The old man gladly accepted his kind offer. "The vale makes men kindly of
heart and feeling," he said, as he uncovered his head to enter the home
of the laborer. A fair woman of forty came forward, and clasped his hand
with a warmth of manner which made him feel more at ease than many words
of welcome would have done.

The three sat together at supper, and refreshed themselves with food
and thought.

He retired early to the nice apartment assigned him, and lay awake a
long time, musing on the past and the present. "Ah, I see," he said to
himself, "why I am an object of wonder and something of awe to the
people of the valley. I have lived apart from human ties, while they have
grown old and ripe together. I must be a riddle to them all--a something
which they have invested with an air of veneration, because I was not
daily in their midst. Had it been otherwise, I should have been neither
new nor fresh to them. How know I but this is God's reserve force
wherewith each may become refreshed, and myself an humble instrument
sent in the right moment to vivify those who have been thinking alike too
much?"

He fell asleep, and awoke just as the sun was throwing its bright rays
over his bed. "Dear old day-god," he said, with reverence, and arose
and dressed himself, still eying the sun's early rays. "One of thy golden
messengers must content me now," he said, a little sadly. "I can no
longer see thee in all thy majesty marching up the mountain side; no
longer can I follow thee walking over the hill-tops, and resting thy head
against the crimson sky at evening: but smile on me, Sun, while in the
vale I tarry, and warm my seeds to life while on thy daily march."