Now this priest was told by his people to build a great tower,
pointing to the sky in salutation of the Sun-god; and he pondered long
and heavily before he picked his materials. For he was resolved to use
nothing that was not almost as clear and exquisite as sunshine itself;
he would use nothing that was not washed as white as the rain
can wash the heavens, nothing that did not sparkle as spotlessly
as that crown of God. He would have nothing grotesque or obscure;
he would not have even anything emphatic or even anything mysterious.
He would have all the arches as light as laughter and as candid as logic.
He built the temple in three concentric courts, which were
cooler and more exquisite in substance each than the other.
For the outer wall was a hedge of white lilies, ranked so thick
that a green stalk was hardly to be seen; and the wall within
that was of crystal, which smashed the sun into a million stars.
And the wall within that, which was the tower itself, was a tower
of pure water, forced up in an everlasting fountain; and upon the very
tip and crest of that foaming spire was one big and blazing diamond,
which the water tossed up eternally and caught again as a child
catches a ball.

"Now," said the priest, "I have made a tower which is a little
worthy of the sun."




II

But about this time the island was caught in a swarm of pirates;
and the shepherds had to turn themselves into rude warriors and seamen;