ears was dark against the sky. He was evidently
going somewhere with great determination; and I thought I knew
to what appropriate place he was going, and that it was my fate
to follow him like a moving omen. I lost sight of him later,
for I had to complete the journey by train; but the train followed
the same direction, which was up steeper and steeper hills.
I began to realise more clearly where I was; and to know that
the garden in the desert that had bloomed so suddenly about me
had borne for many desert wanderers the name of the promised land.
As the rocks rose higher and higher on every side, and hung
over us like terrible and tangible clouds, I saw in the dim grass
of the slopes below them something I had never seen before.
It was a rainbow fallen upon the earth, with no part of it
against the sky, but only the grasses and the flowers shining
through its fine shades of fiery colour. I thought this also was
like an omen; and in such a mood of idle mysticism there fell