It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with
the Great Stone Face before their eyes, because all of its features were
noble, so that just to look at it made one wish to be better.

This, then, was what Ernest and his mother sat looking at long after the
sun had sunk behind those great piles of stones.

"Mother," said Ernest, "if I were to see a man with such a face I know I
should love him."

"If an old prophecy comes true," answered his mother, "we may see a man
some time or other with exactly such a face as that."

"Oh, tell me about it, mother. Will it really come true?" eagerly
inquired Ernest.

Then his mother told him a story which her mother had told to her when
she was a child. No one knew who had heard it first. The Indians had
known it years before, and they said it had been murmured by the
mountain streams and whispered by the wind among the treetops. And the
story was this: At some future day--no one knew when--a child would be
born in the valley who would grow up to be the noblest and greatest man
of his time, and his face would look exactly like the Great Stone Face
which had gazed kindly down on the valley for so many years. Many of the
people in the valley said this was only a foolish tale, never to come to
pass, but a few still watched and waited, hoping for the great man to
come, but as yet he had not appeared.

When Ernest heard the story he clapped his hands, and said eagerly: "Oh,
mother, dear mother, I do hope I shall live to see him."