if she waited for a sign. Even as she so gazed she beheld it, and spoke,
whispering as in awed prayer:

"Go forth and cleanse thy flesh in running water," she said. "Go forth."

He moved, he rose, he stood upright--the hunchback Zia who had never
stood upright before! His body was straight, his limbs were strong. He
looked upon his hands, and there was no blemish or spot to be seen!

"I am made whole!" he cried in ecstasy so wild that his boy's voice rang
and echoed in the cave's hollowed roof. "I am made whole!"

"Go forth," she said softly. "Go forth and give praise."

He turned and went into the dawning day. He stood swaying, and heard
himself sob forth a rapturous cry of prayer. His flesh was fresh and
pure; he stood erect and tall. He was as others whom God had not cursed.
The light! the light! He stretched forth his arms to the morning sky.

Some shepherds roughly clothed in the skins of lambs and kids were
climbing the hill toward the cave. They carried their crooks, and they
talked eagerly as though in wonderment at some strange thing which had
befallen them, looking up at the heavens, and one pointed with his
crook.

"Surely it draws nearer, the star!" he said. "Look!"

As they passed a thicket where a brook flowed through the trees a fair
boy came forth, cleansed, fresh, and radiant as if he had but just
bathed in its clear waters. It was the boy Zia.